Part Two, Tentative London northbound and Scotland Bike Tour.

[Danneaux]

I will bring a Steripen in case I need to treat water.

I sure have liked mine in field practice. I use Eneloops to power it and charge them from my SON dyno/Cycle2Charge.

For the butane I was going to buy...

For the Eastern Europe part of my tour, I carried an alcohol stove as a backup to my preferred iso-butane, figuring I could power it with homebrew rakia (moonshine) found in "secret stores" along the way. Alcohol content can hit 80% in a strong homebrew. Didn't need to use it, as I found tall and short iso-butane cartridges in a Veliko Tarnovo BG hiking store that more than lasted my four-months on the road. Alky stoves can be near weightless and are small to toss in the corner of pannier, HB bag, or rear jersey pocket.

I primarily carry a self-made "penny-stove" made from a Heineken can. With all accessories (stove, penny, pot/cup with handle, lid, stand, windscreen, lighter, SA knife, P-38 can opener, pot lifter, 2 folding sporks, fuel bottle, carry sack), it weighs 460g, about 16oz. I considered it cheap insurance and have used it as my only stove/cook kit for fast, long (300k-400k) day rides and overnighters.

Best of luck and all good wishes, George, and what sounds like a wonderful tour!

Best, Dan.

[mickeg]

There’s a chain store called Halfords. It’s an odd combination (to me, at least) of auto parts and bicycles. Their website shows the 4 pack of Campingaz cans. Maybe there’s one near your hostel.

The one I mentioned was 4 miles from the hostel I stay at in London was a Halfords, website says available one hour after purchase at that store.

Thanks.

[mickeg]

I will bring a Steripen in case I need to treat water.

I sure have liked mine in field practice. I use Eneloops to power it and charge them from my SON dyno/Cycle2Charge.

For the butane I was going to buy...

For the Eastern Europe part of my tour, I carried an alcohol stove as a backup to my preferred iso-butane, figuring I could power it with homebrew rakia (moonshine) found in "secret stores" along the way. Alcohol content can hit 80% in a strong homebrew. Didn't need to use it, as I found tall and short iso-butane cartridges in a Veliko Tarnovo BG hiking store that more than lasted my four-months on the road. Alky stoves can be near weightless and are small to toss in the corner of pannier, HB bag, or rear jersey pocket.

I primarily carry a self-made "penny-stove" made from a Heineken can. With all accessories (stove, penny, pot/cup with handle, lid, stand, windscreen, lighter, SA knife, P-38 can opener, pot lifter, 2 folding sporks, fuel bottle, carry sack), it weighs 460g, about 16oz. I considered it cheap insurance and have used it as my only stove/cook kit for fast, long (300k-400k) day rides and overnighters.

Best of luck and all good wishes, George, and what sounds like a wonderful tour!

Best, Dan.

The Steripen pen I have was deeply discounted by REI about a decade ago.  Has an internal Lithium Ion battery.  Once or twice a year, I top up the battery.  Tested it a couple days ago, still works.

I have actually never used the Steripen, I bought it as a lightweight backup plan if I had to Wild Camp in Iceland a decade ago.  I am well aware of the UV treatment for water systems, but the engineer in me has greater trust in a filter that blocks out the microbes that are bigger than viruses.  I did not mention it before but I have yet another backup plan, theoretically two drops of chlorine bleach per liter should disinfect it, but I have used four drops to make sure if I was unsure.  I bring a one ounce bottle.  I was hesitant to mention, as I think that chlorine bleach is prohibited from airline transport, but I bring it anyway.  There has been a couple times where I used both the filter and chlorine treatment.
https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-09/documents/emergency_disinfection_of_drinking_water_sept2017.pdf

That said, I am certainly willing to try a Steripen as a tiny little contingency.  Would probably also use the chlorine to make sure.

I think you already know that I use a Sawyer water filter for backpacking and canoeing, I put together a gravity system, takes minimal effort to filter two liters, attached photo.  For those trips, I filter two liters per day, don't bother filtering water that I instead will boil (coffee, most suppers, etc.).  But that is way tooooo much stuff to carry on a bike tour as a "just in case" contingency.  Thus the Steripen and chlorine it is.

***

I have never had any interest in alcohol stoves, I have seen people use them in campsites.  But I prefer stoves, of which I have too many to count on two hands.  But thanks for the reminder of this option.  I am confident that I have done enough research on where to find fuel.

The stove I am bringing cost less than $20 USD, works with both the mountaineering type canisters and the tall skinny ones.  Thus by being usable by both common types of canisters, my chances of always finding butane is improved.  Am bringing a cheaper stove because the UK airport security people on their website say they will confiscate any stoves that have actually been used, so if my stove does not make it back home, I am not out too much.  Stove in photo attached, fuel canister is off to the right, this was on my last bike tour in Canada.

I brought a liquid fuel stove to Iceland and it was a major hassle to make it clean enough so that it would pass inspection by security, so I will never fly with a liquid fuel stove again.  In Iceland I brought a butane stove as a backup and found so many half empty butane canisters left by campers before the left the country that I mostly used butane instead of liquid fuel.
https://cascadedesigns.com/blogs/msr-trip-reports/flying-with-a-camping-stove

Third attached photo is the liquid fuel stove I brought to Iceland, now it only travels by car or by bicycle, too much hassle to clean the fuel tank, pump, etc. to pass airport security.  I had to keep moving the two pots back and forth for the single stove meal.

[Andyb1]

This may surprise some, but the UK public water system provides drinkable water throughout the British Isles.
Things are perhaps different in America?

[mickeg]

This may surprise some, but the UK public water system provides drinkable water throughout the British Isles.
Things are perhaps different in America?

So, even when you are wild camping you can find a convenient water tap?  That is wonderful.

[Matt2matt2002]

This may surprise some, but the UK public water system provides drinkable water throughout the British Isles.
Things are perhaps different in America?

So, even when you are wild camping you can find a convenient water tap?  That is wonderful.

I took my Steripen on my 2 month tour along the Pamir Highway through Tajikistan and Kyrgystan, 10 years ago.
I think I used it once.
It was on  my, 'not to take again' list when i returned home.

Re taps when wild camping? Yes, we don't have many/any in forests here. However most graveyards have a free water supply/tap. I've often used them to top up a water bottle. No body/one objected.

[mickeg]

...
I took my Steripen on my 2 month tour along the Pamir Highway through Tajikistan and Kyrgystan, 10 years ago.
I think I used it once.
It was on  my, 'not to take again' list when i returned home.

Re taps when wild camping? Yes, we don't have many/any in forests here. However most graveyards have a free water supply/tap. I've often used them to top up a water bottle. No body/one objected.

UV treatment for drinking water is best done on the smallest microbes.  The theory is that it might not kill the microbes, but it makes the unable to reproduce.  The larger microbes, UV is less effective.  On the other hand, filters are most effective on the larger microbes, but often are incapable of filtering out the smallest ones.

For example, two summers ago I backpacked for a week on Isle Royale, that is the largest island on Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes along the USA and Canada border.  The entire island is a national park.  There are thousands of moose on that island and they carry a parasite that you really do not want to get, thus you need to filter or boil the water.  The National Park Service specifically does not recommend chemical or UV water treatment.

But if you are in a less developed country where there may be poor water treatment for human wastes or domestic animal wastes, you could have viruses in the water and those are much less likely to be reliably filtered out due to the small size if you only filtered the water.  If I was going to go to a country like that, I would be more inclined to use chemical and/or UV water treatment due to the possible presence of viruses, even if the water was from a community water supply.

But generally you do not need to worry about viruses in places where you have minimal human population without domestic animals.  There, filtering by itself is usually adequate.  Thus, my canoe trips or backpacking trips in the wilderness, I use either filtering or boiling, but not bother with chemical or UV treatment.

[Andyb1]

This may surprise some, but the UK public water system provides drinkable water throughout the British Isles.
Things are perhaps different in America?

So, even when you are wild camping you can find a convenient water tap?  That is wonderful.

You will be able to pick up enough water along the way for a night’s wild camping, assuming you have containers for a few litres.  Just ask at a house or a garage or shop - or as Matt has said, a church / graveyard will have a tap for the flowers - all water supplies are drinkable.  Scotland is not as sparsely populated as Iceland.

Just trying to help you minimise your gear.

BTW, just had £750 back from my insurers to cover (most of) my costs due to cancelled flights returning from Sri Lanka last month.  Hence my suggestion upthread of having abandonment in your travel insurance.

[mickeg]

...
BTW, just had £750 back from my insurers to cover (most of) my costs due to cancelled flights returning from Sri Lanka last month.  Hence my suggestion upthread of having abandonment in your travel insurance.

Great, that sounds like you at least got some of your expenses back, but I suspect not all.

[martinf]

You will be able to pick up enough water along the way for a night’s wild camping, assuming you have containers for a few litres.  Just ask at a house or a garage or shop - or as Matt has said, a church / graveyard will have a tap for the flowers - all water supplies are drinkable.  Scotland is not as sparsely populated as Iceland.

In my experience, Andy's advice is good for cycling in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, plus most places in France (where I now live), Spain and Portugal.

I carry a 4 litre Ortleib roll-up water bag (empty weight about 130 g) when I reckon I might need to wild camp and make sure I fill it and my three water bottles (total 4 litres) from a water tap (house, garage, etc) before I start looking for a site. I used to carry chemical tablets to sterilise water, but only used them once, in 1977 when I arrived late in the evening on the ferry from Ireland to Wales and wild camped at the first grassy place I found and used water from a stream. Nowadays I would book a hotel or hostel close to the ferry terminal to avoid riding at night.

It isn't the same if hiking in mountains. One of my brothers was careless when hiking in the Spanish Pyrenees and caught a parasitic disease caused by Giardia. He had to be repatriated to England by air ambulance. My other brother hiked the Pyrenees trail from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, I think it was in the 1980's. He had to carry several days worth of food as only a few of the villages still had food shops. It is worse now as the locals go to the supermarkets in the nearest town. But it was easier to find safe drinking water in the small villages, isolated houses or refuges near the trail and he used chemical tablets when he wasn't sure.

[mickeg]

I do not have any firm plans to wild camp anywhere, it is just a contingency.  And I will have three liters of capacity on my bike.  First attached photo.

My bike tour two years ago, I sort of wild camped, but not that wild and only once.  After a couple campgrounds on the map that were no longer there, and two motels that had closed, I pulled into a campground after 9pm, well after dark, the office was closed.  The sign said reservations must be made first and I of course did not have a reservation.  Set up my tent in a storage area, slept, woke up and started riding before it got light out.  Did not even look for water and did not even make coffee first.  If I have to, I can do that again.

I am really not too concerned about water. 

I have one campsite on my map that only existed on Google Maps.  If I go to Loch Ness, the better road for cycling is on the south side, that has few actual campgrounds.  So, I was planning on camping there if I go down that road.  Google maps listed a campsite.  Street view showed a path, and nothing else at the road.  On google maps I could click and pull up a photo of the shore.  So, I suspect this is a common wild camping spot.
www.google.com/maps/search/campsites/@57.3470003,-4.3800134,14.88z/

Second attached is a screen print from my computer showing the path when I had street view enabled in Google Maps.  I do not see any shortage of water at the loch.  Google told me that Loch Ness is fresh water, water surface well above sea level.

I have bladders I can use, but I am not going to bother bringing them.  I use them for backpacking with my filter gravity system.  Typically when backpacking, when I make camp, I fill up a 2 liter bladder (dirty one) and start filtering into my second (clean) bladder.  While gravity does the filtering for me, I set up my tent.  Then I refill my water bottles from the filtered water bladder.  Fill the unfiltered bladder again, that is my water supply for water that will be boiled, not filtered while I am at that site.  When I pack up in the morning, I usually discard about one liter when I pack.

Two years ago, I did a backpacking segment where I needed eight days of food.  Third photo.  Bad lighting, sorry, the sun was shining through tree leaves and the food was on a picnic table in a campground.  I had just finished six days of backpacking and was resupplying for eight more days.  Point being, I have carried a lot of food before, but I have pretty much mapped out a plan for where to buy food on this trip.

But bike touring, I carry heavier stuff, like canned soups, etc.  Not all dehydrated stuff like in the photo of my backpacking food.

Fourth photo, I think I had not been to a grocery store for five days at the time of the photo, I still had a couple more weeks of food on the bike.  That was on Iceland. 

But I do not need to do that on this trip.  I marked on my map a couple of grocery stores with reminder to myself that when I leave those stores, I need to have five days of food, that includes contingency for a windy day.

I have five more weeks to finish my planning and packing, I am well ahead of schedule. 

Nobody mentioned needing an ETA.  I got that done weeks ago.
https://www.gov.uk/eta

I will be bringing some food from home, but I reviewed the criteria on what I can't bring into the UK, so it will all be legal, no meat or dairy, etc.

I think all I need to worry about now is jet fuel shortage in mid July for my flight home.

[JohnR]

If I go to Loch Ness, the better road for cycling is on the south side, that has few actual campgrounds.  So, I was planning on camping there if I go down that road. 

Be forewarned that there's a bit of a climb near the south end of Loch Ness on the southern route option. Around 10%, perhaps more, for about a mile then more, but easier climbing, for several more miles. I find it's useful to look at the ground levels on Google Earth. I import gpx files into Google Earth and look at the profiles. I think GE uses more detailed terrain models than most alternatives.

[mickeg]

If I go to Loch Ness, the better road for cycling is on the south side, that has few actual campgrounds.  So, I was planning on camping there if I go down that road. 

Be forewarned that there's a bit of a climb near the south end of Loch Ness on the southern route option. Around 10%, perhaps more, for about a mile then more, but easier climbing, for several more miles. I find it's useful to look at the ground levels on Google Earth. I import gpx files into Google Earth and look at the profiles. I think GE uses more detailed terrain models than most alternatives.

Thanks.  At 10 percent, I would likely walk the bike up it.  Been there, done that.

I have two different options, one would go along that route, the other option skips Loch Ness and instead goes through Torridon.  It depends on how much time I have available to get to Inverness, as that is in the late part of my trip, thus I will be planning how to make sure I get to my end point on time for my flight.