When I started planning this trip, the battery on my mobile phone lasted 3 weeks, I could drop it and it even took photos! It was a tiny Nokia.
I decided that I could not carry maps for the entire length of France, so I decided to use maps held on a mobile phone with a big screen.
I have ended up with a Samsung Galaxy Note 4. Mainly because it is the last one in this series to have a replaceable battery. So I bought a spare battery. And a battery charger. Then to charge this a 10Watt battery pack (Anker), and fearing this might not be enough, later a 20Watt battery pack (Anker). However, although this would charge the phone 5-6 times, as opposed to 2-3 for the 10 Watt version, I left it behind on weight grounds, along with the spare battery and charger.
Instead I have opted for a 20Watt solar panel (Anker), which in good sunlight charges the phone in just over an hour.
I have put a 64Gb memory card into the phone (it now has 20 times the memory capacity of this Apple Macbook!), and downloaded a 20Gb file of all the 1:25,000 scale IGN maps of France from Memory Maps. This has all the GR routes and it is how I will navigate.
The phone will run this website, so mintytours.com has been designed to be run from a mobile. I decided to go for a WordPress based website, due to its predominance in the world of websites. It is hosted by Bluehost, one of three recommended by WordPress. It runs on a Highend theme, and I have been helped in putting it together by the delightfully polite southern state americans, who run the WPLive helpdesk in Arizona. The final sticking point has been keeping track on my location, but we are getting there.
I also decided to run:
- A daily diary by myself.
- A daily dogs diary, also posted on Facebook.
- An Audio Diary. Recorded on a Tascam DR05 digital recorder.
- A running map of where I am.
So that was the plan. We will have to see how well it works in practice!
