Request for Touring articles: Getting Started - My first bicycle tour!

I'd love to hear from CycleChat members about how you came to go on your first cycling tour; to be published on the Bike Tourer site for new tourers to read.

If you could write an article along the lines of:

• What inspired you or gave you the idea to tour by bike for the first time?
• Did you start with a small tour to whet your appetite or go big right from the off?
• What was your budget and did you manage to stick to it?
• What sort of equipment did you take with you and how much of it did you use?
• What were the best parts of the tour?
• What were the worst parts of the tour?
  
• What were the main lessons you learned from your first tour?
• If you could one bit of advice to new tourers what would it be?
• Did you tour again?

... and anything else you can think of that might be useful to people considering doing their first bike tour! Pictures would be great too if you have them.

And don't forget to link back to your blog, club, company or website too.

Please head over to the project forum to post your article, here: https://www.cyclechat.net/forums/cycle-touring-blog-biketourer-com.167/

Many Thanks,
Shaun