Originally Posted by
Machka
For those of you who have done tours of, let's say, 3 months or more, and especially if your tour spanned several countries ...
Did you experience long tour fatigue? How would you describe it? And if you have experienced it, what did you do about it?
I did experience something that I might call long tour fatigue, but it was a lot different for me than it sounds like it was for you. The packing up and moving part never bothered me much even when I took no rest days. I like the routine of that and it doesn't bother me. The new languages thing did not apply where I was so I can't comment on that, but even in the US the culture does vary pretty widely with the different regions especially when we are talking rur.
Long tour fatigue is not just tiredness from being more physically active than you might normally be, although that may be part of it. It's being tired of packing up and going somewhere new every day or every few days, of having to find accommodation and food, and the basic necessities in life. It's the strain of finding your way in a new culture or with different languages. It's the loneliness of always seeing new faces (as wonderful as those people may be), and never or rarely seeing old familiar friends or family who you can really relax with. It usually includes a desire to just stop in one place for a while ... somewhere where you feel comfortable, safe, happy, relaxed.
I did a quick Google search, and there's an interesting article about this subject here:
http://www.worldbiking.info/resource...Resources.html
My experience does not quite meet the criteria you list. My longest tour was 73 days and was all in the US. So factor that in when reading this.
The new languages thing did not apply too much in my case since I was in the US, although I have toured in places where Spanish was the primary language and I speak only a few words of it. The cultures vary wider than you might think across rural America, but maybe not enough for those to apply either. Then again someone from New York city would find Ordway Colorado or Walnut Kansas to be pretty foreign.
The desire to stop in one place never hit me either.
The things that did hit me were twofold. The first was basically just homesickness, missing home, family, and my dog, and the second was a physical weariness.
I always wondered what it would be like to go much longer, but to be honest I think I have decided that three months may be as long as I ever want to go on tour for.