in message .com,
(' ')
wrote:

I am planning (well trying to plan) a cycling trip from Norwich to
Tywyn (the middle of the Welsh coast) in August. Does anyone have
suggestions as to how I should go about planning a route, any good
maps or any advise in general? I've never done a long distance trip
before so am a bit Clueless. Has anyone ever done a similar trip and
could suggest a good route? Thanks,

Start with a good map that covers the whole journey at small scale - I'm a
fan of Michelin maps for this. Get a rough idea of your route. Then plan
in detail using larger scale maps as needed.

You want to avoid:

* main roads (tiring and stressful)
* major conurbations (very hard to navigate except on main roads)
* (where possible) big climbs
* extremely twisty roads

There will be places where you have to choose one or the other.

Work out how far you can do a day, and don't exceed that. When I was 16 I
rode Edinburgh - Cheltenham, at around 60 miles a day. I wasn't very fit
but was used to cycling regularly (although nothing like that distance).
It all went fine except for one day when I'd planned a 100 mile journey,
and that was too much. The difference between 'OK' and 'too much' is
surprisingly sharp.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.
;; Jim Morrison