We’ve now tested our equipment by going for an over night camp at Haggs Bank, here follows a list of bags and equipment we took.

Bags

Bags

Frame Bag

Holds all my spares, and some cafe locks.

Frame Bag

Maybe belt and braces with the tubeless tires, tubeless tire repair tool, spare inner tube, and puncture patches, a lot will need to go wrong to need all 4, but better safe than sorry.

On North Cape 4000, most of these tools will fit inside a small water bottle which I’ll put in my 3rd bottle cage, freeing up this bag for snacks, a warm hat, and important documents.

Top Tube Bag

Electrical power and human power.

Top tube bag and contents

Having some high energy food close at hand to refuel is always important, and the power bank will be used with a second longer cable to charge my GPS on the move.

Must remember to put the empty snack packets in a different place, my cable became covered in the remnants of peanut butter from the snacks.

Alpkit Stem Cell

Set bag

A hat and a towel.

The hat was surprisingly important for my comfort, and it was a last minute addition too. I’ll need to remember one for the big ride.

For North Cape 4000, I’ll have 2 of these and the 3l versions and they’ll likely be used mainly for snacks.

Cheap Handlebar bag

This held my "I really don’t want this to get wet" stuff.

Handle bar bag and contents

The sleeping bag is 2 season and wasn’t quite warm enough, however the temperature did go down to 3-5 degrees, which is colder than the climate in North Cape during the summer when we will be there. I did end up wearing all the clothes I had with me to stay warm over night, and despite feeling like I hardly slept, my smart watch informs me I slept quite well, so I’m not sure what to make of that.

The Carradice

This may not be the typical modern bike packing saddle bag, but it has some style to it, and is surprisingly spacious. This was where I put my sleeping solution.

Carradice Saddle Bag and Contents

For this small trip we took a jet boil to make hot food at camp, this is something we are will not be taking with us on North Cape, it took too much room, too much weight, and too much time to use. But was handy for a single night out. We’ll be calling at shops and take-away for food.

The roll mat is massive, and not the one I intend to take on North Cape, but I don’t yet have one I do intend to take.

The hammock was the main reason for the trip to Haggs Bank, a site which advertised as suitable for hammocks. I’ve never really got on with tents, I’m about 183cm (6ft), not particularly tall but there never seems enough space for me, and I’m not sure if I have particularly copious nocturnal emission but they always end up smelling bad.

On me

The Hammock

Hammock

This was so much fun and so comfy, and now that I’ve set it up once I’m sure it’ll be super fast to set up in future. The tarp provided all the space I needed to hang out in the evening, despite the rain.

It did get a little cold when I rolled off the sleeping mat, but that’s no different to rolling off the mat in a tent.

Overall I would 100% recommend, however it is a little hard to find campsites which advertise as suitable for hammocks. Wild camping should be less of an issue though, there are plenty of trees around.

Other lessons learned

Double check everything before leaving the campsite, as mentioned I forgot my tarp suspension at the campsite.

Buy a chain for my sun glasses, I stood on my glasses when pumping up the tires before setting off. If they were on a chain I wouldn’t put them on the ground, and it would look super cool 😎.

Pay more attention when tired, I ended up rear ending Clara at a junction. My nice almost new front tire met with Clara’s cassette with some force putting a tear in the sidewall. I now need a new tire. There was a silver lining though, I learned how to use the tubeless tire repair tool and the patched the hole was good enough to ride the remaining 3 miles home.