The Arctic Rider

Hi everyone, Well after a nights sleep in a real bed and bacon sandwich for breakfast I was ready for the 300 mile trip back home. The weather was great for a ride up with little wind and lots of sun. I fuelled up for the first time back in the UK and it was the cheapest fuel of the trip so far... shame this happened on the final day. After weeks of obeying the Scandinavian speed limits and trying not to get killed on the Autobhan I felt more confident to ride a bit quicker than I had been, and knowing that I was seeing Kirsty that day probably had something to do with it! The route up was fairly boring as 1) I knew the route having driven it plenty of times in the past, 2) the first turn off I had to make was for the A19 some 230 miles in and 3) there were no crazy forgein drivers to contend with. The most noteable incident of the day was when after the first 130 miles I got a cramp in my bum!! Thats what 6,000 miles on and ER5 does to you! Maybe I should get heated seats (or ma...

Hi Everyone, Wow I can't believe its almost over. What a four weeks it has been. This afternoon I said farewell to the continent as I set sail for Dover. Setting off around 10am I went in search of some breakfast, although 3 towns later I still hadn't seen any people let alone any shops open. I did however find a petrol station so I filled up and headed for Calais. Again the wind wasn't on my side. I'm starting to think that Belgium is actually just the EU's idea of a wind tunnel experiment. I had been due to catch a ferry at 7.30pm however I arrived at the port a good 7hours early. Wen I got to the ticket office I was told to go through passport control and then ask if there were any spaces on the earlier ferries. I managed to get on the 3.30 ferry so I only had 2 hours to fill by that time. Luckily I'm quite experienced in filling in time after my 4 days stuck in the far end of Sweden. I got chatting to two Italian guys in the que for the ferry, although we...

Hello Everyone Tonight is the last night of camping for Gordon and he is just outside of Ostend, Belgium. He is also camped beside an English guy who he has been chatting onto whilst making his dinner. Turns out he is a Nottingham Trent graduate..must have been nice to hear an English voice after so long..especially as everyone in Beligium speaks German, French and Flemish..languages which Gordon does not happen to be fluent in!! lol He also very kindly sponsored Gordon 5 Euros for doing his trip which is awesome! :D Today has been a stressful days riding for Gordon today especially when he got caught up in rush hour traffic around Antwerp. Because of this he decided to stop early and not to travel onto Calais which is tomorrows job..he also seemed to have found a ghost town where he could only buy a lion bar and some water..he also thought about getting a kebab but apparently the locals gave him the eye and so decided against it! lol Weather today has been really windy and rainy...

Good evening all As you can tell by the tag Gordon is still in Germany..and he is camping by a large lake near the borders..no no not the scottish ones..lol..he spent this morning in Flensburg and checking the internet including NUFC.com..and then travelled south west to Lemvruch-dummersee..yes..i dont know where that is either..lol..Gordopedia tells me that dummersee is the name of the lake and Lemvruch is the name of the town..as is he is Germany this means he has been experiencing the 'fun' of the autobahns again and some crazy drivers! Talking of crazy drivers, Gordon said that when he was on a country road today he saw a tractor being driven on the pavement and instead of the guy being like..oops..he apparently looked at Gordon like he was the odd one for driving on the road! When he was in Flensburg, when he was getting on the bike, he saw a 125 yamaha and presumed this was their first bike and then when they took their helmets off..he realised that they were actually...

Good evening Today has seen Gordon leave Scandinavia all together and he is now back in the comfort of the Euro. This is a big thing as he has actually spent most of his time in Scandinavia and although its so much cheaper for him now, I think it is hitting home that he is coming home and is so close to completing a journey which has taken a lot of money and effort on all peoples parts to get him this far! Last night's rough camping has left him feeling like the next ray mears although he managed to get out smarted by some local birds..not the human variety who decided to steal the bread off his bike and wake him up in the process..i wondered whether they chose to have it with the roasted garlic philadelphia on the side, but apparently not! he he He is in Flensburg, Germany tonight in a campsite called Jarplund and has told me that he is camping next to a Spanish family with their small children who have brought a go kart with them..he was moaning about this, but I bet that a...

Evening Everyone Today has seen today bid a fond over priced farewell to Norway and a hello ever so slightly cheaper wave to Sweden. This move also signifies the start of his last leg home! Gordon is now in Varberg, Sweden which is another one of those places that we went to on the deployment when we first met and was a fun place when we went there with a castle and a supermarket and even a few classy..obviously..bars.. lol Gordon told me that he has been visiting the places that we went and taken some photos which is really ace! Let's just hope he doesnt have to re-enact the watches or the 'really good' jobs like cleaning the heads! ha ha Normally he is in a campsite..or hostel as he has been treated to recently but tonight he is rough camping which is a bit scary and does not have any company apart from a fox looking for his gloves walking along the road and the trains which are passing on the tracks beside him. He was supposed to be in a campsite but he visited tw...

Hello Again! I actually cannot believe how fast these days are going..day twenty two now means that Gordon is into the last week of this adventure. Its been tough in parts and hopefully the adversity has just made him stronger..or at least less moany..lol..but we will see.. Day 22 was full of highs and lows..The highs saw us sight seeing again around the city and looking around the castle and fortress..pretending to be soldiers..looking at the palace..which was no buckingham palace and only had one guard outside it who even spoke to us when we went up to him.. we also saw him parading and he looked more like basil faulty which made us actually LOL..we also went to the supermarket which really tested my (non-existent) norweigan language skills to the test..it was my job to decipher between skinke..which i hope is ham and whatever else was on offer and potentially some sort of rat..we also bought some 'bread' which was illuminous yellow..now if thats natural then i question w...

Hello All Today saw Gordon driving for the first time with not only all of his stuff but also with me! Now..I am not professing to be very athletic but the main skill that was required was of some sort of magician's assistant..i think this would have come in very handy if I could have squeezed into the top boz..but alas..i missed that class at school and so I adoned 7 layers including the power ranger suit and we set off from Moss to Oslo. The plan was that it would take around an hour which meant that we wouldnt be travelling for that long..however, 'Gord Gord' sat nav was not working and we missed the turning for the motorway and so instead of it taking around an hour...it ended up taking us more like 4!! The weather was horrendous and it was really heavy rain for the whole time which meant that when we actually arrived in Oslo i resembled something more like a lion and due to the amount of layers i had on..it looked like i had go hungry on the way and eaten my cubs!!...

Hello, Sorry again for the lateness of the blog, we'll be back upto date soon. So after a comfortable nights sleep I packed up the bike and headed for Moss where Kirsty and I would be staying. The day started as most days on the trip have with me heading for McDonalds in a local town called Ski but only to use the wifi this time. However the wifi decided it didn't want to work so I hit the road again for Moss. Some hot sunny weather and some very nice and twisty roads made for a good hours ride down to Moss. My first job was to head for the hostel that we were booked into to check in. Fail number 1. You can only check in between 8-12 and 4-8. So my arrival at 12.30 wasn't so good. So I headed into town and ate a lunch of crusty rolls dipped in philadelphia with a side of choccy and a banana. Lovely stuff! Just after lunch I discovered bit problem number 2 of the trip, not quite as serious as my tyre deciding to explode but equally as illegal in the eyes of the Norwe...

Hi all, Sorry for the lateness of my blog tonight. I've had a somewhat chilled evening with a homecooked meal and a few Tuborg beers at my Norwegian friend Hans' house. Also I will have luxury of a real bed for the evening rather than sleeping on the ground in a tent. Now for all you Peep Show fans out there, no Hans is not 'Superhands' from the show. He is however a fellow motorcycle enthusiast who has been kind enough to help me out while I've been in Norway. The highlights of my day have been chatting to a German couple who are on a train holiday (whatever that is) of Scandinavia. They also told me they had visited the world's second best train museum in Gavle in the past few days, a town I was in only a few days ago.... As for the best train museum in the world (I did ask them) a little town by the name of York! and yes the Germans will be there this time next year for train tour part 2. One thing I did learn from them is that East Germans don't like...

Hi all, Well its been a long time coming but I'm finally here! Bodo, Norway inside the Arctic Circle and its very hot here today. I've filled my grand day out here by visiting the local cathedral, the Nordland museum and by having a general wonder around town. My one disappointment is that, unlike me, they don't seem all that bothered that the town is in the arctic circle. In my head when I arrived I imagined a big banner saying 'Welcome to the Arctic Circle Gordon' with some reindeer and elk milling around and Santa chilling out on his sailing boat. But no, nothing like that. Not even a small sign or a guy selling 'Arctic Circle' t-shirts from a stand on the street. I did however find some 'Arctic Water'. Oh yes, pure water from arctic Norway! But can you guess what kind of water Gordon picked up???? Sparkling... bloody sparkling water!?! Who would actually choose the stuff over either regular water or lemonade? Well me apparently, every time...

God evening The anticipated news has finally happened..once again Gordon has laughed in the face of adversity..although let's hope not TOO loudly..and is now on his way to the Arctic Circle!! This came with a lot of help from his new buddy Hans who sounds like a legend and has been helping Gordon with his local knowledge..he is also a hero in my eyes because he has offered to lend Gordon his car whilst I am visiting so that I dont have to ride on the handlebars!! can i hear a woop woop? lol He has been spending time with Hans and his children today, one of whom has autism and so understands what a charity like Cerebra can do and why it is so vital. I have also just realised that as Hans has a family..he is NOT hans solo.. ;) LOL The floods have hit the area north of Oslo hard but luckily Hans was able to direct him around this 'slight problem' and he is now near Trondheim! He has also met a nice couple from Kansas.. first of the Yanks since the start of the trip..still ...

Hello all! Sorry this one is a bit later than normal.. I did speak to him last night but it was late and we have ahd a lot of things to mull over.. Right..Gordon spent the day having a chilled out time riding on some fun country roads and visiting a place called Ski..like the yoghurt!! :D Well..either that or they name places after activites based there..would hate to hear what a local nudist beach would be called.. ha ha ha He has also been to Oslo to have a look around but as with most things..Gordon's luck seemed to run out..and he didnt realise that it was another bank holiday and so the shops were closed..The Scandinavians seem to have more bank holidays then us..I wonder when they actually work and if they have a law firm that would have me! :D He has found a campsite called Ekeberg camping..original i know..and is on a hill above Oslo which must have wicked views! He said that although it has been windy today it hasn't rained and it is in fact quite sunny..unlike...

Hello All! So, Gordon has now left Sweden behind him and is now in Norway for the forseeable future..or at least the next week! ha ha His ride today was full of rain but luckily as he pulled into the campsite it cleared up a bit for him so that he could put his tent up without it getting too wet. However, when he was directed to a particular area of the site, he managed to get his bike stuck in the mud! He tried to push it out for couldnt do it and so had to wait for a nice old man who drove a BMW bike to be his Norweigan Hero..LOL..I wonder if he sang 'You can be my hero baby..' to him in Norweigan..let's hope he did! He is now 5km south of Moss and is in a bay overlooking the sea and can see Horten across the water which is where we will be going when I go over. He also saw the airport today..eek..I may burst with excitement soon..*cough cough* ANYWAY... on route to Moss today, there was a car accident on the motorway which meant that the traffic had come to a stop ...

Hello people, Well..someone clearly wasnt keeping their fingers crossed enough because Gordon has been driving today in horrendous rain to the point where even his power ranger suit did not shield him! Instead it ended up letting the water in through the zip and as he put it 'got my crotch really wet'..yeah yeah sure it did! It did, however brighten up when he got to his destination and he is currently in a campsite of no name..lol..in the suburbs of Gothenburg. So yes, he is still in Sweden..i think he must have got a good deal on the currency as he is spending a lot of time there! We are now half way through the trip and so I thought we would pause for a moment and I could give you the top 10 fun facts that I have learnt about Gothenburg from Gordo-pedia and a wee bit on the intermaweb: 1. That famous pop group Ace of Base were from Gothenburg 2. Gothenburg is twinned with Oslo in Norway, Gordon's destination in a few days, Aarhus, where we went on our deployment a...

Evening All Today has seen Gordon travel further west and he is currently in a 'campsite' in Kristinehamn. I use the word campsite loosely because apparently, as with a lot of things, the picture and description dont match what he actually has! It is a constructions site more than a campsite at present and although it is supposed to have wifi..they dont seem to have got round to that yet..how inconvenient eh..lol The weather today has been a bit like it has here..changeable. Gordon said that it was really hot this morning (ok maybe we didnt actually get that bit) and to the point where he thought he may run out of water to the heavens opening and it being a down pour as well as thunder and lightening..which I am informed was scary and made him jump..bless. This has left him chilling in his tent with the ricky gervais podcast for company! It also meant that he is now bored and cant even go for a walk to explore the lake which is a shame. With the wet weather, you would log...

Good evening all So after Gordon being able to get wifi and us talking on skype for the past few days, we are now back to our 10 minute speed chats..its like speed dating but you know who the other person is! ;) After sleeping in this morning, Gordon has once again been on the 'fun' Swedish roads involving some very odd driving styles..it sounds more like it is like driving with thousands of boy racers who all drive estate cars or buses, at the same time! Conditions have been dry today and it has been up to 25 degrees according to Sweden's answer to Michael Fish and this has only added to the angst of the other drivers. But, safely he has made it to his campsite which I have put a link on here: http://www.fyrishov.se/fyrishov/templates/InternationalStartPage____4276.aspx As you can see its a haven style site with a mini golf..living the life of luxury over there! lol He is camping next to a Finnish guy who shares his love of pizza, clearly pizza being the universal s...

Hello y'all, An early update today but its been a very busy day. First I had to drive the hire car to the recovery garage, then drive it back to Hertz only to be told I could leave it at the Yamaha garage where it would be going to try and get fixed. Now I wouldn't use the words 'sorted' or 'perfect' but as of 3pm today I had done 100miles on the bike. The long and the short of it is that they didn't have the right tyre that I needed but did have one with a bigger profile meaning my bike is now higher at the front than the back. I have managed 100miles but they were a struggle, a max speed of 50mph seemed all that the bike wanted to do today as anything higher than this the front wheel decided it wanted to wobble all over the shop and the same between about 30-40mph. After seem researching online I'm hoping that this is because the tyre is over inflated as the guy at the Yamaha place inflated it to 'touring pressure', Which I have now learn...

Hi everyone, Well I'm still stuck here but hopefully this will be my last night and I'll be moving again tomorrow. To pass the time today I have repacked my luggage to make it more efficient. I also used the WiFi services of burger king again at lunchtime. Not sure if I mentioned this yesterday but the king operates slightly differently up here. You get your food on a fried to order basis and have to mill around at the till area until your order gets called out. Something that had tickled me though is that whilst I order in English they always call my order out when its ready in Swedish. Luckily for me the word for cheeseburger seems to be the same in Swedish so I had no issues today. I've also recycled some plastic bottles at the supermarket giving me 4kroner (40p) extra to spend. Woop. I had read about a hill walk which takes you right to the top of a hill that overlooks the town and thought it might be quite fun. Although being the lazy so and so that I am I found a way ...

Hi everyone, It's day 3 for me in Ornskoldsvik which translates directly into Eagle Shields Bay in English. Now I can assure you its not much like North Shields or Whitley Bay and I haven't found an eagle yet but I have found some things to pass the time. One being the 10km drive from the campsite to the town centre with some lovely roads. Shame the bike is sitting in a garage because he would love them. I also revisited burger king and tried out their 'big meal' which appears to be a small to regular sized cheese burger meal at best. I've also had a look around some electrical shops as they were the only thing open in town. I also managed to find a cinema with a daily showing of both xmen and the new pirates film. To pass some time I opted to watch Johnny Depp and his pals in a two and a half hour sitting. The best bit of the whole experience was getting to the screen and counting that there were only 30 seats in the whole place... not quite the uci. Sorry there ...

Good evening all, Well its been a busy 30 hours or so me. I've gone from a good mornings progress of 100miles yesterday, to being no further on a day and a half later and, as you'll know from Kirsty's post this morning, I will be staying here till at least Tuesday when I find out if a new tyre (and maybe wheel) can be fitted to the bike which is currently being stored at a local recovery garage. While my milage may have ground to a halt my adventure certainly hasn't. I'll start with the hire car. At about 6pm local last night I was handed the keys of a brand new Toyota Yaris. Hertz seem to be a bit more relaxed up here, there was no run through of the controls or even how I am to return it. Just given the keys and a 'bye bye' off the crazy Swedish manager. Now I've only been driving a car since September (and not that well as I'm sure some ex-passengers would have u believe) so to take my first drive in a left hand drive car on foriegn roads at rus...

Good morning all I apologise for not writing this blog last night but a lot has happened since then and this has been a really hard one to write. Gordon set off yesterday and did 100 miles before stopping for lunch in Ornskoldsvik and munching the old famous hamburger rolls with dairylea triangles and pringles inside with a side order of more pringles! However, 5 miles later he was travelling on the motorway when a piece of metal came out from underneath a lorry unexpectedly and although he tried to swerve and avoid it, he ran over it on his front tyre and burst his tyre and narrowly avoiding going over on his bike. A call to AA recovery later on a phone that was about to die and it turns out that as Sweden have a public holiday from Friday-Tuesday for a national day of Sweden there is not a garage that can look at it until then..which clearly has a negative impact on his mileage. Getting that phone call from him about this was really hard to hear but I am glad, as am sure you ...

Hello Readers I know that Gordon has put a mini update on but since then we have had a chat on the phone. One issue we are starting to notice is that the further north he goes, the less phone signal he has which is upsetting for me (obviously) it may mean that I have to make up some fun stories for the avid readers of this blog..how about.he ditched his bike and rode a reindeer the rest of the way? No, ok will work on that then! Talking of reindeer, so far he has spotted...NONE..this is very disappointing and I think that maybe they are scared of the bike..he assured me that they would be wandering about like some sort of snow white in the forest but not thus far..Reindeer watch will continue however in the quest of finding one..and not just tasting them..lol Gordon has travelling further into Sweden and is now right on the east coast of Sweden and is 66 degrees north..for all those nautical types reading this..scary.. he said that he has noticed it getting colder the further nor...

Hello everyone, For only the second time on the trip I've managed to get internet. Although, with Kirsty's excellent blogging skills it hasn't mattered so far. I'm currently in Sundsvall, Sweden some 350 miles further on than I was this morning. Its been a difficult day as once again its been very windy (a theme of Sweden so far) and as of about 50 miles ago I have ran out of motorway. Being this far north however means that daylight is on my side. I'm almost past the point of the nights being dark which is good for long riding days but bad for my sleep. I managed to find my first Netto of the trip. If you were thinking 'Netto, Scandinavian for value' then sweden is a very expensive place. I paid near enough £7 for 3 bananas (small) two apples, a can of diet coke, a bottle of water (hopefully still I haven't opened it yet) and 6 hamburger rolls. If that had been ASDA - £2.39. Anyway people did warn me it would be an expensive place. I must go cook so...

Hello All Another day and another journey. Gordon has found a campsite in Norrkoping, Sweden and is currently 100 miles south of Stockholm. Norrkoping is known for having a cactus plantation in the summer months and excitingly grows around 25,000 cacti every year..I can see why Gordon picked it as a prime location..although I hope he's not camping on a cactus..ha ha Talking of prickly things, apparently he saw a MASSIVE Christmas Tree Farm on the side of the motorway. I did enquire as to whether he had ordered us a swedish spruce, if there is such a thing, or even better picked one up, but according to Gordon, it wouldnt fit on the back of the bike which is a shame. Today also saw him seeing his first British people on the trip to date. He waved at the caravans of people and later saw them at the service station which is when he realised they were gypsies and was worried he may have been grabbed so slinked off back onto the motorway. The roads are still quite scary and ev...