You don’t need much for eight days’ cycling around the edge of Hungary. I’ve been known to go on trips where your luggage is carried from hotel to hotel, whilst you cycle at a leisurely pace, unencumbered by clothes and equipment, but those trips are for softies. Serious cycling is a penitential experience, and you must fend for yourself, comfort generally shunned. That said, I confess that don’t carry a tent, nor cooking equipment and I do stay in hotels and eat in restaurants, when I can find them.

So, what does a moderately penitential cyclist carry? What you see in the picture is what I took.

Devices

• 1 Dell Notebook PC and cable
• 1 Kindle and cable
• 1 iPhone and cable (iPhone not in the pic, since in use)

Bike Wear

• Three light luridly-coloured easy-to-wash easy-to-see miracle-fibre tops
• Two light easy-to-wash miracle-fibre shorts
• Helmet (including net to prevent insects reaching hair)
• Waterproof jacket from sponsor Helly Hansen

Elegant Evening Wear

• Three pairs black socks
• Three polo tops from sponsor Banana Republic
• Hoody for chilly evenings

Constant Wear

• Rigidly-soled cycling sandals
• Underwear (five pairs)

Food and Drink

• Small bag of nuts
• 40 Gold Blend teabags from sponsor Marks & Spencer

Bathroom and Medical Supplies

• Savlon for abrasions and mosquito bites
• Toothpaste from sponsor Colgate
• Deodorant from sponsor Gillette
• Toothbrush
• Painkillers for headaches caused by dehydration and drink
• Blood pressure pills to alleviate the high blood pressure brought on by age and an unhealthy lifestyle
• Razor from sponsor Gillette
• 50+ Sun Cream
• Black Pepper Cologne by sponsor Molton Brown
• Bag to put them all in

Miscellaneous

• Glasses and case
• Cash
• Passport
• Credit Cards
• Bag to put them in from sponsor Etihad
• Pens from sponsor British Airways
• Earphones
• Two maps

That’s all. Try it. Who needs furniture and paintings and things? Life can be simple and free.

But I’m off my bike now. I’d go further, much further (‘second star to the right and straight on ’til morning’), but having arrived in Timisoara two days ahead of schedule, I added on Szeged, reached in two days through a corner of Serbia, and there, after 675 km, I stopped and got on a train.