Greetings to another Arctic Ride 2014 blog,
In this post I'll be talking about contingencies plans for my trip.
For those of you that didn't follow my 2011 attempt to the Arctic, I had a crash just over a week into my trip near a town called Ornskoldsvik in northern Sweden. I hit a piece of metal that was lying in the road. Somehow I didn't come off the bike but my Kawasaki took the full force blowing my tyre and denting my wheel rim in the process.
I got recovered back to Ornskoldsvik only to find it was Swedish bank holiday weekend meaning I couldn't get a new tyre and wheel for 5 days. This wait was nearly a quarter of my whole trip which made making it to Nordkapp and home in the time remaining impossible.
The crash in 2011 is an example of thing that go wrong which can't be avoided but I'm going into this trip more well prepared for if something happens again.
First of all, I've noted down when all the public holidays are in the countries I am travelling through and this time there should be no issues. Second of all if I do loose days due to an accident, weather, or delay i have some continences to allow for this.
The first contingency is the ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle. I'm determined to ride the whole way to Nordkapp and the whole way back but I also have to take into consideration the time constraints of my journey. I only have 21 days to complete the ride due to work commitments so if I'm running a few days behind, and I can't make up the miles on the road I can use the ferry from Amsterdam to win 2 days back.
The second contingency is also a ferry route but has yet to be confirmed. Norwegian Seaways are looking to resurrect the historical route between Newcastle and Norway (Stavanger / Bergen) which after over 100 years of service ended in 2007. Rumours swirling around the Norwegian Press are that Norwegian Seaways will re introduce this service in April next year... just in time for my trip. Now this is certainly a LAST RESORT option and one that I would only use if I lost 5-6 days on my trip which would be a serious incident.
There are several other small contingencies in terms of changing route, and riding faster that I wont go into but I'm hoping that nothing goes wrong to the point where I have to use these plans.
That's all for this weeks folks. Remember to keep sharing my story and helping out on my social networks.
Follow Arctic Ride on Twitter
Like Arctic Ride on Facebook
Subscribe to Arctic Ride on YouTube.
Donate to Cerebra
Ride safe everyone.
Gordon Stuart
In this post I'll be talking about contingencies plans for my trip.
For those of you that didn't follow my 2011 attempt to the Arctic, I had a crash just over a week into my trip near a town called Ornskoldsvik in northern Sweden. I hit a piece of metal that was lying in the road. Somehow I didn't come off the bike but my Kawasaki took the full force blowing my tyre and denting my wheel rim in the process.
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| After my crash in Sweden June 2011 |
The crash in 2011 is an example of thing that go wrong which can't be avoided but I'm going into this trip more well prepared for if something happens again.
First of all, I've noted down when all the public holidays are in the countries I am travelling through and this time there should be no issues. Second of all if I do loose days due to an accident, weather, or delay i have some continences to allow for this.
The first contingency is the ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle. I'm determined to ride the whole way to Nordkapp and the whole way back but I also have to take into consideration the time constraints of my journey. I only have 21 days to complete the ride due to work commitments so if I'm running a few days behind, and I can't make up the miles on the road I can use the ferry from Amsterdam to win 2 days back.
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| The ferry can save me 600 miles and 2 days riding |
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| New ferry route |
There are several other small contingencies in terms of changing route, and riding faster that I wont go into but I'm hoping that nothing goes wrong to the point where I have to use these plans.
That's all for this weeks folks. Remember to keep sharing my story and helping out on my social networks.
Follow Arctic Ride on Twitter
Like Arctic Ride on Facebook
Subscribe to Arctic Ride on YouTube.
Donate to Cerebra
Ride safe everyone.
Gordon Stuart