Under starters orders...

There's a limit to how much you can write on a travel blog, before you start to travel.  I will try to write something on the blog every day, if I can connect.  I'm all packed and looking forward to it enormously - the weather looks set fair, even if the wind is going to be against me.  I have not dared weigh my panniers...

First night camping

Trying our my tent and oh-so-light (thin) sleeping bag in the back garden. And blogging from the tent in the dark, listening to some heavy-ish music by Boston. So far so,good. I had forgotten the smell of camping - damp grass. Also how hard the ground is.  Night night...

Where to stay?

Tricky, as I don't know how far I will be going each day, so I can't book.  I'm hoping to find accommodation when I stop each day: youth hostels, B&Bs where possible but failing that I have acquired a lightweight tent (Vango Apex 200) - a cosy 2-man tent.  I'll be taking a sleeping mat and a worryingly thin lightweight sleeping bag - the total weight of these three is about 2.5kg - but I hope not to use them.  Also had to buy a Ortlieb RackPack to carry the tent and sleeping mat, which probably weighs another kilo.

Instead I have a list of youth hostels, and I'll hope to use my phone to find other places to stay:  TripAdvisor, various B&B directories and campsite directories.   We will see how this works out in practice.

Navigation

I had a real dilemma over this.   I love maps and have always taken OS Landranger (1:50 000) maps with me before.   These are the perfect scale for cycling but they do have drawbacks:  a full day's cycling can cross 3 whole maps,  and you have to stop regularly to re-fold the map.   In wet weather I have an Ortlieb map case which keeps the map completely dry but it's a pain when you reach the edge of the visible map, and I get grumpy when the map gets wet.   I counted 19 maps to get to the Scottish border (if I get that far) - a significant weight and volume to carry.

So I've decided to buy a GPS unit for the bike - a Garmin Etrex 30, which was recommended in the CTC's Cycling magazine.   I've loaded OpenStreetMap maps onto it, which seem to have good coverage and plenty of detail for my purposes, and they are free.   The disadvantage is that I have to plan my route beforehand, on the PC, and then download it to the Garmin (there are other ways to use the GPS but this seems to be recommended).    After a few test rides, and some fiddling around with setup options, I'm very pleased with this choice - the batteries last a long time and the maps are easy to read.

Another plus point is that I've had several happy evenings on the PC looking at maps and using bikehike.co.uk to plan my routes, think about what I want to see, and I'm looking forward to it even more now :-)

Edit:  here is the GPS itself:

My new Garmin Etrex sat-nav.

First post

Welcome to my new blog about my planned coastal cycle adventure!   The blogging will be an adventure too, as I've never had a blog before.

The Goal

My plan is to cycle up the east coast of Britain this summer.   I want to be flexible about how far I travel each day, as it will depend on the weather, my legs, sightseeing opportunities, and where suitable accommodation can be had.  Depending on how it goes I may continue the trip the following year.

The Route

I'll keep as near to the coast as possible, but I'll make exceptions if the coastal road is very busy and there is an alternative, or perhaps to visit interesting-looking towns.  This might make the route longer and slower, but more interesting too.

It has occurred to me that I should really be travelling clockwise, as then I'll be cycling on the seaward side of the road (better views perhaps).   However I'm more attracted to cycling 'up' the east coast, which I don't know so well, than along the south coast.