During December and January, we were doing all the pre-work necessary for such a trip.
First, we planned the route al the way to Marrakech, and then, listed the material. We already have to thank Jean-Baptiste, a quite experienced tour cyclist which was a bit more ambitious than us and made it all the way from Zurich to Cape Town. His blog is called “Freewheely” and is truely a master piece of data, pictures and lists, that give you a great idea of what you will need and face. Merci bien for the inspiration!
Once we bought the main items – bikes, bike accessories, clothes and sleeping bags -, we came to the hometown of Javi, Vitoria-Gasteiz, in North Spain, were we had shipped the bikes and the rest of purchases done in Zurich. Here we bought the rest of the stuff and got the bicycles set-up thanks to Javi Preciado -yet another Javi, please someone tell Spanish parents that there are more names apart from Javi!! 😛 -, and Gama Bicicletas.
Quite stressful last days, eventually crossing everything of the 130 items required, farewelling friends & family, and taking care of the last tasks related to our start-ups, with the operative tasks in charge of our co-founders.
Departure day is scheduled for Sunday 3rd. Tarifa, our point to cross to Africa, is 1’100 km and 8’600+ m away. Our first milestone is Palencia, 220 km sout-west from Vitoria, where Javi needs to get the 2nd “Rabia” vaccination on Wednesday 6th.
As pirates used to say in Spanish, “Al abordaje!”. Or in English: we’re coming on board! ;-).
Cycling Pirates 
I dont see the blinkers in your bikes!
We shipped them to Salamanca to install them there, I thought we had enough in Vitoria but I was too optimistic ;-). The front one we will not be able to install it, since we are carrying a front bag!