I like figures so I made a short recap of the trip. As you would know by now I traveled from July 3rd till November 9th. So I spend 130 days away from home. Of those 130 days I spend 33 days at complete rest (including the last two days in Istanbul) I walked 78 days and cycled 19. I covered 2164.6km on foot in total. That makes an average of 27.8km a day with the furthest hike of 37.5km on day 49. On bike I covered 1768.6km, averaging around 93km a day with a record of 119.8km at day 111. The average distance in total, both walking and cycling combined, is 30.3km a day, not counting the days of rest.that would make 39.9km a day.
The longest period without a rest was 21 days from Regensburg to Vienna, while the longest stretch of no shower was 8 days, during the same period. I traveled through 10 countries:
The Netherlands: 100km in 4 days
Germany: 1350km in 50 days
Austria: 415km in 19 days
Slovakia: 90km in 5 days
Hungary: 360km in 21 days
Croatia: 200km in 3 days
Serbia: 400km in 6 days
Romania: 560km in 13 days
Bulgaria: 250km in 5 days
Turkey: 150km in 4 days
(distances are accurate estimations)
Of all the nights I spend on the road, I slept (or at least spend) 74 nights in my tent and 56 nights somewhere else. In total, I paid for 24 nights. The paid nights involve mainly hotels, but I paid for a camp spot two times. The nights I spend somewhere else were spend in various locations ranging from huts, hotels and holiday houses to friends, Couchsurfing places and rooms of strangers.
I have not kept a detailed account of my expenses. But from the moment I left till the moment I took the plane in Istanbul, I spend €3460. That is, I took this amount of money from my account. With the expenses I made before I left, I think the whole trip cost me about €4000, maybe a bit less. So let’s say I spend about 1€/km with the last km’s on bike being cheaper as I went faster. My biggest expenses were probably the bike, the cart and the bag to continue the trip, and the new tablet and camera I bought myself after my old one broke to keep the website up to date. Most of the money went to food and drinks however, with Germany and Austria taking the bulk of it.
By now I have uploaded the second part of my full story:
”During my first few steps alone, I felt a mixture of pride, eagerness, regret and sadness. Once I said goodbye to my parents and walked around the corner, I was really alone. The people I said goodbye too today took refuge in my heart, never to leave that place again during my trip. Soon I found myself making my way into the Reichswald, heading towards Goch. Tomorrow I was expected in the pilgrims house in Kevelaer, so I started my trip with a deadline to make. I had to walk about 60km in the first two days, 30 a day. I picked up the ‘Jakobsweg’ and followed the blue/ yellow signs the rest of my day. The roads in the Reichswald over which I walked were all asphalt and walking them didn’t really feel like an adventure. Walking the stretch during a weekday made that I only occasionally encountered a mountain biker in the shades of the big, green trees. Nick Hunt, one of my predecessors walking this forest in winter 2012 wrote: ”The path through the forest ran so straight it might have been scored with a ruler. The trees tracked identically past, quadrants of managed pine interspersed with leafless oak. It was a tame, regulated forest[…] My mind started to stray in this forest. It didn’t really know what to long for, adventure or a phone call from Anouk, telling me I should come back and live with her.”