As I mentioned in a previous post I decided to use a familiar, comfortable coat…… the problem was it was black, not a safe colour for walking on the road. During the training walk from Bristol to Wellington I was also trialling a back pack that I didn’t usually use. The back pack had a waterproof cover which was orange so that helped with visibility from behind but I realised that as you walk towards the oncoming traffic on their side of the road that wasn’t enough for the JOGLE. I would need be visible from all directions.
The back pack in question had a frame which is good for air circulation on the back plus spreading the weight but it took up a lot of space in the small camper so this gave me more searching and testing to do before the big adventure.
Also I realised that as I had support I didn’t need to carry as much as I did on the first long training walk. I had contact with the support vehicle by mobile phone, (subject to signal) If I needed a change of shoes I could summon my support, so no need to carry extra shoes!
The problem with backpacks, particularly in the rain, is that to get to anything in it you have to take it off, usually put it on the wet ground, remove the waterproof cover unfasten the pack, rummage and then put everything back, fasten, put the cover on, and put it on your back! A bit of a faff in the rain!
At this stage in the training I had 2 old IPhones on different networks and I was using one of them to listen to audio books. The problem was that my phone batteries ran out very quickly so I needed to carry battery packs to charge the phones so that Royston could track me on Find Friends ( subject to signal) The battery pack had to be plugged into my phone by a charging lead. Very awkward especially in the rain. Hence more trips into the backpack!
Something else to improve before the adventure, more research to do.
Obviously we needed to charge lots of devices in the camper, phones, battery packs, etc etc …….more modifications….. The camper has a solar panel so we needed to install multi charging sockets. We also needed to get usb charging leads for other everyday items, electric toothbrush, camera battery charger, razor etc. This would mean that we didn’t have to rely on campsites with electric hook ups. This would mean we could be off grid and not need to drive lots of extra miles to campsites.
You may be starting to see how important the training walks were…….
More soon!
June’s JOGLE 