Beware - random thoughts

I've been turning over a few ideas for how to make the best use of my 'temporary visa'. I'll be mulling things over in the next few days before making a decision about where to go, what to do, and what to do it on. Prepare for a lot of unco-ordinated nonsense on this blog, therefore.

It seems crazy, having just ridden to work through some heavy drizzle (interspersed with periods of rain, with occasional showers) on a day which is more like late October than the beginning of August, but I am quite inclined to the UK coast option. Principal reasons are:

• I've never done it, and it would take me to parts of the UK that I have never seen
• I would be closer to home in case of emergency (not necessarily true in the case of the North of Scotland, but it would feel that way)
• If anything went belly-up (major breakdown, illness, just got fed up with it), it would be easier to abort
• No pesky forrin currency issues
• No need for travel insurance - I am already covered by RAC for what I need.

Reasons against are:

• Weather - no comment
• The tent I will be using is untested, but was the cheapest we could find when the grandchildren wanted to camp out (never happened, so it's never been out of its bag) and so is a kind of 'emergency use only' device, and while you can get away with minimal tentage in France, the UK in September may be risking it a bit
• I think the tent was under £20 - it may be in the category of 'festival', i.e. use once and throw in a hedge
• That's it, really.

I've done a fair bit of camping and have a lot of the gear, although the lightweight stuff is quite elderly by now as recent camping trips have been by car, where comfort has a premium over lightweightness.

I'll have a similar think about the France option, and post about that in due course.