Hi, I am Nono. I am an average guy who likes to do above average things to learn something about myself and my world. I love exploring the world by bike whilst learning something about myself and the areas I am visiting. I believe that challenging my mind and body and sometimes reaching my limits helps me to grow and improve as a human-being.
Das ist so schade, dass Deine Pläne nicht funktioniert haben. Im Süden Italiens, also auch auf dem Festland, wird regelmäßig Siesta gehalten, d.h. dass zwischen 13 Uhr und 17 Uhr nichts geöffnet hat. Insbesondere abseits der Touristen-Routen. Dies sollte man unbedingt immer mit einplanen. Und am besten hört man auf die Locals. Aber danke für diese zauberhaften Bilder!!!
18:34 after that you must have been awake. holy crap why you didn't slept more? why not waiting till restaurant opens and sleep in the town and do climb next day? what a torture of a travel. when we are tired and upset thats when bad luck and stupid accidents happen. sleep, recovery and food is way more important than pushing through. I would listen to the suggestions of the locals...take care in our adventures
The secret: four hours riding slowly, 9 hours sleeping in a secure hiding place, eating and taking selfies the remainder... don't forget the tea set, umbrella, and proper clothing... no cotton... in January 2022 I rode from Prague to hamburg, stealth camping in sub zero... riding slow enough to never break a sweat. Eat the heavy food right when you buy it... stop occassionally for a coffee and charge the phone...
Next round about I imagine Hans having attached cargo bicycle trailer with an ultrilight solar powered refrigirator on it, enjoying his trip fully 100% with couple of cold beers at the end of the day and a good nutritious meal every time. Beautiful story and ofcourse best wishes to you Nomad!
Nono I read you're planning to do it again next year. I don't know if you're aware but April is a weird month, 25th April and 1st May are national holiday and everything is kinda closed outside the big cities during that week, it may last more or less, like this year 25th was monday so many businesses closed on friday 22th and reopened on may. Next year there will be easter on 20th of april which is also a national holiday so if you're thinking of trying it again I strongly suggest you to plan on doing it either in the first half of april or after 1st of May. Also plan a day only for mt. etna, it is wonderful. And don't think this was a failure, it's a challenge, if it was as easy as walking it wouldn't be a proper challenge and you also added some extra difficulty. It's a failure only when you think of it as that.
Honestly, it has been an amazing trip you have made through Sicily. Things never go as planned. I think that leaving the route has been a good decision, and not because I would have done it, but because you have decided so, and it is correct. As in life itself, we have moments in which we achieve our goals and others in which it is not possible, but the important thing is that in some way, we continue. Be proud of what you have done, learn from it and fill your life with experiences that make you feel alive. Greetings. 👍
Man you didn't find food in Salemi because the footage you shown is from another place Vita, i'm from there (it's a very small town and you shown also the old part) you would find bar and restaurant open even at 1.00 2.00 p.m
As a Brit that worked in Germany for 35 years and, mostly solo, bikepacked through Europe. My German girlfriend always wanted to plan to the last detail. NO, no, no. Give yourself time and don't take too much but be flexible with an overall plan that you want to do. Relax, enjoy. Eat well and drink good wine or beer in the evenings.
I finished college in 2008 and decided to take my first bike tour from northern Italy, heading to Berlin across eastern Europe. I built my MTB out of quality spare parts, supplied it with two front panniers, one for food and sleep, the other for equipment and extra clothing. A compass for cloudy days, one nokia 3310 in case of emergency and little money. I ghost camped 2 nights out of 3. What I quickly learnt from the first days: eat before you are hungry, set camp before sunset, leave 1l of water for breakfast and never pass on a fresh supply of food and water. I suffered hunger climbing through Slovenia, heat in Croatia and the worst night of my life in the middle of a storm in Germany. 3000km in a month, a swollen knee, worn out cranks and chain, bent wheel rim, busted 2 wheel spikes and a close call with rural right wingers in eastern Austria. It was one of the best summers of my life!
Im not a bike packing professional but I have done a few and the longest one I did was 900+ kms in the peak of summer from France across Spain in 10 days. What I found from experience is if you want to enjoy the ride and have enough time to rest and take tons of pictures and drones shots is to ride a maximum of 50miles (80kms) a day. if you start early then you will also have enough time for unplanned stops, re-routes and mechanical problems. its really not ideal to set a challenge like doing crazy mileage and elevation and have limited time to do it, specially if you are vlogging because you will end up with many stops and ride backs to take a 3rd person shot. I guess you either need to add more days to your trip or minimize vlogging. but ifs that the challenge you have in mind then its great but you really need to mentally prepare your self for hopeless situations.
I guess thing about bikepacking is to experience the whole trip by yourself and fully enjoy it. When i see video like this, which is heavily edited, drone shots, all filters, typography and music, makes everything fake. I don't see you enjoying but making a content for youtube. Kinda sad to be honest
Please try it AGAIN, do it in more days so you can be totally relaxed about when and where to stop. It's not a race, it's a trip. Greetings from Sicilia! <3
With such a gutter full of crap dialog, insistent whining- bore, over dramatic spoiled brattiness..the charms you radiate likely posses off Nature itself. Try grounding all that cry baby emotion & harness into the fact that no one, café keeper, nature etc owe you zero..in fact you need to have your own act together sufficiently enough to not need so much. Also keep in.mind, the rest of of us certainly don't seek to over hear all your little boy whining
Hey Nono, thanks for sharing your video. I really enjoyed watching it. I recently did my first bikepacking adventure, the Tuscany Trail 2024. It was more difficult than I expected, but I achieved my goal of finishing in 7 days. I know some cyclists did it in 2-3 days, but I really wanted to do it in an enjoyable way, to take in the views, enjoy the Italian food, etc, though I did get some kind of heat exhaustion on the 4th day, got a blood nose, and so only did about 30kms on that day, but I managed to make up some time to get back on schedule doing 100kms on my last day from Volterra to Donoratico. It was such an enjoyable trip that I think I'd like to try it again next year. By the way, I liked your video, subscribed to you, and started following you on Instagram. I hope you get your 10,000 views and try the Sicily divide again next year. Think positive, plan those restaurant / shop opening hours better, and I'm sure you can do it. Cheers mate 🙂✌🚴♂
There are 3 simple rules in life (which do not just apply to bikepacking). 1) Know what you get yourself into. 2) Have a plan B if plan A is not working out. 3) Give it enough time. Checking all 3 and you play it safe. Have 2 and your good in 99% of the cases. Check 1 and you will get mostly away with it. Having non (sic) is the best recipe for disaster.
Amazing video. I always like to see the true side of an adventure, as most videos show only the good times and I feel like it's only me having hard times. You made a lot of mistakes but showing them to us and discussing about it, is the best/free/painless lesson we can have. Thanks again, I hope some day you return and do this in 7-8-9 days, as many needed to have a great time without stress and pressure.
Seems you spend a lot of time taking drone pics etc, but less time in actual planning of the trip... If going to southern Europe, you need to know certain things (like opening hours/ suggested hours, where to rest/stay etc). So blaming so much of what "happened to you! on external forces will do you no good. Hopefully you've learned something out of this. And it would be a more productive next time. And please, less swearing... This is stopping me from looking at more content on this channel.
23:40 This is the exact problem i experienced while biking at gran canaria for the first time, no restaurants in sight, and no shops, and no food with me. It was hell experience.
Would you have benefitited from more gear range? Sad that the bike was over 25kg.... I perfectly understand the feel of 25 beacause my full enduro ebike is 25 kg,. With 900W Battery (range 100km+) With lot of rear suspension travel. but having it as cargo must be harder. I do the warm ups in flat lands and barely move it, uphills i havent even attempted it.
Knowing my luck I would have come straight off that bridge if there weren't any signs. I'm watching your video after having watched several Camino de Santiago videos which I plan to do by foot. When you started your video I thought this was going to be a piece of cake, doing it on the bike, but it was quite the opposite. You should consider doing the camino de Santiago on bike. Also, as others have said, less swearing would be better.
Hey Nono. Great video, amazing trip and I'd like to do something like this. Love the places you visited, especially the concreted village that was hit with an earthquake. I only suggest one thing - keep profanity to a minimum as RU-vid algorithm might decrease the amount of times this video is shown to the public or ban it all together as any audience can watch it but overall great job, well done. Liked, subscribed, commented! :)
It did look hard, and extremely remote. It's difficult re weight. Its tempting to travel light, but you are alone in such a remote area you don't know, and would be taking a huge risk if the weather turned bad. Maybe next time try an easier route, an have a good chance of finishing. Well done for your later route. So many beautiful places in Germany
Ya I think what killed your trip was not packing enough food and planning around Siesta. All of Italy closes from 1-3pm at least and many dining restaurants don't open until 7pm. So if you can plan the stops around that you should be able to do it Great attempt and cool ride to Poland as well. I was in Hamburg in 2000 and it was a cool city.
Ive never seen something like that scene of you eating pizza 😂 it looked like you'd pulled it over you like a blanket! I dont know how you didnt burst out laughing just seeing yourself like that but i guess you were just super drained at that point. It was very endearing from my POV though 😁 WELL DONE for attempting something so hard and getting as far as you did. Some of the stats you were throwing out were just crazy! 29kg, more than 2000m of climbing in a day with barely any food! I think youve had more than enough people telling you that you tried to do too much so im just here to say how impressive you are, and how likeable you were even in your darkest moments. I'm bike touring in a couple of weeks and will be climbing about 1000m per day, i will think of you when it gets tough and feel like i've got it easy! Thanks for the great video, keep doing what you're doing and take care of yourself bro! Much love from hilly Wales.
I almost feel sorry for you... you really didn't get the spirit of Sicily, and going to a foreign country means getting to know the culture and habits. Restaurants are mostly open for lunch and dinner and closed in between in whole Italy not just Sicily. I personally had the best time and food during my Sicily Divide in March 2023. Also sleeping in B&Bs in the central Sicily was very affordable and generous hosts would give you some advice on how not to suffer without food (: but in general nice video with great aerial footage
Thanks for your comment! I think 'failing' is also just a part of an adventure. But good to hear that there are others😅. I hope you still had a good time (or at least during later tours).
Italy observes siesta. It's too bad you weren't aware before this trip. When I first traveled to Italy it was a shock for me too. Also, wish you would have given yourself more rest the first day and not ridden so late into the night. Seems like you're wearing yourself out, and potentially making things unsafe for yourself. Enjoying the video nonetheless because you're sharing your feelings and the scenery is beautiful. Have no idea how you're managing to film this too.
Thanks for your comment! Yeah it was all a bit much but I was also looking for a challenging and uncomfortable experience. This time , however, I guess it was too much. In later trips I found a better balance. 🤟
