Planning a Wandrer team adventure in Taiwan
Craig and I are planning our next big Wandrer adventure - a trip to Taiwan to cycle tour and work remotely. Of course, the real adventure is that we had a baby in August and have embarked on a lifelong parenting journey. Thus far, we are blessed with an easy baby, which makes taking her on a months-long adventure seem possible. The decision to have a baby was not an easy one for us, in no small part because we did not want to lose out on the ability to explore the world, both locally and further afield. This trip is a mission to prove to ourselves that it can be done.
Craig has long wanted to visit Taiwan for its cycling infrastructure and its combination of dense urbanism and rural mountains and beaches. When we heard that the borders would open again after years of covid isolation, it shot to the top of our winter getaway list. Our extended stay will also allow us to improve the achievements for the area.
It’s probably no surprise given Wandrer’s infrastructure that we turn to open street map data when planning this type of trip. We were delighted to find many national cycle networks, including ncn 1 that encircles the island. This route appears to have a nice wide bike lane on Google street view (an even more important factor for us now that we’ll be pulling a trailer with the most precious cargo). The roads leading to the interior of the island look spectacularly mountainous and scenic, if narrow. We may need to skip riding these in favor of access by train. Regardless of our own plans, we plan to add each national cycling network as an independent achievement in Wandrer.
Right now, we plan to start in Taipei and ride clockwise on NCN 1 around the island. A local acquaintance has warned us about rain in the north. We’ll bring rain gear but also try to boogie down to the sunnier south as quickly as we can. We want to keep development moving forward on Wandrer, which will mean a slow pace with many longer stays along our journey to allow time for work. If you have any recommendations about towns we may want to visit for a few days along our way, we welcome them!
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