The Arctic Rider

Hi all, So..day 9.. I will be in the Arctic circle and continuing to travel north. I've had a look at the temperatures and as I'm getting further north its getting colder. The average temperature for May..which is supposed to be summer, is 4.5 degrees Celsius! I have been chatting to a few #bikerbuddies about ways to keep warm and thanks to some of u for getting back to me from the last blog, I have some links now and will have a think about what might be the best products to buy. if anyone else has any suggestions, I would be more then happy to hear them! :) I also have to make sure that my bike can take the power of all the heated equipment I would like to take with me, and of course the fact that, as I am going to be alone, I have to pack smart. I said before that I will be leaving the large towns and cities behind and will be stopping at more villages which could be quite worrying. However, I am now eating my words because I have just realised that today, once I have se...

Hi all, So day 8 is an exciting day.. I will officially be within the arctic circle from today for around the next 10 days, depending on my actual route back... :) I will have reached my first big hurdle and will actually within the ARCTIC CIRCLE...woop Will be a great day and a great achievement. I must say that it will take me 60 miles to reach the arctic circle...but u get the point..its going to be an exciting day! :) Day 8 will see me leave Mosjoen, a city and finish the day around 147 miles later in a village called Rognan, Norway.   I've put a map which also contains Nordkapp so that you can see how close I am getting to my final stop (on the way there anyway). Rognan is a 3km village with a population of 2,526..but hopefully it will have a McDonald's for me to stop off at and have a quick munch! It looks like a small place but magical and very Norwegian. There doesn't seem to be much there apart from some shops, a train station, a church and a m...

Hi all, So..I will now be one third of the way through my trip..and probably run out of fresh food and relying more on Mcdonald's or Burger King again. One thing I did find strange on my last trip was the lack of Ikea's in Sweden. (not that I'm on Sweden on this date but I was just thinking about it.) I do love a good plate of meatballs and was hoping to get some authentic ones! I will see what happens on next years trip and see if I can find one. And now back to Norway and day 6 where I left my last blog. Day 6 will see me leave Trondheim and passing through a lot of nice looking roads. One thing to note is that after I leave Trondheim, I will  not be going to any cities for around 5 days. I will be travelling around 244 miles or so to my destination of Mosjoen. I have had a quick look at a potential route I could use for this date and have discovered that I will be driving through a place with..possibly..a better name then Middelfart in Germany.. It's Hell.....

Hi all, So hopefully by now you are getting the gist of what I am doing and you are following me day by day as I head north towards Nordkapp, my exciting final destination. If all goes to plan, day 5 will be spent chilling out with my buddy and being a bit touristy in and around Oslo as a 'rest day.' If not, it will be me scrambling to get to Ski to get me back on track. :) Day 6 will see me refreshed and ready to go around another 320 miles to end up in the City of Trondheim. This is different to previous stops because I will be camping and staying in a City rather than a village or tiny place that is not really for tourists. ha ha I have briefly been to Trondheim during Arctic Ride 2011..as I reminisce again.. :) Like a lot of Norway, it was very beautiful and I enjoyed looking round it because it's so different to what I'm used to over in the UK. The other thing that I haven't really mentioned yet is another problem that I had as I travelled n...

Hi all, So..this time next year it will be Day 5 of Arctic Ride 2014. If you haven't read where I will be for the previous days, please check out my other blog posts and if you would like to see my full route..please click on this link.. http://www.arcticride.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-route.html  There is also a wee video you can watch to give you more info. I have also been working on an interactive map to make it even more fun...if that's possible..ha ha So.. as in the previous blog post..day 5 sees me in Ski, Norway.. a town near to Oslo. When I was here during Arctic Ride 2011, I stayed the night at my friends house, Hans and, as said before I am hoping I am able to do this again. Also, on my way back, I had a few rest days in Oslo and Moss and my wife, then Fiancee was able to come out to see me and we spent a few days being tourists and being ripped off in the process. I do love Scandinavia but compared to the prices in the UK, it can be a bit scary. She's not t...

Hello readers, Thanks again for logging in and reading my blog. Wow its been such a busy week. I've got lots and lots to chat about so lets get started. The big news of this week is that I have had my first radio interview about my trip! The lovely folk at BBC Radio Newcastle invited me into the studio to have a chat with Saturday morning Breakfast show host Helen Richardson. So on Monday morning I leather'ed up (bike leathers that is) and headed the 6 miles into Newcastle on my Suzuki for my interview. At this point I should say that I should have had a film of me riding up there to show you however when I reviewed the footage it turns out my camera what pointing to the sky (EPIC FAIL) so you'll have to wait to see the streets of Newcastle from my bike another time. Now I've never been on the radio before so it was very exciting. I did a 15 minutes interview explaining all about my trip and then had a general natter. The interview was air...

Hi all, I had had a massive response to my blog post yesterday so thanks all for reading it and hope you are enjoying following me on my future journey. So..day four already.. :) I will set off from Landskrona, Sweden  and cross another border (my 7th) and enter Norway. I will ride past Gothenburg and Moss. The last time I rode this way on Arctic Ride 2011 they were building a new motorway so I ended up spending a lot of time overtaking caravanettes...not the most fun you can have on a bike! ha ha Hopefully,now that it will be 3 years later, the motorway will be built..although if it was in England we couldnt guarantee that! I will keep you posted on this..I'm sure you are all gripped.. After around 312 miles, I will end my day at Ski in Norway..(thats not an activity by the way..its the town) :) I have been to Ski before and it is a commuter town for Oslo. The day that I was there on Arctic Ride 2011, I stayed at a fellow motorbike buddies house in Krakstad, a vil...