Equipment

When we cycled from Bowness to Whitley Bay last year, we were absolutely clueless about what to carry. Or more accurately – what not to carry. We now realise it is crucial to keep the weight carried as low as possible. For this trip we are therefore putting a lot more thought into the equipment we are carrying.
We debated staying in hostels and B&B’s which would save us having to carry the tent and sleeping gear. However we decided that the benefit in costs saved over a month was worth the extra weight we would have to carry. It would also hopefully mean we could be a bit more flexible about where we stopped for the night.

Here is our provisional equipment list – no doubt it will be subject to some fine tuning later on.

Two man tent (as I mentioned before the smallest bivvy bag was much too small to be comfortable).
One lightweight compact sleeping bag each.
One self-inflating bed mat each
Three bed rolls (one for me, two for Mick to try and ameliorate the worst of his arthritis)
An inflatable pillow each
One compass
One small book of routes
Pages from atlas
Marker pen
Biros
plastic bags/stuff sacks
Two spare inner tubes
Bicycle pump
Two pieces of tyre
Bike tools - one multi-tool, tyre levers, chain thingy
Minibottles/sachets of soap, shampoo, conditioner, handcream, shaving foam, suncream (optimism), vaseline.
Razors plus spare blades
Comb and hairbrush
One travel towel each
Travel pack of wetwipes and tissues
Travel pegs
Length of twine
One lightweight digital camera, charger and lead (my semi-luxury item)
One lightweight computer notebook, powerlead and charger (my luxury item)
One SLR camera (Mick’s luxury item)
One dictaphone for notetaking on the move
One Swiss army knife (cos every camper has to have one of these)

Clothing - Me
One pair lycra cycling shorts
One pair long cycling trousers
One pair lightweight casual trousers
Two short sleeved lightweight t-shirts
One long sleeved t-shirt
Cycling jersey
One sweatshirt
One pair cycling shoes (ones which look like trainers for evening use as well)
Two pairs socks
Three pairs pants
Two bras
One neckscarf
One warm hat
One pair sunglasses
One pair flipflops
One cycling jacket
One plastic cape
One pair gloves
Front and back panniers and barbag to spread weight

Clothing – Mick
One cycle shorts
Two Long trousers
Two lightweight T-shirts
One lightweight long sleeved shirt
One cycle jacket
One lightweight sweatshirt
Two pairs socks
Three boxer shorts
One poncho
Shimano shoes
One flip flops
One neckscarf
One sunglasses
One hat
One pair gloves

Hmmm - this still looks like an awful lot of stuff to carry.........