The storm before the calm

June 10, 2025Bimbling Sam

I write this post from a room in The Old Infirmary in Worcester where we have spent the last few days getting ready for the off. I planned to write it a while ago, whilst in the thick of passing our possessions on to others, but that process was so all-consuming, I didn't get chance.

This is a phase in our lives that I've taken to referring to as "The storm before the calm". Hopefully this will be the case and when we relax into our cycling journey all the hard work will have been worth it. In fact, to some degree, we have been working towards the point of us each only having worldly possessions weighing ~50kg for a long while. Me especially, as I was a very long way off that goal to start with.

Aside from the house, which we sold to fund this trip, we gave all of our possessions away. We chose to do this for many reasons. Not least to make it easier for us than it would've been if we'd tried to sell everything. It took us two months of solid work just to give them away. It would've been much easier to get a sell some bits to pay for a big skip and then get a house clearance company in to sort the rest. Who knows if one day we will regret what we have done, but I doubt we will. It has been great to see stuff go to some really nice folk, and aside from the warm glow, we also get the total freedom that comes with this transition. Our aim was to leave with as much flexibility as possible to settle elsewhere (in whatever form) as possible. Weirdly, it only occurred to me very recently that doing what we've done is an unusual, radical even, step.

Aside from radical, this process was both thorough and time consuming...and often very bloody tedious. It included lots of sorting and a broad variety of ways of giving stuff away, including donating to charities, hackspaces and individuals. I've decided to show this through the series of captioned photos below.