so today is going to be a busy day i'm not going to be going out and riding because i've
got builders in doing my garage conversion so i thought today would be a good opportunity to do
a debrief on the bike packing trip we recently did to scotland and go through some of the stuff that
we did that i wasn't able to explain at the time we're also driving back to london this evening so
i need to pack and get all my bikes clean
so bear with me i'm competing with the drilling sound outside on wednesday
we bike packed to scotland and it was my first time wild camping here's a rundown of some cool
things that i discovered for the first time that you also might find interesting if you're
thinking about bike packing number one disclaimer none of this is sponsored stuff actually most
of it i borrowed from emily and jimmy bought this first one so first thing was the garmin
inreach mini this is a small device that you will have seen in the first episode of the bike packing
trip which is basically a satellite tracking device it's not cheap and you also have to pay
a subscription for it to work but essentially when you're in a place which has no phone signal like
we were going kill the forest as soon as we got past waffle meister our phones were completely
dead and it's unlikely there's going to be an issue if you're going somewhere even more remote
or you just want the ability to send messages to people back at home and this proved to be
a pretty good way to do it jimmy had it set up so it was recording our location at set
intervals we provided our loved ones at home a link and they could see our progress on a map
i think you can specify how long the intervals in between are so if you're going faster or slower
you might want to adjust those i'll put an example of what they can see up on the screen
here and then when we reached our bivvying spot in the woods in the evening he was able to send a
message to emily to let her know that we were okay as we mentioned in the episode there's also an sos
button so if something had happened to jimmy and i didn't know how to use it it was worth
importing that out to me just in case something had happened you have to hold it down and then
uh yeah emergency services come running i think there's beefier versions with longer batteries
but this was the garmin inreach mini so a really cool thing which i'll definitely consider when i'm
going to slightly more remote countries it's the sort of thing we should have had with us
in australia vietnam and the deserts in the usa onto the camping gear this is the sleeping bag i
was using it was 700 grams which is pretty light for a sleeping bag made by best team basically
with all outdoorsy camping stuff the more you pay the lighter it gets so that's essentially
what you're paying for they all come in different sizes so if you did want to reduce your weight
and you are a smaller person you could go for a smaller size sleeping bag this one's average
for an adult and it's probably more than we needed for the trip in fact it was definitely
more than we needed because i got way too hot which made the next bit of kit really useful
is elaine the name of the model of the bag i'll put a link to all of this stuff down
below basically this is a fancy bivvy bag with a tent section with mesh on it that goes around your
head and elevates the bivvy from your head so it's a kind of semi-ten bivvy a normal baby bag
would just be a bag that you kind of zip yourself up and then end up suffocating so having a bit of
extra comfort for not too much extra weight it was really quick to set up and when i got rid of
the sleeping bag the extra mesh ventilation stuff meant i could actually get a good night's sleep
and keep all the midges and stuff out which is a huge problem in scotland this actually packs
down really flat so i had this at the bottom of my tail fin aero pack and then the other stuff
just on top the aero pack was pretty much full when i put this the sleeping bag and the next item
which is a sleeping mat these three things are pretty much the staple items for normal bivvying
when you're bike packing this is the smallest item of them all hiking tube 480 grams it has
the main section which you just blow up with this valve and then you've got a pillow section
again to blow up with that valve means your head is elevated slightly much more comfortable
this main section i managed to blow up with five full exhalations i guess how long that
takes depends on your lung capacity jimmy was saying even if you go with a very very light one
of these it makes all the difference because all the little stones and stuff on the floor
even if you've got a good spot to bivvy in gonna be a bit hard there'll be imperfections a small
one of these irons all of that out and you end up having a much better sleep it literally took
us 10 minutes to set all of this stuff up when the light was dwindling at the end of the day
and that was us tired and it was the first time for me doing it so that goes to show how easy it
is and uh it's definitely not worth compromising with emergency babies and stuff like that just
get the good stuff have as good of a night's sleep as you can and you're gonna have a much nicer time
oh yeah there's some of the gear in a nutshell having now experienced sleeping in a bivvy bag
it only gives me more respect for the guys that do that during races and stuff like what lachlan
morton did during the tour i guess things do get easier as you get used to it but yeah i definitely
need some practice because it was pretty savage your fringe looks really cool i did that thing
again where i did one bit too short so you have to do everything and then it just kept getting
shorter and shorter and i was like oh my god i'm literally gonna end up with no fringe at this
point i like daisy with a short fringe i think you look cool but i'm scared it's wonky are you
excited to drive home nope oh yeah we keep calling it home it's not home i'm excited to see people
but um i wish it was like two months later you got something in your teeth no i hate some popcorn
so we're on the road and heading back to london me and daisy are both wearing the same thing which is
a bit weird i'm going to flash up some pictures here and update you while i'm in the car on the
garage renovation progress here's a progression of what happened today uh all the slackwall is now
on the walls which is where it's supposed to be the guys i've got to do it work so hard
all day today trying to get as far as they could with it before we had to shoot down to london so
impressive impressive work really does look good as far as i'm concerned so the slat wall all
around the edge is the sort of stuff that they have in shops and you can basically get loads
of fittings that slot into it so brackets for shelving or hooks or anything you need
to mount your tools up or if i want to put bikes up on that kind of thing flooring that is like
super thick gym flooring and then i'm going to have some storage units and work benches
around the edge so i can work on guitar stuff and bike stuff with a couple of work stands
in the middle of the room lighting in the room is now fully done as well those are 5
500 or 5 600 kelvin tube lights or buttons and i'm going to be able to switch them off independently
so if i'm just working in one area i can have that illuminated or if i'm filming stuff and i
want certain bits of the room lit up i can do that too so i will keep you updated as things
go on it's been a long time in the making uh but the guys have done a really good job so
excited to show you the finished article in a few weeks time did you say make the room litter
is that what you said i don't know but that's not a word did i say that i'm pretty sure
it is tempting