Snow! ........ SNOW?!

Like a lot of the country I woke with a bit of a surprise this morning and it made me think, starting this escapade on January 1st may not be a good idea if we have a bad winter on the way. I can wrap up against the cold and I have fitted heated grips to the bike. But it is the icy road conditions I am not looking forward to even riding as safely as you can it is still a major task staying upright, as I can tell you from a previous experience in the Italian Alps, when we came upon a stretch of about 1km of mountain pass that was blocked to cars due to a small avalanche but was passable on the bike but the frozen slush was lethal and even riding with my feet off the pegs like outriggers I still dropped the bike in slow motion 3 times before I got through.

The Snow also made me think that the work I have been doing over the weekend on route planning will come into it's own in months to come. I have a bit of a conundrum here and it could be really helpful if someone out there knows more about programming a GPS from my computer. I understand the basics, however the amount of detail I am going into means it may prove to be too big a task and may be simpler to use good old Ordnance Survey Maps with the GPS for back up and checking.

It is not like the 'simple' way most people use their GPS in their car, which I have to say in my opinion has led to more accidents on the road due to wrong directions than you can imagine. I even heard one woman talking to her friend in the supermarket some months ago, about how she had programmed in the best route to get her beloved children to school, for Pete's sake, some people should not be let out on their own.

What I am trying to do is trace out the route on a map on my PC then upload it to the GPS however it is proving to be far from straightforward and downright fiddly.

With this in mind I spent a lot of time at the weekend going through my maps and in the end, I decided to have a look at Google Maps, which turned out to be somewhat inspired. I have been able print out large sections of the route I plan to use. This has proved to be another area where paper wins over electronics, maybe it's just me or the version of MapSource software for the GPS I am using but it just doesn't seem to go down into the detail I would like to see which means I lose some of the spatial awareness I am used to when looking at a Map. I am certain I will find a way around this, but all hints and tips are most welcome.

I've even thought about investing in a Road Book, which is basically a small box with a roll of paper in it, driven by small electric motors. Used by the guys that compete on the Paris-Dakar, similar to what Rally co-Drivers use it takes a bit of time to set up but once you do, they are pretty good, one downside, THE PRICE, having had a looking on the Touratech site recently when ordering some bits the first decent one starts at £260 and then you have to add the cost of the roll of paper and if you might like to ride at night, or at least after dark, which is a distinct possibility in the first few months, you have to buy a lighting kit, basically two bits of wire and a 12v bulb with instructions but Touratech still want to charge you the earth for it. I swear all their prices went up as soon as Ewan and Charlie used some of their kit. Great Kit, shame about the Price and the Customer Service. I am even thinking of making my own, I have some sheet Aluminium in the garage, I'm quite good with the soldering iron and I have a Maplins 20 minutes away. We'll see but £260 is an awful lot of fuel for the bike, in fact about 10-11 tankfulls. The Africa Twin has a 23 litre tank and at today's prices of around a £1 per litre. The paper map is winning again.

For those that like statistics I will comprise some details for the next edition of the Blog, when I will outline the specifications of the bike. And therefore how many times I will have to refill and how much it will cost me to do the route, excluding camping and accommodation at Youth Hostels on the way round. I can also give an estimate on the amount of tyres I will go through and I will use at least one set of Sprockets and Chains.

Take care and as Mick says 'You don't stop riding when you grow old; you grow old when you stop riding!'