tips

Travel Light. As each day went by I shed more of the things I thought I would need but never seemed to come into use. Punctures were a worry, but the whole trip was puncture free.

Buy your food as you go along. Starting out with sandwiches, fruit etc at the beginning just weighs you down.

Drink at least a litre of fluid in the first hour of each days cycling. Once you become dehydrated you can never make the imbalance up until the evening. I mounted a tria-athletes bottle mount on the seat post. This allowed me to carry up to four litres of fluid at the start of each day. If you cannot find a pit stop, being without food is not a problem, but going without water is.

Travelling from south to north has one problem. The sun is on your back all the time. This can lead to sunburn of the neck and the exposed parts of the body. Unlike a normal ride which would go round a circular route you are sun bathing in one position all day. My neck suffered even with factor 50 sun block. In the end the handkerchief supplied by Laurence and Andrea was the only cure. So simple but effective

Sore bottom. Most people say you must have a sore bottom then. Due to wearing padded pants and shorts the answer is no. Most cycle shops sell pants with a padded gusset as well as padded shorts. It is normal to wear one or the other for moderate cycling. I wore both with the result of no soreness.

Use a pocket size road atlas with the route marked in highlighter. Remove the pages you do not need so it is light and as small as possible.