The Results are IN

Hi everyone,

Wow... has it really been a week since I last blogged? Its been busy busy as always at my end and not only with Arctic Ride stuff but I've also been changing jobs at work (which means I have been doing double work) and its my wife's birthday on Tuesday (25th June) so I've been buying presents and hosting a party.

Anyway, back to what you are all here to read about... ARCTIC RIDE 2014.

Thanks to all those who have been viewing my blogs over the past months and to all of you who voted on my route over the past week, the response has unprecedented with 146 voters. It really motivates me to know that so many people are following and backing my challenge to the Arctic Circle. I had voters from all over the UK as well as France and the USA :)

So... the results are in. Those of you who managed to tune in to last weeks blog will know there were two questions asked, which route should I take home? and which route would you like to take.?

So for question #1, out of all the responses, amazingly the vote was evenly split between Finland and Norway with 42% each. Both are great routes, which I can now see you all agree with, but I feel rather sorry for Sweden (16%). Maybe I didn't sell it very well, maybe you were worried I'd gorge myself on meatballs, maybe its because you don't want me to be mentally scared by returning to the town where I was stuck for 5 days in 2011 and went to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 3, on my own, in a 20 seat cinema with only couples for company (I'm totally not bitter by the way), or maybe you just thought it was generally not as interesting as the other two routes, we'll never know.

Now that the results are in I'm very glad I asked my question #2 as this could well help me decide which way I would go.

Its the seems the majority of you reader folk want to hit the roads of Norway (53%), enjoy the fjords and drive Atlantic Road. Again, poor Sweden got the least votes with only 16% and Finland came in 2nd with 32% of the vote.

After these results I've pretty much ruled out Sweden but I'm yet to decide between Norway and Finland. Its really going to depend on what kind of time I am making on the actual trip, so you'll have to tune in next May/June to find out :)

In other news this week, I had a great surprise when a fellow biker and acquaintance of mine contacted me. Philippe from France is a guy I met on my 2011 trip in Sweden at a camp site and he got in touch with me on facebook out of the blue. In 2011 Philippe made it into my Day 4 Blog as he was also riding to Nordkapp. Click on this link to check out what I (maybe it was Kirsty) wrote.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago I've been getting my luggage sorted and I've been able to grab some AMAZING deals on eBay (I would highly recommend buying this way rather than new) which are due through the post this week. Once I have all the parts I'll be mounting them to my bike and I'll be sure to put up some photos so watch this space. 

For the trip I've got to be very space conscious as I'll be away for 3 weeks and I need a lot of kit to stay warm and full up. Luckily for me a twitter buddy of mine, Andrew Pain author of Going Small – A Guide to Lightweight Motorcycle Touring, has kindly offered to give me some advice on what to pack and what not to pack (Andrew/Blue - if you are reading, I still owe you an email).

So thats all for this week folks. Thanks for tuning in and viewing my blog. Please keep spreading the word about my trip.

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Ride Safe,

Gordon