Dad - Prologue #2

The last time I sent a progress report I had 16 people on my contact list. I now have 24. I will attach a couple of files to this Email. Some of you may already have seen them so I apologise in advance, but I thought that they would help to bring everyone up to date. Eileen and Eddy, particularly may read this and be thinking "Deja Vu" (that's French, Eddy!). I think it means: "Aye, heard it!"

Well, 2 weeks on Tuesday I'll be off. I am getting quite excited. Final preparations are in hand: the bike goes in for a service on Friday; I've sorted my travel insurance to cover me for being out of the country for up to 60 days; I have packed the panniers with all the items from my check list; I've opened a new bank account for travelling money; I've started tidying the garden (with a little help from Ev); I've started tidying up loose ends at work; The car tax will be paid and an MOT will be attended to next weekend. Everything seems to be in order.

My friend, Eddy, whom I intend to visit in Sigournais, sent me training advice from one of his cyclist friends. Unfortunately, all it did was frighten the life out of me. Of course, I have convinced myself that it was unnecessarily onerous and I've carried on in my ignorance with my cycle to work and the odd run at the weekend. Over the last few weeks I've been clocking up about 200 km per week (i.e. about 2/5 of my planned weekly mileage for the trip. My theory is that if I can manage that with all the usual family and work commitments I'll surely manage 500 km when I'll have no other mission in life but cycling, eating, drinking and sleeping. We will see!

When I packed the panniers I also weighed them. Each of the 2 panniers was 5 kg and the rack pack weighed 2 kg - so 12 kg in total. It'll probably come to 13/14 kg by the time I've added water bottles, lock and the few odds and ends that I've still to get. So not too bad. Once I'm on the road I'll maybe loose a few kg body weight to help to compensate. I have enclosed my kit list. This has already been sent to Eileen and Eddy who both suggested additions which I've made. If anyone else notices any obvious omissions please let me know. And don't bother suggesting a zimmer frame! If I have forgotten anything very important and you don't notice then you are all now implicated!

I had thought that the film makers had lost interest as I hadn't heard anything from them. However, my Spanish sister, Eileen, Emailed me for information regarding my ferry details to pass on to Javi (the film producer) so it looks as though the film may still be on the cards - Eddy, please note. Eileen, however, has pointed out that it is a small company and they will not be making, or expecting, a big fuss.

In terms of route, I have done no further fine tuning on the vague route that I have considered from before Christmas. Generally, Hamilton-Rosyth-Zeebrugge, then generally south and west through France, passing west of Paris to Le Mans-Tours-Sigournais-Bordeaux-Biarritz-Pamplona-Zaragoza-Teruel-Denia. If you say it quick it sound OK! I don't intend to stay in large towns, if I can avoid them and the route outlined may change drastically if I find that I'm heading into strong headwinds or if the roads are very busy or if accommodation is hard to come by. You will be beginning to see how well organised I am!

Check out the Potential Route on google maps.

I think that that is all for now. Phew, do I hear you all say?

Watch this space for the next epistle.

Michael.