Remember it's a Holiday!

It is so easy to get caught up in doing miles for miles sake. If you are not careful you can cycle too far in a day or try and fit too much into the time you have available. If you are not careful it will become a slog and an endurance race and you will end up staring at the tarmac for most of the day and not enjoying yourself! It doesn't matter if you do 10 miles or 100 miles. Mind you there are times when Frank says to me "You will tell me when I'm enjoying myself wont you!"

Don't forget to stop and look behind you!

Some of our best views and photos have been the view in the opposite direction to the way we were traveling. It could be a rainbow or wonderful sky, so remember to stop occasionally and look behind!

Take plenty of memory cards or film!

You can never have enough memory card space or film, fortunately with digital cameras the price of memory cards has fallen quite dramatically so they are relatively cheap.

Carry a Chopstick

Got this tip from a Swiss guy we met touring in Norway, who in fact got it from a Dutch guy.

Carry a chopstick with you, very useful to get your chain back on without getting your hands covered in oil!

Used it a couple of times and it works a treat.

We have also found it useful for cleaning the mud out of your cleats and moving a washing up greeny around in the bottom of a flask to remove the accumulated grolly snot.

I'm sure there are other uses that you could dream up!

Make your gears do the work!

To ease your journey make sure that you use your gears properly, as it puts less strain on your leg muscles and joints. If you have a good range then move up and down them don't just stick in the same gear.

Anticipate changes of gradient and change down at junctions so that you are not struggling in too high a gear.

Try and avoid coming out of the saddle and standing up on the pedals, change down instead. If you are in your lowest gear and you find yourself needing to stand up to get up the hills, look at your gearing range it maybe too high for touring with a loaded bike.

Pump up them tyres!

Keep your tyres pumped up hard, the less rubber you put on the road the easier it will be on the legs. Don't think of the tyres as shock absorbers, if you want to absorb any bumps consider a suspension seat post or a sprung saddle.