You can’t hear Gordon Stuart’s plan to raise money for a charity for brain injured children without feeling a thrill of excitement.
The 25-year-old Brit is almost ready to start a 6000 mile motorcycle journey that will take him from his hometown in eastern England to the tip of northern Norway.
“I was looking at the map and kind of thinking where is realistic to get to in the amount of time that I’ve got and the top of Norway sort of stood out to me and suddenly I got it in my head that’s where I was going and I didn’t want to go anywhere else,” says Stuart.
It may seem like a just another wild road trip to some, but for Stuart the motivation behind his big ride hits close to home.
At nine months old Stuart’s brother, Robbie, had an accident that left him severely brain damaged and needed constant care.
“He’s got quite severe learning difficulties; even though he’s 17 he’s got a cognitive age of a five year old,” says Stuart.
“Cerebra [has] helped Robbie and my mum for the last 15 years.”
The help from this brain injury charity for children includes invaluable support for the family, particularly Stuart’s mother who is Robbie’s primary caregiver, but extends to finding Robbie important equipment like a specialized tricycle so he can play and a laptop with modified software so he can learn.
“I really wanted to do something to give back to that charity and that’s led me to combining my passion for motor biking into giving back.”
Stuart will cross into Norway on May 30th and for nearly two weeks he will zoom up the Norwegian coast, traveling almost 300km per day, through big city roads, fjords and fishing villages until he reaches his end goal: Nordkapp.
“It could be sort of hairy at some points,” says Stuart thinking out loud about the snowy mountain passes and slick roads other bikers have warned him about.
“But that’s part of the adventure.”
And this adventure is long in the making.
The inspiration for this charity ride came up a few years ago and it’s something Stuart tried before.
“I tried it back in 2011 and I had a crash when I was in north east Sweden,” says Stuart. He was 1000km short of his final destination.
“It ate so much into my time that I had to turn around and head back home. It was disappointing. I’m really excited about making it to the Arctic and the Nordkapp. And because of last time it’s made me even more determined.”
This time with sponsors helping with out with fuel costs, a social media savvy wife who makes sure he’s up to date with all his posts and a new bike for the journey, Stuart is ready to hit the road and is looking forward to being able to bring his experiences from the trip back home with him.
“I’m just going to try and stop at the side of the road and get some shots of me riding and do little video diaries. And if I meet people, hopefully, if it’s ok with them, film them while we are chatting to get a feel for what the journey is actually about.”
The video, it seems, will be one part documentary, one part trophy and one part a thank you letter to the country hosting him for much of his ride.
“I’d like [Norwegians] to know that there is someone from a different part of Europe willing to venture into their wilderness and see what it’s like. It’s really nice to visit their country and show people that it’s a great place to go and visit and the people are amazing.”
More than anything though, Stuart can’t wait to stand on the rocky outcrop at the top of Norway with nothing but the Arctic Ocean in front of him.
“I think the feeling of reaching Nordkapp and achieving that is going to be unbeatable I think. Probably something I’ve never experienced.”
For more information on Arctic Ride 2014 visit http://arcticride.blogspot.no/. Follow Gordon on Twitter at @arcticride2014.
