The Arctic Rider

Hi, It only feels like yesterday that is was a year until I was due to depart for the Arctic. That means it must have been this morning that it felt like it was 200 days to go, and now its only 125 days to go... I'm not looking forward to how many days it will be tomorrow (although judging by the way time passes it will be 124 days). I still have so much work to plan my trip but its feels like its really starting to come together. This week I've been working on the priority scenes for the filming of my trip. While I can't predict what will happen when I am away, having done solo bike trip before, most notably my last attempt on the Arctic, I have a good idea about the kind of things I'll be getting up to. By splitting this down I've put together a rather large 'to-do' list to keep the ball rolling on my preparations. Hopefully you were able to read my blog last week from Iceland (if not click here to read). I did a vlog while I was away also but I had...

Hi everyone, Welcome to my latest blog post for Arctic Ride 2014 - my solo 6000 mile motorbike ride to the Arctic for charity Cerebra. This week's blog is coming all the way from Iceland!!! And no I haven't started my ride yet (that's not until May) but I am getting acclimatised to the cold and looking at what I might be experiencing when I ride through Norway, Finland, and Sweden.  Contrary to popular belief Iceland's mainland isn't inside the Arctic Circle, only part of a tiny island of Grimsey north of the mainland has the Arctic Circle pass through it. However Iceland really lives up to its name, it's covered in snow and ice almost everywhere you can see even if its not been snowing for a few days! I've spent the last few days in the capital Reykjavik and its truly stunning. The country only has a population of 330,000 people and 110,000 of them live in Reykjavik so there it's plenty of space to look round and enjoy the scenery.  This is the view to ...

Hi everyone. Welcome to my Arctic Ride 2014 blog. In May and June of THIS YEAR I will be riding my motorbike solo, 6,000 miles from my hometown of Whitley Bay in the North of England to Nordkapp, Norway deep inside the Arctic Circle. Wow its been a month since my last blog (that's not like me) but I've been a busy chappy alongside the usual festivities of December. I hope that all my readers/followers have had a great Christmas and New Year and got everything you were hoping for! Also hears to 2014... have a great year. So whats been going on that you have been too busy to blog I hear you say? Well I had a non motorbike related holiday visited some new places around Europe with my wife Kirsty which has occupied most of my time. I did want to a blog while I was away but lack of WiFi mixed with fun things to do halted this. I know I must be more disciplined when I'm away on my trip to the Arctic. Protecting the Empire at Budapest Castle, Hungary I'm always kee...