With the first bookings completed I shifted my attention to my mobile communication. I will be on the road for around seven weeks and hope to update this site from the road. This means two areas for me: First I want to be able to be contacted by my parents, sister and friends and be able to contact them. Second I need internet access while I'm on the road, preferably directly from my laptop computer to be able to upload new pictures and pages. One option is to try to use hotel and public phones for normal phone calls. I could also try to upload new pages from some of the hotels. I quickly abandoned this idea, in particular as I will probably stay in a lot of B&B accommodation, which typically won't have a telephone connection in the room. Not to mention the problems with getting the connection to work.

Instead I decided to go with the mobile phone option. I went to Carphone Warehouse and bought a mobile phone. After comparing a few options I opted for the Ericsson T68. Compared to the Nokia 6310 it is much smaller, which was one of the most important decision criteria for me. The two key features for me are GPRS for internet access and Bluetooth for wireless connectivity. In particular a wireless headset was something I looked for to be able to use the phone while driving (promotional picture from Ericsson on the left). I also ordered a TDK Bluetooth PC Card for the connection to my laptop. Now I only hope to get all of this working as I need it to. You'll be able to read this on another page, probably in connection with the report from my "trial run" I'm planning for late April...

With the wheels set in motion for my mobile connectivity it was time to continue with planning the actual tour and make a few more bookings for hotels and ferries...