The idea is to two panniers on the back with rest of gear. The LBS had a lot of trouble trying to mount a front rack on my Disc Trucker (even the front fender went on with some tweaking - all to do with the Disc Brakes and how they are mounted). I don't know whether it was the mechanic just not being that good or not (he stopped working at that LBS a few months later I found out) but I am not very mechanically inclined myself so...

My route is essentially going to be the NCN #8 from Cardiff to Holyhead. I've limited distance to 50miles a day (fully loaded) so as to be flexible - will go shorter on days where I am tired, longer on days where I feel good. Within reason, of course. Won't really know until I get started. Doing the Celtic Trail from Fishguard to Swansea before the Lon Las Cymru (mostly coastal, so a warmup before getting into the hills). Looking to get rolling around the 1st of September, so have all summer to #1 get in shape and #2 finalize plans etc.