Still a bicycle tour?

Are we actually still on a cycling trip with a tent? This question seems justified after we had to adapt, change or discard our original planning for various reasons. What were these:

• First of all, there was the heat wave in the Balkans that lasted about three weeks and made it impossible for us to complete daily stages with the planned +/- 80 km at temperatures of up to 38° C. Necessary breaks of 2-3 hours in the middle of the day in shady places meant 30-40 km/day, which we missed in the end. So we had to manage distances differently than on a bike in order not to fall completely out of schedule.
• In Turkey, our route planning was based on a mistake, which meant that the planned distance to the non-negotiable destination of Cappadocia was too short. The timely correction led to a significant longer route. In addition, the topography of Anatolia combined with the unexpected heat also made daily averages of 80 km impossible. So we had to cover the distance from the centre of Turkey to Israel by other means of transport. This additionally led to rest days due to waiting times for low-cost connections.
• Then, in Israel, two factors came together: The hostility and topography of the Negev desert on the west side of the Dead Sea and the unexpected outbreak of the Gaza Strip war while we were in the West Banks. Both made us cut short our stay in Israel and cover the last part of the distance in an overland bus. Particularly important, however, and fortunately in time for the onward journey, was the realisation that the climatic and topographical conditions on the planned route would take us to the limits of our health and performance, a burden with risks that we were determined to avoid at all costs.
• This led to the fortunate decision to explore the rock city of Petra and the Wadi Rum in Jordan not by cycling, but with a travel service company. Numerous passages on the way to Petra with gradients in Wadi Musa of over 20 % and deep sandy tracks in the Wadi Rum desert would have been impossible to master with a heavily loaded trekking bike.
• All this and corresponding advice and experience reports, as well as the uncertainty about a possible expansion of the war situation in the Middle East, then led to the decision to cut out the approximately 2,500 km route through Saudi Arabia and fly directly from Jordan to Oman.
• The consequence of this decision is that we arrived seven weeks earlier in our destination country. However, the temperatures here still make our planned cycling tour impossible, as we had planned for the cooler months of December/January.
• So we are now going to explore parts of the country by off-road car, which was originally only planned as a possible option after our cycling tour, in the hope that we will then be able to tackle large parts of our original cycling tour in hopefully more pleasant conditions.

Hence the question: Are we still on a cycling tour? So far we have cycled 45 out of a total of 78 days and have covered 2,400 km of the originally calculated total of 8,000; maybe we will end up with 3,000.

So it seems that we have deviated quite a bit from the plan to make our trip as ecological as possible and on a small budget. Train journeys, flights, hotel accommodation, organised excursions, restaurant meals and rental cars were not excluded in principle, but not really planned to the current extent – neither organisationally nor financially.

But does that even raise the question of whether we are still on a cycling trip, which we had planned and defined as such?

I think no, because our journey so far has been simply great! It is full of new impressions, wonderful experiences and beautiful encounters, which in this form and density are probably only possible on individual journeys with at least partial alternative travel by bicycle. We had planned for the options of other means of transport from the very beginning, if the circumstances required it or made it seem sensible. After all, this is also the advantage of individual travel: to be able to spontaneously decide differently and reschedule depending on circumstances, changing conditions or priorities. The decisive factor is that we experience enthusiasm and happiness and return home with a huge bundle of wonderful experiences. That is certain!