The biggest challenge during a long or multi-day bike ride. Finding a toilet when you need it so badly. In nature you can hide behind a bush for a while. But what in urban areas?

Fortunately, a Dutch company has tackled this problem. They map the public toilets with the HogeNood app. This app is available for both Android and IOS and the public toilets are not limited to the Dutch territory.

What is also useful about this app is that you can see whether a toilet is currently open. After your visit to a toilet you can give a score so that other people are notified if it turns out to be a dirty and sheltered cubicle. You can also add missing toilets to the app yourself.

Finding potable water is sometimes quite a challenge. In the mountains it is usually safe to drink directly from the mountain rivers and in southern European countries you will find drinking fountains almost everywhere in villages and along walking and cycling paths. But in Belgium, among others, it is quite a challenge to find potable water in public places.

There are a few sites on the web that map these places. During my search I had to add all the drinking fountains I know in the area to their databases myself. In other words, you can bet that these lists are anything but complete. But anything is better than nothing of course. Two sites you can go to are EauPotable.info and drinkingwater.directory. If you search from your smartphone, OsmAnd is again your best option to easily find the places you want.

EauPotable combines the information from OpenStreetMap with its own database, to which you can easily add fountains yourself. However, the disadvantage is that they are mainly focused on Belgium and even show almost no information outside of Europe. A second disadvantage is that the data added via their site is not added to OpenStreetMap.

DrinkingWater.directory Is global but only shows the information that can be found on OpenStreetMap and has no functionality to make improvements. Since the OpenStreetMap site has limited search functions, it is a good alternative if you do not want to work via the OsmAnd app.

Wild camping is prohibited in most countries. However, a distinction is made between camping and bivouacs. Bivouacs means that you stay one or a maximum of a few nights at a location and then continue your journey back. Bivouacs are often tolerated and legal in most countries with the consent of the landowner.

To make it a little easier to find a suitable location, some countries have set up bivouac zones. You have to go to a separate site for each country, or sometimes even per area, to consult the locations and the associated regulations. Fortunately, you can also find all official places on OpenStreetMap.

Nowadays there are also online initiatives where land owners can make a piece of land available. such as welcome to my garden here in Belgium.