Friday 12 November 2010

The trials and tribulations of route planning

Now, I've been planning this Adventure for more than two years. I've planned a solo route that became a team route and another route for the future, when I'm more experienced and feeling brave. (Plenty of time on my hands, ahem.) So, when I got the Envelope I'd been hoping for, I thought my plans would swing into action smoothly and my Route would be winging it's way through the ether to Roger and a vetter in just a few days, to avoid the rush.
Sitting in front of my 'puter with my Route on Memory Map, I decided I should do a bit of tweaking. I don’t want to start at Mallaig now without David. I’ve done this boat trip on my own before and wanted to start from here with my trusty side kick (I’m a softy, be gentle with me) plus I’d been less than impressed when we’d dropped into The Tomdoun last year to meet up with a few Challengers, so another good reason to adjust the start of my walk.
I also decided that the route towards the end would need some alterations to avoid a Big Hill without my trusty side kick to, er, ‘encourage’ me.
Doing these alterations, however, has led to a hiccup. I really wanted to plan in a day off. I really wanted to start with a few shorter days rather than three long ones and avoiding the Big Hill later on meant a long day after my hoped for rest day, which seems to defeat the object. It seems to be a little tricky to fulfil all my wishes, I’d never get a job as Santa.
I should be in a circus, all the juggling I’m doing.
My maths might improve with all the practice.
Might have to just bite the bullet.
I’ll give it some (more) thought…

6 comments:

Alan Sloman said...

As a "first-timer" you have a month more to make changes to your route than I have. That undoubtedly means you will continue to change your route right up until the date you have to send it in to Uncle Roger...

Happy planning!

And yes - the Tomdoun was a bit dismal - well at least, that is what I hoped you meant...

Louise said...

I get the feeling I may be making one tweek too many. And yes Alan, I meant the Tomdoun, not the company. Honest...

Laura said...

Tweaking (or tweeking) is very time consuming - I know - I've started already and I haven't even got a route yet..........

(best ever word for this comment - ovenmate!)

Louise said...

(Oh crumbs, how did that slip by? Mother would be ashamed of me. I was very stressed yesterday.)

JB said...

Take a leaf out of my book from 2000. Replace your original route with a completely different one, starting from a different start point and having absolutely nothign in common with the original one except the finish point ...

Louise said...

I did try that, when I eventually thought I'd tweaked too far, but I've gone back to the original plan and just altered the start and missed out the big hill towards the end. I'm happy now. I think...