Essential reads for tour planning...

seasoned touring people usually have blogs on the internet, i don't know if someone has written a book about it, but hey it is not a bad idea ! if you have a cycling background you would draw on it for planning a touring holiday. On the non cycling aspect you suspect that you need to keep weight to a minimum and carry useful items, for example you won't carry jeans for clothing, they are heavy and bulky and if they get wet you need days for it to dry, instead you can go to a trekking or outdoors shop and buy trousers from a specific textil that dries in half an hour if they get wet, very light and durable material. You want to use a cheap tarp base-like-layer under your tent, to insulate it from humidity and to protect it from small stones and tree branches. The route planning is important, you need to check local maps with detailed roads, because many maps will show only highways and main roads, but i guess googlemaps and other internet options are becoming better everyday. I still prefer those printed gigantic maps that you unfold because you really get the big picture of where you are going, unfortunately those are hard to find,

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by vspa [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

On the non cycling aspect you suspect that you need to keep weight to a minimum and carry useful items, for example you won't carry jeans for clothing, they are heavy and bulky and if they get wet you need days for it to dry, instead you can go to a trekking or outdoors shop and buy trousers from a specific textil that dries in half an hour if they get wet, very light and durable material. You want to use a cheap tarp base-like-layer under your tent, to insulate it from humidity and to protect it from small stones and tree branches.

The route planning is important, you need to check local maps with detailed roads, because many maps will show only highways and main roads,
but i guess googlemaps and other internet options are becoming better everyday.
I still prefer those printed gigantic maps that you unfold because you really get the big picture of where you are going, unfortunately those are hard to find,

Thanks VSPA, great advice. In regards to keeping weight to a minimum, because the cycle will cover over 4,000km I've opted to have a support van take the bulk of the kit, I'm planning to do the trip over 4-5 weeks with a 6th week at the end to chill out on the Great Barrier Reef. I do a lot of hill walking so have quite a lot of the clothing that you've mentioned, good call about using it, never actually crossed my mind at this stage in planning. The support van will be a camper van so I'll be taking advantage of a relatively comfy bed for the trip, couldn't bear 80-90 mile days for weeks and sleeping on the floor.

The big hurdle I'll be looking at is the route planning. I've bought a large map of the country which has quite a good range of roads clearly marked, and is good enough to provide surface types too. One thing it doesn't tell you is the contour lines though so you have no idea where the monster hills are! Do you find these maps sufficient for planning good routes?

The large map doesnt give much in the way of direction for the cities so I'll be buying small regional maps for that.

GaryBPT said:

The big hurdle I'll be looking at is the route planning. I've bought a large map of the country which has quite a good range of roads clearly marked, and is good enough to provide surface types too. One thing it doesn't tell you is the contour lines though so you have no idea where the monster hills are! Do you find these maps sufficient for planning good routes? The large map doesnt give much in the way of direction for the cities so I'll be buying small regional maps for that.

good point, google earth (free software) gives you elevation profiles, mapmyride too,

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by vspa [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

good point, google earth (free software) gives you elevation profiles, mapmyride too,

Ahaa good call! Although I love it I've never actually found Google Earth useful for anything except finding my own house and telling people... until now [IMG]/img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif[/IMG]

Check out BikeRouteToaster . You can use it to plan routes anywhere in the world with several map types, and you can also export the routes as files appropriate for GPS devices.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by alienator [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

Check out BikeRouteToaster . You can use it to plan routes anywhere in the world with several map types, and you can also export the routes as files appropriate for GPS devices.

Fantastic mate thank you, I'll check it out now [IMG]/img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif[/IMG]