So the planning for the trip has begun. Patrice and I hope to do it in two parts. First we will don our lycra and cycle through France. We aim to do this in June, July and August. Given that we have three months we may go further. The idea is to chill out and get fit. We may also learn le François en route. Given that Patrice’s language skills are little better than mine this is une possibilte distincte (I made that up).

Then we will return, scrounge off people for a week, check our homes haven’t been sub-let into Vietnamese cannabis factories and start the ‘tour de monde’.

We are leaving the bikes at home for this one.

I’m not sure on the entire itinery yet but the following countries we plan to grace with our presence.

India, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and various countries in south America possibly finishing in Cuba.

We have 12 months to do the round the world trip.

I’ve been jumping on and off e-bay over the past few days. We have most of the kit including 3 tents but the two ‘lightweight’ ones are over 20 years old and well past their best. I figured if it were to be my home for over 90 nights I wanted one that could do the job. I’ve purchased a new two ‘man’ tent for £70. Supposedly it’s worth three times this much. It’s 3kgs in weight so hopefully shouldn’t be to much of a burden between two.

Relatively new to camping I don’t think Patrice is yet aware of the misery caused by an uncomfortable nights sleep. To ensure this is less likely to happen I’ve bought a ¾ length thermarest self inflating mattress. Again it’s light but having purchased one about ten years ago it does make life more bearable.