Partner(s) wanted for France to China/Tibet tour-May '06.

waterford-camel

I'm planning a tour from Europe (France) to Asia (Tibet), and am looking for partner(s).

I'm a 35 y/o m (US passport), experienced hiker, trekker, camper, cyclist (touring, randoneuring). The age/gender of partner(s) is not relevant, but a relaxed attitude and used to "roughing it" safely is. I do smoke cigarettes and enjoy having a few beers, but no illegal stuff whatsoever.

The plan: Starting in France (Paris), down to Spain riding along an El Camino route (ending in Santiago), busing/train back across southern Spain/France. Then ride through (portions of) Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. Some Le 'tour climbs as well as a little loop in the Balkans would be nice yet depend upon time constraints. I'm thinking I'll spend 6-7 weeks total prior to crossing into the Ukraine.

This is a northerly "Silk road" route, avoiding the Middle East. Through Russia and a few "Stans" (Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, ?Uzbekistan, ?Tajikistan) down to China, then back into Tibet (from China proper-not Nepal).

My daily average (on a fully loaded bike) is about 100K/day. Sometimes more (ie when riding through boring plains). Sometimes less (ie headwinds & climbs).

This will be a budget tour utilizing campings, "free" or "wild" camping, hostels, guesthouses and perhaps hotels (rarely) for accomidation. Everyone interested should be self sufficient (ie used to-and equiped for loaded touring with camping). Visas are the responsibilty of individuals.

My time alloted for the tour is open ended, 6 plus months (depends upon the length of the Chinese Visa I can get), further routing through SE Asia may be a possibility.

-I've posted this classified on a few sites, but forgot about cyclingforums!

-For folks only interested in the logistics/route/whatnot I'll be linking a journal here at some point.

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e-mail: jfoneg"at"__removethis__yahoo.com