The obligatory, and possibly slightly dull page where I describe my touring gear. On the plus side it is (mostly) all used and re-purposed, so hopefully there's some interest there.

I had a reasonably good idea of what I wanted to take from my couple of shakedown tours where I camped overnight in various scenic woodland locations around the area (see previous). I still had the very same trusty duolite tent from my previous journal six years ago (only the pegs had gone missing in a house move) and my bargain down bag which has never let me down. What I take in terms of tools is also pretty well established.

But a longer trip needed a bit more thought. I tend to take pre-cooked food (pizza) with me on the shorter trips, and only use a stove for coffee making. I also don't really bother with changes of clothes etc, and while the forecast was distinctly sunny I probably needed to make some concession to the latitude.

After lots of deliberation over actually forking out for more stuff, this what I came up with:

• Mattress. Thermarest neoair venture (+ patching kit). A bit of an outlay this, and I wasn't 100% sure I wanted a potentially puncturable air mattress, but a very good deal, feeling how comfortable is was, and the realisation that it would fit in the bottom of a pannier (unlike the thicker solid foam models) had me sold.
• Clothes. Two pairs of trousers, 3x padded shorts, lots of socks
  (including waterproof socks), cycle gloves, a few T-shirts including a Merino wool T shirt. A couple of fleece layers, and a light waterproof jacket. I was (generally) wearing some of these at any one time.
• Stove. For the last few trips I've stopped bothering with my various
  configurations of meths stoves (generally home-made beer-can models). The stoves themselves are ok, but the difficulty of obtaining and carrying enough meths has bugged me. Instead I've been dead simple solid fuel hexamine burners. Sophisticated they are not, and the fuel is admittedly apparently unobtainable outside the UK (though very cheap here), but they are extremely simple and reliable to use, even in very cold or windy weather. And the whole package is tiny and very light. I wouldn't rely on it on any tour longer than a few weeks, but for one of this length seemed the minimum of fuss.
• Food. I planned to get a bit more inventive on this trip to break the
  endless stream of pasta. This didn't start well, as setting out I packed pasta, dense sources, packets of olives, salt and chilli flakes. I also packed some English cheese to remind me of home, and for some reason a whole fresh garlic. Lots of spare chocolate, sweets, and emergency maltloaf was also stuffed into various panniers.
• Repair kit including spare tubes, spokes, brake pads, screwdriver,
  wrenches, allen and torx keys, spokey and chain tool, spare nipples (no, no idea why I brought those either). Two puncture repair kits. Also tenacious tape, zip ties, string, scissors, pens and batteries.
• Other hardware - mosquito coils, small lamp, solar gadget charger.
• Maps and two compasses. Kindle and mp3 player. Tickets and documents.
• £10 indestructible phone. A wodge of Kroner for emergencies.
• Sun tan lotion, mozzy repellent, bandages and plasters, painkillers and washbag.

Notable for their absence here are: smartphone (don't have one) and GPS. A compass and good map, if you can get one, is worth the best GPS money can buy.