Eve of departure

Tomorrow will probably be an increasing panic, so I'll post now just to check in. Today has been a round of last-minute jobs, especially at the allotment, where rabbits were flavour of the month - or would have been, had they not been still running around large as life, brazenly eating people's onions, cabbages and peas. Frustrating as this is, we'll have to find a way of co-existing. However, a rabbit-proof fence wasn't quite achievable today. So we'll just have to hope they leave us something for our return.

We had friends round for a meal, which probably sounds impossibly smug and well-organised - except I confess we invited them on condition they cooked for us. You know who your real friends are when you can make such an outrageous proposal!

Now it's early to bed (well, it isn't quite midnight) and early to rise, as there's still a scary amount to do before our departure for London at 7 pm tomorrow.

Another fine packing avoidance strategy

If you're returning to my blog, you'll see it's been redesigned. A simple statement behind which lies stress and frustration that, actually, many people on the planet would gladly exchange for their everyday  experience. Nonetheless, could I have a moment's tunnel-view offload about my trials and tribulations with Blogger design templates? ...
Thank you, that already feels better. Especially if you agree the result is easier on the eye. My first attempt really wasn't very good from a layout point of view. I hope the new, narrower layout is as reader friendly on your monitor as it appears to be on mine. Your comments and feedback would be most welcome. I think you have to have a Google account to be able to comment, but registering really isn't very onerous, if you haven't already done so.
Time to tackle another fiddly, but gratifyingly physical task: attaching a new Blackburn rack to my Dawes Audax.
As things progress, we'll post photos to the France / Milestones Ride folder at http://www.flickr.com/photos/16609214@N05/, which can also be accessed from 'Links' to the left of the screen.

No wheels on my wagon (yet)

It would be nice to see two gleaming bikes with two orderly sets of luggage laid out near them, demonstrating progress with all the physical preparations, and decks beginning to clear for our departure. In fact, the table where I'm writing is still cluttered with the detritus of incomplete chores, the bikes are still untouched, and we haven't even done the gardening and allotment tasks that will enable these modest plots to prosper in our absence.

Not that we've been watching football or anything. No, Barcelona and Manchester have had to get by without us. To be honest, they always do. Instead I've been drawn, quite eagerly, into the role of communications officer for the expedition. All right, that's a bit grandiose, but the fundraising aspect of the ride, coupled with a plunge into social media Twitter and Facebook (not to mention this blog), have generated new projects undreamt of as little as fifteen years ago. Where once there was a private holiday, there is now public commitment to an 'expedition', complete with media statements, photographic and written reportage, and the expectations of an elusive but real audience. If I ever wondered what it would really be like to be Chris Bonington setting out for Everest Base Camp with his South West Face expedition, the eyes of the world upon him, this gives an inkling of what it must have felt like. Maybe I delude myself so as to live out a youthful fantasy. However, just as nowadays we can all be front-line reporters, so we can all be expedition leaders if we care to throw ourselves upon the mercy of the social media communities. And I must say, I've found them as friendly and supportive a bunch as one could hope to meet.
My Twitter username: @proudride
Jennifer's Twitter username: @carpediemgarden
Milestones Ride Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Milestones-Ride-2011/164750010251049
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16609214@N05/ in batches at intervals, when we have a spell at a wireless hotspot. Uploading photos might necessitate multiple coffees ;-). They will appear in the main photostream in reverse chronological order (newest first) and will also be organised into the collection folder on the right of the screen called 'France', within a set called 'Milestones Ride'.

Micro-packing

I've spent many hours today 'micro-packing': organising the physically small but critical items without which a whole category of luggage can become useless ballast. For example, stove, fuel and pans are useless unless you have a source of fire, and this in itself useless unless kept dry or otherwise reliably functioning. It all requires a certain fussiness which mercifully abates as soon as one pedals away. Though I rarely avoid at least one urgent bit of shopping at the start of a ride for some small item that in spite of everything I've omitted.
Today's micro-packing was of photographic equipment. If gear-talk makes you glaze over, then read no further, and I promise to raise my eyes from the hardware in my next post. But for now please let me indulge my preoccupation with the tools of photography.
I make a rule that everything will be carried round my waist, this year for the first time in a Kata beltpack. A rucksack is out of the question for prolonged cycling, especially in hot weather, and I've never been happy to subject camera gear to the vibrations and jolting of bags attached to the bike. So, for security and accessibility, I will literally be joined at the waist to this cargo for a month: on the bike, round cafes and shops, in the loo, even hanging it from shower hooks and partitions. It mustn't be too heavy or bulky. Yet I want SLR picture quality, and to cover the most useful focal lengths. I also want some redundancy in case of equipment failure.Two camera bodies provide this, can reduce lens swapping, and allow me to lend a camera and lens to Jenni when she occasionally feels the photographic spirit stir. I've upgraded my cameras, so more weight there, leaving little over for an arsenal of lenses. Here's this year's solution with approximate weights:

• 1 x full frame body (900g)
• 1 x crop sensor body (1.6 x focal length multiplier) (800g)
• 1 x 24mm-105mm zoom (becomes 38mm -168mm equivalent on crop sensor) (700g)
• 1 x 35mm f2 prime lens (becomes 56mm equivalent on crop sensor) (200g)

This would allow either body AND either lens to fail without creating a gross imbalance: there would always be something close to a standard lens. However if, as I hope, everything remains in order, the range is from 24mm to 168mm equivalent. Both lenses manage 1:4 reproduction at closest focus, which gives passable close-up ability on the crop frame body. What I'll probably do is have the 24-104 on the crop frame body when on the road, as I find less use for really wide angle there, but often want to exclude foreground detail or compress perspective. At other times, it will migrate to the full-frame body, because in general photography I love the control over composition and the drama of a wide angle. The 35mm will act as a body cap most of the time (and not be much heavier!), but makes a useful reserve lens, as well as having its own virtues of being fast (two extra stops) and unobtrusive.
Having chosen the core of the system, it remained to ensure batteries, cards, leads, card reader, lens caps and so on were all present and correct. I have still to finalise file storage, given we're away for a month. I'm taking my laptop, but require a second storage device, unless I buy lots more cards and set them aside once full.

Welcome!

Thank you for coming to view my blog. Though I'm familiar enough with presenting myself online in various modes - email, Flickr, virtual learning environments in teaching, and most recently Twitter, this is my first venture into a proper blogger's blog. Maybe it's a step too far in terms of time management. Then again, it's high time!
I don't know exactly where this blog is going. Given my untidily diverse interests, it could swerve off in any direction. But, commencer, c'est tout! There might be some pauses, but maybe you'll be kind enough to revisit this narrative over the coming days. I hope I'll manage at least outline updates on the cycle journey my wife Jenni and I are undertaking from next Tuesday - what we've dubbed the 'Milestones Ride' - crossing France from the Atlantic to Italy. For more details, see  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Milestones-Ride-2011/164750010251049