Skip to main content

Day 8 - The Arctic Circle

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Day 8 of my Arctic Ride blog!

I can't believe I've been on the road 1 week and I'm still not turning around yet! Most bikes trips last for a few days so it's weird to still be travelling North.



I started my day departing my cosy cabin in Nesna on the West coast before riding another stunning mountain pass through to Mo I Rana to meet Hallvard. One thing I have noticed as I travel further North is that the roads are getting harder and harder to ride. As they get smaller, the surface becomes poorer, and more gravel enters the scene. A few times this morning I felt the back end start to go on the gravel so I had to ease up and adjust my position.

I headed to Mo I Rana to meet my friends and guides Hallvard, Roy, and Aud who rode with me yesterday. We started the day by having a coffee and a bite at a cafe that Hallvard said I would like the name of... Bimbo's... Maybe it means something different in Norwegian.


I knew I was going to be heading into the mountains again so I suited up with my thermals and waterproofs. This proved to be enough to keep me reasonably warm on the way to the Arctic Circle.

Riding the road up North was again great fun and suddenly I was in the dream if been having for the past 14 months and moments away from the Arctic Circle. As I climbed higher and higher into the mountains, the greenery faded and was replaced, at first by moss, and then by snow, and more snow. Then there it was, the Arctic Circle.


I pulled in, a bit overwhelmed that I had ridden my motorbike from Newcastle to the ARCTIC CIRCLE! 

I went and got my photo taken and got Mrs Arctic Ride a few bits from the gift shop while the feeling settled in.

Even though this isn't my final aim for the trip (Nordkapp is) this was a big milestone for me and my adventure.


I then headed back down the mountain and stopped for lunch where I was kindly treated by Roy to some reindeer meatballs. Verdict = awesome :)

At this stage I was leaving Helgoland region and this is where I said goodbye to Hallvard, Roy, and Aud from RamZalt MC club.


I can't thank them all enough for their kindness, hospitality, as support of my trip. It made me feel really special to be taken in by the bikers from Norway and I'll remember it forever and have made some new friends.

Hallvard had fixed me a bed in a town just short of Bodo back on the West coast so I headed North along and took on another few smaller mountain passes on my route. Along the way I sports my first moose and the trip and some reindeer. Kirsty asked me what the difference was so I consulted GordApedia as decided:

Moose - crossed between a horse, Ox, Reindeer - proper massive.

Reindeer - Rudolph's mate

I then met up with Marie and Jochen who were kind enough to take me on for the night and cooked me a warm meal.

It's so great to be welcomed into people's homes like this and have new folk to chat to every night and leant new things about this great country.

Also today the weather finally caught up with me and I got some light rain. I'm hoping the sun / dry will return tomorrow in time for me hitting the west coast :)

Tomorrow I hear to the Lofoten isles and plan to make it half way to Tromso.

Thanks for checking out my blog and for all the support.

And thanks to those who recently donated (and had before) and got my target above £3100!! This is amazing! Thanks all.

Until tomorrow.

Ride safe.

Gordon

Popular posts from this blog

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 ...
Read more

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...
Read more

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...
Read more