Route and planning
The plan to cycle back to the UK occurred soon after I arrived in Japan and stuck a world map to the wall of my living room. To cross Asia and Europe by bicycle seemed a formidable challenge to satisfy my wanderlust. I have no fixed time plan nor exact route for the journey, opting instead for the luxury of planning as I go along. But I do have a rough sketch laid out, realistic or not awaits to be seen.
Living in Nagasaki, which is close to Fukuoka and its short ferry crossing to South Korea, my plan had been to jump aboard ship and leave Japan the moment my teaching contract finished. That was before I went on a walking trip to Hokkaido - Japan's northern most main island. Compared to the country's three other main islands (Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu) Hokkaido is far less crowded and industrialised, and its abundance of free camping sites and open landscapes clearly made me realise what a great cycling destination it would be. I also felt a tour of the island would make a fitting departure from my time in Japan, having also cycled around Kyushu last year, and provide something of a warm-up for the journey beyond.
My contract officially finishes on July 27th, after which I plan to fly to Hokkaido and cycle for about 4 weeks. Hopefully temperatures in Korea will have cooled down a little by September, and my current plan is to cycle from Pusan to Seoul, before obtaining a Chinese visa and taking the ferry to Tianjin sometime in late September. From there I'm contemplating the madness of cycling into Beijing, and then south towards Hong Kong, meeting my younger brother there, who'll join me for the trip at some point towards the end of the year or the beginning of the next.
From Hong Kong it's back into China and westwards towards Vietnam, following onto Cambodia and Thailand. If all goes well I'll pick up a Laos and Chinese visa in Bangkok, and re-enter China some time in May or June, attempting if possible the journey to Tibet and onto Katmandu in the summer. I'm leaving the route at that for the moment, aware that so much can and probably will change.
