The final touch before the launch
The preparations started three months before the expedition. The most troublesome and time consuming was to get all the Visas required for the trip. You can read more about these troubles in the “Journey” section and “Visas” subsection.
The last Visa which was still possible to get before the launch was delivered to me on Friday night directly from Vienna. Of course, just to have something to worry about, it was not filled out as I requested. I will have to request a lengthening for it at least by a week. I will have to do it somewhere along the trip, which will inevitably lead to another bureaucratic troubles. So this also added to my stress level next to getting ready in time. But the most important is, that I got that Visa!
Couple days before the launch the wife of Kamil, Danka, gave me a present. During the winter she started to make friendship bracelets. The one made in the tri-color of Komárom (Komárno) will be placed on my wrist in the day of the launch. The other ones will be given as presents to people who will be of great help for me during the expedition.
It is also important to get my healthcare sorted out. I have got a yellow International Certificate of Vaccination, which can prove that I have received vaccination against Hepatitis A and B, also Tetanus vaccination. Thanks to Krisztián and Alena (Neopharm) my medicine bag was filled and I got a quick lesson on how and when to use which medicine. With the amount of medicine I have got I can easily start a career as a wandering medicine man in Pamir or other faraway places. But above all I believe in the natural ways of healing. My beekeeper friend Árpi gave me a jar of acacia honey and from Noémi I have got a bottle of white wine from Szent Péter (but I believe this “medicine” will be used up pretty soon) :)
I also placed another medicine into my bag, and that is a bottle which we got on one of our previous cycling trips to Montenegro. It contains a distillate which was made with natural herbs, called lincura, and is really good for stomach issues.
The ultra-light kitchen is now set up. In the next four months it will be it where I prepare my tea, eggs, pasta (on special holidays of course crispy shrimp grilled with honey mustard and green onion :)). The bottom of the pot has a specially designed heat exchanger, which makes cooking really energy efficient. The gas container is placed on a tripod, so that it will not fall over during cooking. The small gray cylinder is a tree-part spice rack. One rack, of course, will be filled with traditional Hungarian paprika from Szeged.
Getting packed for four months is not easy, especially if you have just couple hours left. But I did not had more time left, so I decided to spend the night without any sleep and think over what do I need again and again. After my clothes were packed, I prepared my bedroom/living room (tent, sleeping bag and mattress), my bathroom and my workspace (camera, tablet). At last I placed my garage into my back pocket. It was already dawn when the bike was ready to go.