New Plan; 2 days to go.

I decided to postpone the trip by a month so as to be less rushed between the end of term and setting off. My new date of departure is Thursday 21st July - in days time!!

So I'll be setting off from Prince's Gate, Halifax, at 9:00 am, with 120km to do before reaching my ferry in Hull.

Since I have more time than originally planned, I've decided to change my route, and will now be following the Rhine almost all of the way from Rotterdam to Heidelberg (though the last few km are actually on the Neckar, not the Rhine). There's a nice looking EU-funded bike route all of the way along it, so this way should be safer and more enjoyable than my original plan. Also, it's a good 150km further!!

My plan is to get to an internet cafe most days of the journey and update this blog with my progress. I've got a new camera so there should be some pretty pictures to accompany my travelog.

Feeling a little nervous with so little time to go before setting off but I'm always game for a challenge! Just hoping for that the Easterly wind forecast for Thursday isn't too strong. Just a few more preparations to do and maybe a bit of carb-loading and then I'm on my way. Will aim to put up a picture of my bike when I'm fully loaded (I'm aiming to take <7kg of stuff).

Wish me luck!

ps. keep donating, it's not too late. http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/jameshutton

also if you share the link to this blog then you are guaranteed a postcard :¬]

The Prep

So I've been doing a bit of preparation over the past month.

1. Route plan.

I've been figuring out my route. Turns out there's some mountains I didn't know about on the way, so I will be practising pretty hard on the Pennines in the Easter holidays. I've mainly mapped out my route. It's approximately this:

Day 1 - Halifax to Hull. Overnight ferry Hull to Rotterdam

Day 2 - Rotterdam to Eindhoven

Day 3 - Eindhoven to Köln

Day 4 - Köln to somewhere in the mountains.

Day 5 - Somewhere in the mountains to Wiesbaden

Day 6 - Wiesbaden to Heidelberg.

For anyone who feels I am cheating by taking the ferry instead of using a pedalo or something, I will be doing a 2nd pretty large trip from Bavaria to Berlin in August, so don't worry, I'll be clocking up enough miles over the summer for even the most sadistic naysayers.

2. Equipment.

I've got aero-bars and clip-in pedals for my bike, so I've been managing to clock up some pretty high speeds. I've also aquired a rather fetching blue all-in-one cycling 'bib', which has about as much crotch padding as my bike seat itself does. Which is good news.

I've been thinking about what to take and basically i'm going to travel extremely light. Going to try and borrow a lightweight 1 man tent from somewhere. Going to only take 2 or 3 days worth of clothes and hand-wash them every day or two.

3. Training.

Carrying on with rowing at the moment (http://boatclub.hertford.ox.ac.uk/). Big week of racing is in a week and a half. Doing 4 to 6 intensive sessions a week and have been doing some bike rides round the Oxford ring-road as well.

I'll sort out some sponsorship pages, make this page look perty and find some easy way to put up route maps in the next few weeks.

UPDATE: I've set up a donations page at http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/jameshutton. This website doesn't take the 5% commission that justgiving.com does, so that's pretty good. PLEASE fill in Gift Aid details if you're elligible, it can add 28p to every pound you donate.

James

The Plan

This summer, I will make the 1,000 km journey from Halifax to Heidelberg, to attend a language course in preparation for my year abroad (part of my degree).

I am going to bike there.

I want to raise at least £1000 pounds for Oxfam and the Schistosomiasis Control Iniative.

On this blog, I'll write a bit about the charities, training and preparing for the trip and that sort of thing. Then, once I'm abroad, I'll upload a travelog of the journey and then occasional updates and photos of how my summer in Germany is going.

James

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/schisto/

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/