Panic buying

Before all of my big cycle trips I have pretty much always entered a last minute panic mode buying a huge amount of stuff.

Suddenly I find myself worrying about all the things I don’t have that I will need, things I don’t need but want and things I think I need but don’t. Armed with an Amazon Prime account with next day delivery, I spend the final days before my trip purchasing all these things, most of which are probably unnecessary. The greatest example being when I bought Deet insect repellent for my first ever tour to the tropical warm, moist climate of.. Oh, The Netherlands.

For my two trip so far this year I made a conscious effort to not panic buy. I told myself.. I have a setup for cycling and camping that I use regularly and never do I think.. “I’ve not got this!” or “I need one of these,” and even if I did, I would probably order it at the time, so why would there be some sudden need to purchase things in this one week? This worked quite well. For example, before Kenya I only purchased something like three things, and they were all things I actually needed, like suncream.

Never have I known pre-trip panic buying like I have for this trip!

But with my recent houdini bicycle trick, this time around I have obviously needed to buy much, much more, which has led me into a false sense that I require more things than I probably really do (again). Never have I known pre-trip panic buying like I have for this trip! My shopping tourettes for this trip started only 9 days ago and to give you an idea, just half an hour ago I spent £86 in only 5 minutes. In the past 9 days I have spent £1,565 and I haven’t even bought a bike! But, for the most part, I should have everything I need….

“Should have…”