I've never felt travel fatigue/long tour fatigue on tours/travels of about 2 months or less. At the end of anything up to 6 weeks, and I'm still ready to go for a little while.


On my 3-month tour of Australia in 2004, I did start to feel it a bit of fatigue toward the end, and ended up taking an unplanned break of several days then. I had crashed and hurt my left knee, so I took a bus to a scenic location while my cycling partner cycled the distance, and then I took a bus to another location further down the road, while my cycling partner cycled.

But that tour was broken up with little breaks. We cycled for about 3 weeks to where my cycling partner had family and we stayed with them for a while (and did the Great Southern Randonnee in the middle of that). Then we cycled around Tasmania, and ended up spending some time with Rowan in Hobart ... more time than originally planned because of a freehub failure. Then we flew to Queensland and cycled there for about a month, during which time, I took my unplanned break. And then the tour was over.


Homesickness for me is kind of a funny thing. I did start feeling oddly "homesick" on this tour a couple weeks ago when we started having bad experiences in campgrounds. But the big question is ... what do I feel homesick for? My family is scattered around North America. My home for the last 3 years was in Australia. And I don't have a "home" as many people would describe it. There's no specific place on earth that I could call "home". My family moved a lot when I was growing up, and I continued to move as an adult.

I guess for me, I would describe the "homesickness" in "travel/tour fatigue" as a desire to be in a familiar place where I know the language and culture, where I know what to expect in various situations, and if there are friends or family around, that would be even better.

For example, we're having a bit of trouble finding decent campground accommodations along the way here in Europe (although the place we are right now was all right last night). In Canada or Australia, I would know where to look and what to expect, and would be able to communicate what I want/need. I'd know exactly where to go to find a good place to stay for a while (Port Fairy in Australia springs to mind ). Here it's a gamble ... we might find a good place, or not.


We're a little over 2 months into this tour, we've already covered 8 countries, and we've got quite a bit of the tour left to go. I think we're at the point where we could use a week or 10 days in one place to recharge. Now we just need to find that place.