Trial week for our big cycle trip

In September completed a trial week of cycling and working around Valencia, in preparation for a much longer trip next year (more on that later!) 

We've blogged before about working on the road but our latest plan takes that to a whole new level. Nearly 20 years ago, before we started Iteracy, we completed a 4000km cycle ride around South East Asia. It was an amazing experience and we've always dreamed about doing another long trip on bicycles - this time across Europe. The problem has always been how to keep our company running for the 3 months we will need for the trip, and we finally accepted the most obvious solution: Iteracy will come with us and we'll continue managing our websites remotely.

In preparation for this, and to see whether it was viable, we've just spent 7 days with our bicycles and laptops in the Valencia region. We were pleasantly surprised at how well it worked, given it's been such a long time since our last multi-day bike ride! Our legs are a bit tired and we're much browner, but overall it was a success and has given us confidence to continue planning.

From a work point of view everything worked fine; we were able to address many issues from the road by replying to emails or making small changes which was all possible through our mobile phones. Everywhere we stayed had WiFi that allowed us to work on our laptops once we'd checked in. We took one day off out of the 7 and booked an apartment so that we had space to do a full day's work. Our phone is still the same number as we had in Lostwithiel (01208 226522) but it's an internet-based service so when someone leaves an answerphone message, it's emailed to us.

Our laptops didn't seem to mind being in bicycle panniers; for a really thorough test I fell over just before we reached home but the laptop was fine (I was only bruised but they were quite impressive!) Our pared-down office consisted of our laptops, all the equipment to do video and phone calls, while Mat took a graphic tablet and I had a mouse. 

The mistake we've made before is to bite off more than we can chew at the start of a ride. The best tactic is to ease into a ride slowly and get cycling fit as you go. We caught the train to Alicante late in the afternoon and booked a hotel for the first night, but didn't book further stops until we knew how many kilometres we wanted to cover. It's still quite warm but we'd coped with heat previously in South East Asia. Having insulated bottles this time (and therefore cold drinks) made a huge difference. We had allowed ourselves a full week to get back from Alicante, but after a couple of shorter days we decided to go for it and stopped just one more night. We made it back to Valencia by early afternoon on day 4, then hopped straight on a train heading north. This time we stayed two nights in an apartment in a very pretty coastal town giving us a full rest/work day, then headed back home again over a further two days.

The grand total was 400km over 6 days of cycling, plus 1 day for rest/work. Our plan is to regularly check phone/email during week days while we're cycling, and to set up our mobile office once or twice a week when we'll be available all day. We'll need the time off from cycling anyway!

We're still formulating our plan for what/when/where but we think it might be:

• from Valencia to Istanbul
• leaving some time in April and arriving June/July
• remote working the whole time
• one or two days of normal office hours during the week
• other days still contactable but not always able to reply immediately

There are still some details to iron out, but we're really excited that we might finally realise a dream we've had for a very long time.