Slowly but surely it's getting serious and so the time has come for a first blog entry. While Tilman is still working on the page (and translating this entry), I wanted to let you take part on our preparations for the trip. Today we're starting with the basics: Our equipment - Part 1.
I want to try and showcase our main equipment and maybe tell you why we decided for it.

P.S. Thanks to German bureaucracy (TMG §5) I want to explicitly state again, that all the following products are not advertisements (for more information see the imprint).

Our first and most important piece (and after which the page is named):
Druuuuuums
Our Tandem
To be exact, we decided for a recumbent tandem. You'll probably asking yourselves why a recumbent. Seems unusual at first, but it has proven itself for long tours. To be honest it was one of Tilmans crazy ideas. Once upon a time (t/n: when I was young) while on a bike trip with his mother Andrea, he met a man whose recumbent he took for a test ride. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. After his Erasmus in Sweden he decided to ride back from Umeå, with a few detours, to Dortmund over 4 months - with his recumbent Eve. It was a trusty companion over 11.000 km, specially for the absence of butt and back pain. Another big plus it's the aerodynamics which let's you ride faster than any e-bike!
And why a tandem? Simple, Tilman and I have different degrees of fitness, but we want to travel together and not chasing each other.
Thankfully Nazca, the producers of Tilmans bike, also offer tandems (t/n: or used to).

Panniers
Secondly we have our panniers, because without them we would be pretty lost. These a bit different, made specially for recumbents. They have hooks for the luggage rack (just as normal panniers) and additionally a loop can be used to secure them at the rear seat. This serves for the purpose to take some weight off the luggage rack. We had to decide between two companies for the panniers. On the one hand there is Ortlieb as well known producer who offers panniers for recumbent bikes, on the other hand there is the lesser known company Radical Design. At the end we decided for financial reasons for Ortlieb and until now we only made good expieriences with Ortlieb :-)
Surely you noticed the red sack at the rear end. That is a simple waterproof sack from Ortlieb.

Tent
Our tent - or also known as: Tilmans and Idas first shared apartement. At apartement hunting we were quite selective, because it could be expensive and annoying to be stuck with a bad landlord...
So we decided for a tunnel tent. This has various reasons:

• space-saving
• inner tent puts up automatically with outer tent -> so the digs won't get wet on the inside :)
• veeeeery fast to put up and take down

Besides the apartement of our choice has a very high water column, both the floor and the outer layer. Is just better with down sleeping bags. And so the winner of cost efectiveness was a tent of Tatonka Arctis-3.235 PU. We also purchased a fitted footprint to get a good sleep even on uneven land, because the tent floor is surprisingly soft.

sleeping bags
Sleep is just as chocolate, produces energy and a good mood :-) Because of that it pays of to invest in sleeping equipment. Tilman already made good experiences with the company Cumulus, where we bougt the sleeping bag (Ida) and the quilt (Tilman).
sleeping bag: MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER 500
quilt: QUILT 450
Even Miezi has enough space and can cuddle up in warmth!

sleeping pads
Just as with the sleeping bags.
Company of our confidence: Therma-Rest.
Convince through warmth, comfort and pack size!
One Therma-Rest XLite and one Therma-Rest XTherm.

If the whole stuff, just as we hope, will do a good use, you can read in the future.
If there are any questions left, don't hesitate to aks us :)
Otherwise you can be excited for the next entry!
Lots of love,
Tilman & Ida