Preparation 1 - the start (by Marcel)

O dear reader, I look so forward to the trip (as we call it) we're going to make that it always itches erverywhere, alone at the thought of it :-). But, as every story, this one also has a beginning. And my story starts a few years ago. But before I start telling, I tell u a little of my privat situation. I am a divorced man, 60 years of age, living together in a lovely house in Wateringen (near The Hague) with my 2 kids. My daughter Kirsten of 26 and my son Don of 21. I earn my money by working for "Stichting 3D". Thats a foundation of administrators: we take care of other peoples money. Kirsten is studying communication science in Amsterdam and she works at a juwelry shop in Wateringen en Don is finishing his technical study in The Hague this year and also works for "Stichting 3D".

And ooh, we have a dog, a Japanese Akita called Chivay and a cat called Loki.

It was in the year 2014 of the holy Lord that I cycled from my hometown Wateringen in Holland (near The Hague) to Oslo in Norway. It was a beautiful voyage, but I didn't like doing the trip alone. Case during the cycling in the daytime it is no problem, but in the evenings I just sat down for my tent and wanted to tell my day story to someone. And when theres only my tent to listen to me, u be so wise to stop talking. So I said to myself: cycling in foreign countries is magnificent, but not alone. So I came back with a lot of ideas and the vast plan to start an other big cycle trip.

Maybe recognisable: I was busy with so many things when I got home, that all the good ideas where put in the fridge for quit a while. I had an idea to cycle to India and visit as much country capitols as I could, but in the end I didn't do anything with that plan.

But in 2017 I let all the bright ideas come out of the closet and a new plan was born. I was to go to cycling from North Canada to South America. A cycle tour of 12 months and, because I still didn't have a mate to cycle with (the truth is that I wasn't really looking very fanaticly) I wanted to go alone again (despite my earlier decision).

So I told my plan to my kids (I'm living