The Arctic Rider

Hi all, With 2014 coming to a close I wanted to thank you for reading my blog and supporting my efforts for Cerebra this year. Its been a wonderful year and I never thought that I would do so many new and interesting things! So, in the spirit of the internet's addiction to lists, I've created the Top 5 Arctic Rider moments 2014. Enjoy! 5 - NEMCRC Croft race meet VIP The North East Motor Cycle Racing Club (NEMCRC) were sponsors of my Arctic Ride 2014 and as part of that they got me very exposed to club events to drum up more support. In April I was lucky enough to be invited to the club's Croft Race meet where I was a VIP guest for the day. This meant that I had exclusive access to areas of the track that are usually only for officials. I was able to sit a top the Race office with the Clark of the course to get a great view of the circuit and the starting line, and given access to the recording team. I was also interviewed by the race commentator about my ride and gi...

Greetings, Welcome back to the Arctic Ride blog. I told myself that once my ride was finished I would continue to blog but that hasn't quite happened. While I've been active on the Arctic Ride Facebook page and on my Twitter account I haven't been able to keep up the progress on this blog. Not without good reason though as at the start of August my daughter Islay was born and has been occupying my time ever since. You'll be please to know I've already had her wearing my lid watching the Moto GP with her. Back on to Arctic Ride news and its been over 5 months since I completed my ride. The ride will stay with me my whole life with some great memories and lessons learnt. And due to some great work from MPH studios and filming from yours truly, you can now buy the Arctic Ride 2014 film on DVD. It includes a 50 minute film of my trip and some of the experiences I went through along the way as well as some extras including the trailer, full interview with the BBC, ...

Ahoy there blogmates, Welcome back to the Arctic Ride blog. I might have completed my trip to the Arctic Circle but there is plenty more to come from me. Me and Robbie on launch day Its been 4 weeks since I arrived home and it has given me plenty of time to digest my adventure. I've written a lot about the charity Cerebra on my blog already over the past months but one of the biggest takeaways from my trip has been the difference the money raised will do for brain injured children and their families across the UK. The effort that I have put into the planning and execution of the trip would be for nothing without the support and donations I received along the way, which I am very thankful for. Waving bye to friends and family - 6,000 miles to go... Something else I'll take away from the ride is my ability to actually go and complete such a big project. There were quite a few doubters when I said I was planning my second attempt to Nordkapp, not only that I wouldn...

Hi everyone, So... 22 days, 9 countries, circa 6,000 miles... And I'm home. What a trip. What an adventure! I awoke early on the ferry, worried about waking up late and missing the entry up the Tyne. I got up and packed up my things. Suddenly it hit me... I was home. After all I'd been through on the trip, this was it. It didn't feel like I'd been away for 3 weeks. I had some lonely and down moments on the trip but thinking it was coming to an end was sad too. As the ferry approached the breakwater, I went out on deck to see my town from the river and also to try and spot my welcome home party. My wife Kirsty had drummed up support for me coming home to make sure I had a welcome to rival my send off 3 weeks earlier.  After (just)seeing my party in the distance as the ship rolled up the river, I went down to the car deck to de-strap the bike. This proved a bit premature as it took me around 5 minutes to de-strap the bike and I ended up waiting another 45 minutes to get o...

Hi everyone, So it's Day 21 of my trip and I'm almost home, almost. When I'm back (I've still 10 miles to do once I get off the ship in the UK) over the weekend I'll do a full blog reflecting on the trip.  Im on my final ferry now, sailing back to the UK, due in tomorrow morning into North Shields. I'm still taking my adventure in. It almost doesn't seem real that I've been on the road for 3 weeks, made it to the Arctic, ridden to Nordkapp, and home again. But I think it hit my body. I got to my cabin (VIP - provided complementary by DFDS Seaways) and has to sit down. I'm so tired, both mentally and physically. My whole body is sore, my mind strained from the concentration of being on the road for so long. But at the same time I feel on top of the world.  I've done it... I've bloody done. Today started as most have on this trip. I awoke to sunshine, got myself up and started packing my tent. It felt odd this was the last time (for while at le...

Hello there, It's day 20 of my Arctic Ride and I'm getting closer to home! Tonight I'm camped in the Netherlands after a long 550 mile day through Denmark, Germany, and Netherlands. Today started with me waking up on the ferry and worrying about if my bike would still be in one peace on the car deck after some moderately rough seas and some less than inspiring strapping down of my bike by the crew. When I got down all was fine and I rolled off the ferry into Danish soil. The first few miles got a bit of getting used to as I'd been used to 80kmph (48mph) speed limits in Norway for past 2 weeks. Like berocca tablet dropped in some water, I was fizzing along the Danish highways at 120kmph (72mph). However I really had to concentrate, get my stopping distance correct and watch out for the extra traffic compared to Norway, and this would be even more so in Germany later in the day. Before lunch I had disposed of Denmark having ridden the length of the country and passing som...

Hello! Day 19 eh? The time keeps flying. So tonight I bid a fond farewell to Norway, the country I have travelled through on my adventure for the past 15 days. I don't think I've ever visited a country top to bottom before like this but maybe this is one of the reasons why I like it here so much. Norway has beautiful cities, scenery, wildlife, and people. It's truely been a pleasure to live and breath this country for over 2 weeks on my motorcycle. The enjoyment and success of my trip has been down in no small part to the great people I have met along the way. From Hans in Oslo; Lars, Leif, Mona, Svein, Arild, Wenche, & the others at MC in Trondhiem; Halvard, Roy, & Aud in Helgoland; to Geir, Edel, Petter, Anniken, & Tilde in Tromsø plus the MCE club folk... I'm truly thankful for your help, guidance, generosity, and welcoming! Words alone can't thank you all enough. You are all welcome in Newcastle at Stuart HQ ANYTIME... And there is motorbike parking ...