Five things I wish I knew before my first bikepacking trip

Anna riding on a gravel trail over the Atlas Mountains in Morocco

My bikepacking experience has really bloomed in the last 12 months, with a couple of weeks spent riding across the plains and mountains of Hungary and Slovakia - plus a few shorter excursions into the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco and the (not so high) Cambrian mountains of Wales.

The bridge from Slovakia to Hungary, with a view of the Basilica of Esztergom (Image credit: Stefan Abram )