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Bike Touring Packing List and Whole Lot of Cakes (from the Wild Atlantic Way)

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Biking the Wild Atlantic Way I @Destination Unknown I Satu Vänskä-Westgarth

What to pack for five weeks of cycling along the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland? Or for any long bike ride really?

If you looked into one of my bike panniers last August or asked my traveling companions, they might have said that I just need my mobile phone (or two), laptop, DSLR camera and lenses, pocket camera, video camera, GoPro and crazy amount of cables and recharging devices. Without all the technology, my bike would’ve probably been half lighter.

Biking the Wild Atlantic Way I @Destination Unknown I Kate Donnelly

This is a post that has been requested for a few times now and as the biking season, even up here north in Scandinavia is knocking on the door, it’s about the time I came out with the goods.

To be honest, I would have not had a clue what to pack if I hadn’t joined my friend Kala for a few days of biking in the west coast of Norway, along the Atlantic Road a month or so earlier before getting going on the Wild Atlantic Way. For that tour I arrived with the cheapest, crappiest pannier set-up I found from the discount store, some very non-breathable waterproof jacket-pant combination and other random items I thought might come handy (they didn’t). In those four days I enviously observed Kala’s no-nonsense gear selection where she seemed to have all essentials, and still managed to look fresh when we hit the city.

One of the things I learned was that when it comes to bike touring, four days or five weeks, the amount of gear is almost the same.

Biking the Wild Atlantic Way I @Destination Unknown I Satu Vänskä-Westgarth

But before I get to the actual list, here are couple things to consider if you think about following a similar set-up (maybe minus the technology) that worked well for us.

  • Where are you planning to stay? If you are not planning to camp and are biking somewhere where you can definitely get roof over your head even if things go slightly wrong, you can forget about all camping and cooking equipment like we did.
  • How much food do you need to carry? Along the Wild Atlantic Way you can find petrol stations, pubs, cafes and grocery stores so that you won’t starve if you go with a light set-up. We only brought snacks for a day or two and restocked our supplies every once and a while, keeping in mind probably the best advice I got before the trip: eat something every two hours! That will keep you going.

The nice thing about Ireland, unlike the route I did in Norway last summer is that there are coffee shops, everywhere!

Cakes along Wild Atlantic Way I @SatuVW I Destination Unknown

Another matter altogether is whether they have yet recovered from Kate eating all the cakes…

But, without further a do. Here’s THE LIST, scrollable and downloadable. Hope it helps!

Download (Packing-for-Bike-Touring-Destination-Unknown.pdf, Unknown)

All this was neatly packed away into two waterproof back panniers per person and I also had a handlebar bag for all the camera gear. I did not want to carry much if anything on my back, but in the end I decided to go for a small Camelpak style bag for water. If you are wondering how to get all of this to fit into the panniers, the beginning of the video below gives an idea until it goes on to other things. For me, what worked the best was to distribute some of my stuff (i.e. electrics) to others…

I hope the Wild Atlantic Way will see lots of bikers this summer, if you have any questions just drop me a line or fire it out in the comments. Recently I’ve got lot of questions about the practicalities of planning such a trip and I will get more information out there about route planning and accommodation next week!

Until then, I keep on dreaming about the next big trip, just shuffling through these images brought back such sweet memories that I can’t wait to get going again… On the bike or not!

Talking about Wild Atlantic Way, me and Anne-Marit, my biking partner for the first part of the Wild Atlantic Way made it into Irish TV! Not biking, but rowing at the annual Cruinniú na mBád, or “Meeting of the Boats” in Tullaghan, County Mayo. The TV clip on Spiorad Iorrais, TG4 is viewable for now anyway. Who would’ve thought! And it almost looks like we won…

The post Bike Touring Packing List and Whole Lot of Cakes (from the Wild Atlantic Way) appeared first on Destination Unknown.


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