Is there anyone else out there made their mind up they are going to do the big trip but know that it can’t happen for another year, two years five years!

We are now two years into a five year plan – We are keeping our interest alive by daily visits to the HUBB , and have had visitors from the community and have attended mini/meets, Ripley etc and in the meantime clearing our debts in order to to make our dream possible – but boy is time dragging ! (Well it is on work days!)

Is it a bit sad to be planning so far ahead? – has anyone else out there had to wait years but then achieved their goal? Or are we just not spontaneous enough? _ please tell me there are others out there!

Chizz

Mmmmmm the mini meet at Cannich has done nothing but fuel my imagination for foreign motorcycle travel.
We are now toying with the idea of a long trip possibly as far as Jordan, this is going to be a long time in the planning,(need something to celebrate being 50) but it sure is nice to have something to look forward to.
HUBB and google maps keeps the dreams alive for me.

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Only dead fish go with the flow

Usually takes me 2-3 years of saving between all my bigger trips. Thats usually all planning, prepping, saving etc.

I'm sure there aren't many people who can just drop everything and go. Those who can are the lucky ones. I hope to be a member of that party very very soon !

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

I'm still planning my first big trip but never seem to get around to actually doing it!

In the meantime, reading this forum and saving cash is a good substitute!

Keep enjoying the planning.

All the Best,

David

Ted - that's encouraging - because you have gone ahead and achieved what you set out to do - good luck with your next adventure -

Milimut - I am hitting the big 50 next month too- obviously one of those life moments where you have the choice to stagnate - or regenerate - I am working hard towards the latter

Chizz

Been wanting to do this since I was 17. Life sort of gets in the way! Anyhow now aged 54 and trying to sell the house. I have met others who are in the same boat, some of them were at Cropton in February some were at Ripley.
Hopefully be on my way sometime in 2011.

I have really got beyond the planning and buying gear stage now but I still have hopes.

Best of luck, where are you planning on going?

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www.frothandflames.com
2012 Kawasaki W800
1997 NX 650 Dominator

The hardest part of planning for me was working out how I could fund travelling myself and the other half have ok jobs but not in the high earner bracket. So this is the plan buy two XT600's kit them out and use them on a few short trips to see what I do and dont need and what does and does not work. Then buy a cheap (if there is such a thing) narrowboat do any work necessary and move on to it, sell the house which gets rid of most of my out goings (and all the junk we have collected more in the funds) and buy a small flat to rent out, the savings made on not having the house are then ploughed into the flat to pay off what ever mortgage we have which in turn gives us a small income from the flat, hop on the bikes and travel cheaply but for as long as we can.

Well so far I have the bikes and most of the kit trips planned France (poss pyrenees) september and morroco the following september,the narrow boat was purchased yesterday so the work now begins on that for the next few months.
The plan is slowly coming together, my advise would be get a rough plan tweek it over time and then stick to it. It takes discipline and commitment but if you persist you will get there.

"I love it when a plan comes together"

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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.

3 years sounds about right once you set a year it concentrates the mind, and then when you set the date time starts compressing and there is not enough of it :-)
This is our 2nd big trip, we decided on this one as soon as we got back from the last one in 2007.

Like Ted we leave in a couple of weeks, and no amount of planning and prep can really have you ready in time (still waiting for the panniers !).

I got over the work thing, by being ade redundant, so I could have dropped it all and gone last year, but I have had to wit for Jean to get her unpaid leave sorted (well one of us needs to work :-) )

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http://www.ytc1.co.uk

When we did our 'big trip' we were selling our house with some vague idea about dropping out in Devon where I come from. I suggested we use the dosh or at least the interest on it to fund a trip to Cape Town before we bought another house. So we chucked in our jobs, bought the bike built the panniers and then hit the road, fours months after I suggested the idea. After a year on the road we had the bulk of our capital and landed here in France. My wife was pregnant so that has put the mockers on any motorbike trips for a while.

All the people who said to us they would like to do something like that when....?? (whilst we were preparing for our trip) are still in the same job, house etc. so i'm slightly cynical about long term plans.

There's hardly ever a right time but sometimes it's now or never.
My mate died of a massive stroke aged 37, which made me look at my own mortality and spur me on to at least go and see some places I'd only dreamed about. I was able to take a career break (thank you Merseyside Police) and my mortgage was small enough to remortgage the flat to raise the money (altho I overestimated how much I would need ) .
We set a date to leave(2nd January 2008 in time for the Dakar which never happened) and booked only the boat to Spain , and tickets for the Simmer Dim rally in the Shetlands 6 months later. After that , most of the planning was centred around me moving all my worldy goods out into my partner's house, and preparing my flat to be rented out, and sorting our innoculations, insurance etc, while he concentrated on getting the sleeping bags, luggage, etc and prepping the bikes.

When I do a second big trip, I already have the stuff from trip 1, so will save a shedload of cash there. Now I need to save up (that's the hard bit as I'm back living alone now)

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Does my bum look big on this bike?

I've been thinking about a major trip (first of many I hope) for a few years.

To date I have sold the house and now live in rented (that I can give up), and I've consolidated all my debts into a cheaper debt management plan that pays my creditors (something else I intend to give up when I set off!).

I have now sold my sportsbike and am looking for a tourer, but main thing is I've organised getting my pensions early next year (age 55) to provide an income while travelling.

Bring it on!!

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Live life now - you only get it once.

Hiya Bruce

2 years into 5 isn't too bad. It sort of took me ten years to get to do my big Euro trip.
Mind you, in that time I did some other shorter backpacking trips to Asia.But it took that long for me to get the cash/time/conditions to mesh right.

I think the main thing is to live day to day with that future plan as a guide. The planning is half the fun afterall.

Ed

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There's more than one way to skin a cat.

Hi Ed

Good to hear from you. January takes us one year closer - we have a couple of weeks in India booked - hopefully we will get a couple of Enfields and make mini adventure of it.

But you are right it is about getting the balance right - living for the day but keeping an eye out for the future big trip. we have at least now set an absolute final date which we will not go past - in the meantime its lots of riding/camping in the Highlands - down to Ripley etc

Chizz

No not at all I am saving up taken 2 years so far, (+/- Hick ups along the way)
I can not just afford to up sticks, as with my job could never just leave work and go! wished i could & come back & find a new job.

having said that I think if you have planned it right & put in some 'what If' aka O factors you should be ok remember you are supposed to be enjoying it not 'rushing to get to C from B by a certain time date.
you could find your self in India seeing the monkey temple then off to coast but here there is a 1 of must see event (happens once a year)

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We are the Pilgrims, Master, we shall go Always a little further: it may be beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow, Across that angry or that glimmering sea.

Our first decent sized trip was in 2006.
I've been itching to get going again since about a fortnight after our return, and few people seem to manage the perpetual journey (and probably with many a personal sacrifice in the process) so most of us have to deal with the day to day reality of what is most people's normal life.

So no it is not sad to plan.
You can either send the intervening months and years not thinking about it, or thinking about it. I prefer the latter: keeps me motivated to save, even when the goal is sometime off.

We plan to see Kamchatka, but regrettably this won't be for a couple of years yet, so it might be 6 years between trips!!!

However, in that time, we have moved country, started renovating a flat, both started new careers and professions and got dogs, so it was never going to be quick!!

I say don't lose sight of your objective:
It is too easy to let the plan become just a dream and then just the memory of a trip you "would have liked to have done".
That is what scares me about it: I must constantly remind myself that this is a trip we will do, not just might do or want to do.

By the end of the first day on the road, and it starts to sink in, you'll know it had all been worth the wait

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Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)