The Arctic Rider

 Hi there, Its been 8 months since I last blogged about The Arctic Rider project, which has been on-hold due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As with most things in life at the moment my next planned Arctic trip to Russia is on-hold. As I said in my blog in May, a 2021 trip is still in-doubt until more is known about what the 'new normal' will be for the world and especially cross-border travel (I have no fewer than 13 border crossings as part of the route).  Even with vaccines now being distributed, the prospect of 2021 being anything like the world we once knew looks slim. All UK government advice is still currently against travel abroad, Russia's visa programme is virtually locked down, as are it's land borders. There is talk of vaccine passports, ongoing quarantine periods, and negative tests before being allowed into a country. All in all the logistics of Russia being my destination in 2021 look low. Exploring Northumberland's gravel roads rather than Russia t...

Welcome to the latest Arctic Rider blog, Today was the day I was meant to be hitting the road bound for Arctic Russia on my latest charity motorbike challenge. Like with almost everyone , my plans have been impacted by the Coronavoirus pandemic which swept across the world in a matter of weeks.  Not long after picking up my new Vstrom 650XT, the bike to take me thousands of miles across Europe and into Russia on tarmac and gravel, it started to become clear that my trip might be in doubt. First it was Russia suspending its Visa programme. Then, in the blink of an eye, the whole of Europe was in lockdown and the realistic prospect of doing my trip in 2020 was finished.  Like most, I've spend the past few months trying to come to terms with what this whole situation means for me as a person, and for The Arctic Rider project. While I've had knock-backs before, crashing in Sweden in 2011, cancelling my Alaska trips with just weeks to go before departure in 2018, this time it diff...

Greetings, Welcome to the latest installment of The Arctic Rider blog. I want to start by saying a huge thanks to each and every one of you who reads this blog. Its always difficult to know if people will be interested in my ramblings about my motorbike trips to The Arctic, but, thanks to my google analytics, I can see there are still plenty of folk interested. Furthermore, to my amazement, I've had over 290,000 unique view of the blog since I started in 2011... seriously thanks for all the support! Now onto matters present, the route I'll be taking as I look to conquer another Arctic country crossing. Firstly, I must stress that Russia is literally the biggest country in the world and 11% of the world's total area, so picking where I was going to cross the Arctic Circle has taken a bit of time. With the help of the ever supportive Mrs Arctic Ride, we did A LOT of research to work out where its possible to cross the Arctic Circle by motorbike. The result of our r...

Hi all, Welcome back to The Arctic Rider blog. Its a been a super long time since I've posted on here, over a year in fact since back in November 2018! For those of you who follow my social media pages (search 'The Arctic Rider' on most platforms and you'll find me), you'll notice I'm still riding around the North of England, and spent time cutting my Iceland trip into a 4 part YouTube series ( click here  if you've not had the pleasure yet). I've also been doing a lot of running and trying to keep my 'Dad-bod' away, as well as hanging with my clan (aka Wife and Kids). Even though I've not been as active blogging, I am in the build up to my next trip. Not a day goes by, I mean that literally, when I'm not thinking about my next Arctic adventure. I'm actually obsessed. I've been doing my best to save money for a new bike too, as discussed in my last blog, have a more appropriate steed for some of the roads I'll face regar...