Bank cash machine cards
Finicky things, cash machine cards.

It's a good idea to have a couple of cards from different banks. Only one needs to have the cash in it, so long as you can transfer funds quickly by internet-banking, into the second.

This way, if the first card dies or disappears, you can still draw funds using the second card, following a trip to the local internet cafe, and a wait of a day or so for the transfer to be completed.

You could always leave a small amount in the second card, so remove the need to wait for the fund's transfer.

Take cassettes of UK (home) radio programmes
Forget pens and fags. Take cassettes of home radio programmes with you.

You can listen to them first on your travels (better than CD's all day long) and better than some of the local radio you'll come across.

When you've finished listening to them, there's plenty of people who will be interested in them.

People of all ages in other countries are interested in/curious about either different music or other countrys' radio stations. All the cassettes I've given away so far, be they to relatively poor locals in villages, to professional people in cities, or to fellow travellers, are all accepted with gratitude and interest.

Off-road trailers
If you are thinking of taking a trailer on a long journey on damaged/unprepared roads, then practically all trailers available in the UK will not be suitable for the purpose. I include here even those you see in farmers fields, from the major manufacturers, which look ancient and yet are still in one piece.

Load alone does not break a trailer. Metal fatigue is your main enemy.

I am in regular contact with the Wolston Garage, and where necessary, they are providing a great backup service. All the findings of this trip are being fed back into their design, to update their existing offroad trailer design.

The litmus test - yes, I'd have another trailer from them!

(Click here to return the Week 28-31 diary.)