Writing this in the tent. It’s very lonely here. I’m wondering how much of a good idea this was.
I will write more tomorrow when things will be better I’m sure.
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…. but let’s hope that the trip goes better than today.
Anything that could go wrong today has… first of all when I changed my brake pads on Saturday the dealer had sold me the wrong part. Today saw me leave six hours early so I could call into a dealer on route and buy some new rear pads – then doing the work at the side of the road in Newhaven.
Thank goodness everything is working and the bike is going well. I’ve got a slow speed wobble at around 20 mph that disappears at 40mph – I think it’s simply down to the weight on the back, so I’ll try re-arranging things tomorrow on the Ferry.
Ahh yes the ferry. I’m leaving at 7am, which means being at the terminal at 6am, which means being up at 5am. Joy.
If tonight’s B&B stay is anything to go by I’ll be very glad to get out camping, for one thing I wont have to lump my bags and boxes up two flights of stairs to my room… not to mention Newhaven isn’t exactly the nicest place in the world.
So tomorrow sees me getting half way down through France to Bourgess, then onto the coast the following day.
Wish me luck for the first real day of Journey To Morocco!
Well who’d have guessed it? There are loads of people out there who think that thermarests are pretty damn cool. I have to agree – they are… but I just wanted to do some basic number crunching comparing thermarest with exped.
So – we’ll take my Exped 7 DLX as the base and then compare that with a ‘comparable’ thermarest and then the smallest thermarest.
Stats on the 7 DLX
Cost: £115
Size: 193×65 cm / 76×26“
Thickness: 7 cm / 2.8“
Weight: 1170 g / 41 oz
Packed: 30×15 cm / 12×6“
The nearest thermarest I can find is the LuxuryCamp™ XL
Cost: £104.99
Size: 196×76 cm / 77×30″ (3cm longer, 11cm wider)
Thickness: 6.3cm / 2.5″ (1cm thinner)
Weight: 2295 g / 5lbs 1 oz (a massive 1125g heavier)
Packed: 76×14 cm / 30×5.6″ (wow – this is the biggy – it’s 46cm wider but 1 cm thinner when packed)
What I can’t quite work out is that if this mat is thinner when you’re lying on it where does the extra come from when it’s packed – ahh it’s because it’s 11cm wider – but that still doesn’t account for it being nearly .5m wider than the exped – that’ll be the down at work.
In order to get a thermarest that packs to the same size as the exped you have to go for something like the ProLite 4™ (large) which packed comes in at 13×5.1in. (33x13cm) but is only 3.8 cm deep… not that comfy.
Obviously both brands have smaller and larger mats – but I just can’t get over the difference in the weight and pack size for a more comfortable mat that can also deal with a greater range of temperatures and comes with all the same bells and whistles like chair conversion kits and strap on pillows (from the pack cover).
It may not be cheap, but £115 for total sleeping comfort is worth every penny. I love camping, there’s nothing I’d rather do that get way out into the countryside in the middle of no-where and sit staring at the stars. But when I crawl into my little tent I do actually want to sleep.
There’s a glut of cheap ‘simple’ sleeping mats on the market – in fact there are also some pretty expensive ones – things like the thermarest – but does anyone else think that they’re just the biggest things ever!? I mean… who is going to pack one of those on the back of their bike?
Sure, the small one is tiny, but it’s so thin that even my little 10 month old kitten would find it uncomfortable. So enter the king of sleeping mats – the Exped 7 DLX!
The thing you have to understand of course is that this is no ordinary mat – oh no – it’s actually filled with down – and because down compresses so damn well it packs up really really tiny – much smaller in fact than the smallest thermarest. Having said all that when you inflate it – it’s wonderfully comfortable – even my large frame doesn’t touch the floor and it’s toasty warm on the coldest of nights.
It’s also quite clever – none of this just leave it inflate and then top up with your breath (which actually puts water into your mat and shortens it’s life) no! You use bag it comes in to inflate it! Amazing!
There are some funky videos and stuff over on their website over here – but I can’t link to them directly thanks to silly javascript and frame funniness.
In short this thing is amazing – and I’m beginning to feel that I’m cheating on this whole ‘roughing it’ trip.
Well I’ve now got an interactive map thingy – which you can find over on the Route page.
It shows the planned route so far, and then when I actually go it will update with news and photos from each of those locations and perhaps a few more… the theory being yellow dots are planned stops and then purple dots will be actual stops with photos / videos!
Oh the fun I’m going to have in various internet cafes!
The thing I think I’m most looking forward to when I get up into the Atlas Mountains is the stars.
Every time I go home to Wales I’m amazed at the number of stars I can see, the way the night sky just comes to life in a way that no-where in London or the South East can match. Then I start to imagine what the night sky must be like when there’s nothing within 100 miles of you, no Cardiff or Newport spewing out watts and watts of unwarranted light into the night sky.
What treasures await me whilst I sit outside the tent, hot chocolate in hand gazing up at an unpolluted sky.
I very rarely put up test posts but I can’t see another way of doing it – I’m trying to find a service that will allow me to build maps very easily then plant them in the site very easily.
Ian Forrester put me onto quickmaps – and that appears to work – well if you see a map below it’s worked.
…beside the seaside! And so on.
Mark With is 40, divorced and riding a motorbike around the coast of Europe. He is certifiable, but by God I envy him no end. I’ve really been enjoying his flickr stream, with beautiful shots of sweeping coast lines and cloudless skys.
It rather helps matters that he’s riding a stunning Triumph Bonnie, built in a factory so far away from the sea it just seems right that it’s being dragged around the coast line.
Mike is an inspiration, and it’s his photo sets that have given me the drive to make sure I make it to Morocco in three weeks time 🙂
…beside the seaside! And so on.
Mark With is 40, divorced and riding a motorbike around the coast of Europe. He is certifiable, but by God I envy him no end. I’ve really been enjoying his flickr stream, with beautiful shots of sweeping coast lines and cloudless skys.
It rather helps matters that he’s riding a stunning Triumph Bonnie, built in a factory so far away from the sea it just seems right that it’s being dragged around the coast line.
Mike is an inspiration, and it’s his photo sets that have given me the drive to make sure I make it to Morocco in three weeks time 🙂
What is God calling you to do?
Listen to my Thought for The Week on BBC Hereford on Worcester about vocation and what God may be calling you to be or do