In the Austin Bergstrom Airport, checked in and on my way to Sri Lanka. This is also a first test to make sure web posts show up on the page.

My destination is Colombo, Sri Lanka to take part in TDA Global Cycling Tea Route. This is a supported ride where our bags are carried, routes are set and mostly we show up and ride. Plan is for ~1550km of cycling in 16 riding days and five rest/travel days. Add in travel times back and forth and my trip is the entire month of February. Sri Lanka has been on my list to explore for a while – particularly as they went through a set of economic troubles a few years ago. I’ve realized that with uncertainties in the world, it is sometimes useful to take advantage of travel while you can. So when TDA announced their first version of the Tea Route, I was eager to sign up. The overall trip started in Kochi, India but for several reasons I decided to only do the Sri Lanka portion (1) 6-7 weeks would have been a bit much to take off from work, even 4 weeks is a push but I am grateful to AMD for letting me take this vacation (2) I’ve cycled South India before including between Kochi and Chennai though that was a while ago. So the plan is for myself and 3 others to join as “sectional” riders in Colombo to join 28 full tour riders and staff.

I will learn more about who is on the trip (the link above shows some brief bios) but what is interesting is how many are veterans of previous TDA tours. We had an information session in November where we learned well over half the participants had been on other TDA tours. Myself I have also been on three trips with TDA:

• Across China in 2007
• Across Africa in 2013
• Through Patagonia in 2017

They do a good job and hence myself and others join on repeated trips. On these previous trips I’ve seen some good/bad together. When I am on my own self-supported trip – I get to / have to do everything – include food, lodging, routing. I also get to go at my own pace. I really like that in areas that are easily accessible. A supported ride has a van to ride in if for some reason you can’t ride. That is both a nice backup and frustrating to me because I come onto these trips to ride my bike not be in a van. So we’ll see how it goes.

I’ve gotten three good training rides in the first three weekends of January. At New Years week I rode from Austin to Houston. The next weekend I cycled to Luling Texas and back and the third weekend I cycled to San Antonio airport. So I am strong enough and practiced enough with my bike to do the distances of 100km pretty easily. The wild card will mostly be the weather – particularly heat/humidity. I am not the fastest rider or the most heat-resliant but throw enough time at it and I’ve got good endurance and persistence.

It has been hectic the weeks leading up to the trip. In this past week I finished writing and then discussing 16 reviews with employees. We have a  hectic set of projects so the normal juggling to keep everything on track. So I haven’t done a lot of advance reading/preparation for Sri Lanka but will be nice to get that along the way. Throughout my career I’ve been fortunate to take over five years time between bike trips and it seems to help me keep grounded on how important those “urgent” things really end up being in the global scheme of things.

So it is with a mix of excitement, relaxation and anticipation that it is nice to see the trip finally begin. I expect this blog channel to keep my Sri Lanka posts. I don’t know how often I will be able to do so – but WordPress makes it not too difficult to capture photos and quick blog items from my phone.

On my way!