A blog from the Sky!

Hi everyone,

Welcome to another edition of the Arctic Ride 2014 blog.

Thanks for tuning in. Regular readers will notice that this blog is being posted later than usual. This is because my work has whisked me off to Johannesburg in South Africa to attend the One Young World Summit. 

Usually I post my blog on a Sunday evening ready for all to read on their Monday lunch break but as I’ve been packing and preparing for my trip this blog is being written from 30,000 feet and will be posted when I land and get some Wi-Fi.

So this week has been another busy week. All the kit for my GoPro finally arrived so I am now able to vlog on the bike to keep you all up to date about what I have been doing! My first ‘proper’ vlog is below so give it a watch and let me know what you think!

I’m using the vlog and filming around Newcastle as a practice for my trip. As I’ve said in previously blogs I’m planning to film my entire adventure to the Arctic next summer so that I can share the high, lows, fabulous scenery, and amazing people I meet. The one disappointment about my attempt to the Arctic in 2011 was that I didn’t get enough photos and no video of all the great places I saw… also if I had got my crash and subsequent 5 day stay in Ornskoldsvik  on film it would have made for some good viewing! Hopefully on my trip next summer nothing as serious as that will happen but I have no doubt it will be a fabulous experience to share. My main hope it that it shows just how difficult it’s going to be on my body and mind to ride 6,000 miles in 3 weeks through the Arctic environment.

Also this week I got an amazing gift through the post from Cerebra. I contacted the charity earlier in the week to see if they had a spare donations money box that I could use at events where I am promoting my trip (for those who watched the above blog this is what was waiting for me at the post office and that Mrs Arctic Ride hadn’t been ordering more shoes). Luckily Cerebra had one spare which got shipped up to me but also in the post were a few nice surprises. As thanks for my effort on fundraising through my trip Cerebra provided me with an embossed organiser folder, a Cerebra pen and notepad, a Cerebra t-shirt, and finally, my favourite item of all, a Cerebra Ambassador pin badge J Happy days!

So I guess you’re wondering more about why HP has shipped me off to South Africa for the week? The long and the short of it is that as part of the company’s Corporate and Social Responsibility every year they send some of their up and coming young employees to attend the One Young World Summit, which is held in a different location around the world (next year’s in Dublin so I dodged a bullet there). The summit is a global gathering of the world ‘future leaders’, from companies and countries around the world where they get together and discuss world issues and try and make actionable changes. I’ll certainly have more to add once I return so watch this space for a dedicated One Young World blog.

That’s all for this week folks.

Ride safe!

Gordon