Fanx Guys!! I shall bear this in mind!
My epic doesn't start till April, at the mo I'm considering many various panniers and 1 man light weight tentings.
My master is to spend the winter getting used to the equipment and education from starting to camp in the garden, odd nights away, odd weekends away and eventually
.... THE TRIP!!
On the one man tent issue - you are better off with a two man tent. One man tents are rather cramped and if you are taking four panniers you might find it difficult to store them inside the tent. A two man tent isn't that much heavier and gives you much more space to play with.
On the panniers front, I've had Alturas,
Halfords' own brand and Carradice. I settled for Carradice as my permanent choice. They are durable and I like their look. I have used four panniers and two panniers and for the UK, I now use two panniers. When touring in Europ, I use four panniers but generally with the same amount of equipment as I'd pack in two. This leaves space for bringing gifts and stuff back with me.
I'd not get too obsessed with planning at this early stage. An overplanned trip leaves little room for surprises. If you are doing odd nights away in the tent in winter, do make sure that you have enough clothing to supplement your sleeping bag's insulation.
Now would be a good time to start getting used to camping out. It's still warm and the day length is still good.
The trip itself is fine. It's just a series of consecutive days rides. I never looked further than the ride to be done on the day.
The only thing I fretted about was getting too and from Thurso/Wick by train on my LEJOG and JOGLE rides but I saved that fretting until the booking opportunity window opened. It was pointless fretting about tickets until I knew that I could or couldn't have them.
Twenty one days is a generous amount of time for the trip though if you are following the meanderings of Sustrans routes and bridle paths, your progress on some days might be less than anticipated.
One final tip for this posting is to remember that you are hauling additional weight on your tour and you need to up your calorie intake. Once or twice I under-ate and the fatigue consequences were unpleasant until I ate my way back out of them.
but it was brilliant to sit here on the sofa, last Friday and plan - and see - on screen the 21 days in April that are NOW, keeping me awake at night. 
