Day Eighteen - Welcome to the Arctic

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 I try to buy water in Scandinavia... Tusk!

It has been a long 18 days on the road but its all been worth it to raise so much money for Cerebra. I can't thank you enough for your donations and support throughout my journey so far.

Now the task is to get home! On Thursday evening I have the pleasure of Kirsty coming to visit me in Oslo :D So it will be two days chilling and enjoying the sights before I have the task of riding 1,500 miles in 6 days back to Newcastle.

Ride safe,

Gordon xx

Suzuki GSX650F review

Hello there, And welcome to another edition of the Arctic Ride blog! My trip might be a distant memory (last year in fact) but there is still plenty to come from me both for Arctic Ride 2014 post trip (like this blog) and future adventures. I'm pleased to announce that earlier this week my blog reached 45,000 views which I am both pleased and humbled about. So with this blog I wanted to share my thoughts on the bike I rode on my ride to the Arctic this year, the Suzuki GSX650F. I've had many people ask me to review the bike and, well, here it is. My GSX 650F and I at the Arctic Circle in Norway As a background in my 9 years of riding I've ridden a smallish cross section of bikes, but I feel it has been enough for me to put some context behind my views on the GSX650F. An example of some of the bikes I have ridden include my first bike, Suzuki Marauder 125, a Yamaha Virago 535, Kawasaki ER5, SV650S, BMW LT 1200, Harley Davidson Street Glide 1800, and a Kawasaki ...

Why is the Dalton so dangerous?

Welcome to The Arctic Rider blog, Its now less than a year until I start my quest to conquer The Dalton Highway in Alaska, one of the worlds' most dangerous roads. The new 'Arctic Ride Alaska' poster I've still got a lot of planing to do and I've been working away in the background to get a lot of things firmed up, but I probably won't know the key parts of the trip, such as the exact dates I'll be going and the bike I'll be riding, until the Autumn. Anything I know before then I'll be staring with all you loyal readers of my blog. In this blog, I'll be covering why The Dalton Highway is so dangerous , and why I'm hoping you will share some of your very hard earned Pounds (and other currencies for non-UK readers) in exchange for the danger and suffering I'll be putting myself in next year. Firstly though, I must say a huge thanks to an unnamed Devitt Insurance employee who very kindly donated their employee-of-the month priz...

Looking back: Arctic Ride Iceland

Hello, Thanks for tuning into another edition of the Arctic Rider blog. Wow, so its been a week and a half since I returned from my epic trip to Arctic Iceland. The dust has settled and I'm back at work.. it almost feels as thought it never happened, a long and distant memory but luckily I have lots of photos to remind me it was real :) Day 12 - Southern Iceland The weather in Iceland completely battered me and I feel lucky to have got through this ride in one piece, having met other bikers who been blown off their bikes in the wind, dropped them on gravel roads, and been soaked to the skin by the rain. The battle against the elements was 100% worth it though to raise so much money for two amazing charities in Tiny Lives Trust and Cerebra. At the time of writing, Team Arctic Ride has raised OVER £5,000 for this ride. I'm honoured and humbled to have had such amazing support from so many dedicated supporters! I will be closing my donation page at midnight 31st July...

The Arctic Rider

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