Rig Ready to Roll

I have just about finished my packing and unpacking and repacking routine, and got everything to fit into two small panniers, a cylindrical dry bag and a seat bag weighing in at 16kg.




So what's in the bags?  An itemised list would be way too boring, here's a summary:

• RH pannier: stuff I hope I won't need too often - bike tools/spares & medical kit/supplies
• LH pannier: maps, papers, bike & civvy street clothes, washing kit, water fiilter
• Cylindrical dry bag: bivvy bag, sleeping bag & liner, thermarest mat, all rolled into one ready for rapid deployment at the end of the day
• Seat bag: well stocked pantry
• Orange bag behind the seat cover providing lumbar support: waterproof jacket
• Black bag hanging above and in front of LH pannier: drinking water
• Lunch box just behind handlebar stem: two cache batteries which charge from hub dynamo and power the phone and the GPS

 Please no emails to say what I've forgotten, there's no more space!

And finally... this will probably be the last blog update before I hit the road.  After that, news from the roadside will be tweeted when I can find wi-fi.  Thanks for recent messages and donations to RoadPeace which are already over £1,500 before a single pedal stroke - on a day which has sadly seen yet another cyclist killed by lorry in London, they really mean a lot to me and to RoadPeace, I will try to live up to your expectations.

Dog Stick & TBE update

Following on from yesterday's post, one of the ways I might die (very unlikely) or be attacked (highly probable) is by dogs. So I have fashioned a dog stick to bash and poke them with, mounted by thick rubber band (old inner tube) to the front fork for easy and fast draw on the move.  I have just had a practice run at this out in the street which did attract some funny looks from the neighbours.  I'm probably not yet as fast as Billy the Kid or Bob Munden so will keep practising.

There has been an amusing conclusion to the Europe-wide search for a Tick-Born Encephalitis (TBE) vaccination next week to top up my immunity to this common and widespread disease which people are most exposed to in spring and summer in the woods, ie. me.  This was the reply that had me concerned from an ideally situated clinic in Berlin:

Dear Mr. Evans, we have not the vaccination of tick-borne encephalitis, only Japanese encephalitis and FSME. Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Institut für Tropenmedizin und Internationale Gesundheit, Spandauer Damm 130, 14050 Berlin.

 I had no luck yesterday finding another clinic on www.istm.org to do this jab.  So I decided to enlist the help of a good friend in Germany who could ring round for me and find me a clinic.  To help him I did a google translate of TBE... in German it is FSME.  Hurrah!

Neither of the above is date-related, but my tweet this morning about changing plans and doing RTW by motorbike was an April Fool, did I get anyone with that?