Help!

It’s 20 days ’til the date I’ve told everyone I know (and plenty I don’t) that I’m going to leave on to cycle round the world — is this the part where the nerves are meant to kick in? I guess it would be weird if not, since the furthest end-to-end distance I’ve ever cycled was 140 miles, and I’ve never been outside the UK on a bike, or travelled to any country further East than Austria.

Right now, I have occasional bouts of incredible excitement — for the experience promises to be nothing if not life-changing — intersected with irrational bouts of terror! If I camp in the Romanian mountains, will wolves be feasting upon my inert form by sunrise? Will the fact that I haven’t got maps for 90% of the world, or in fact any real route other than a tentative list of countries, really matter? Will I have found everything on my list of ‘things I haven’t got’ by the 17th of June? Do I really need to take 5 chains? Will it rain on the day I leave?