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The Place, The Person, The Plate and the Arctic to Asia Cycle Tour

Today, I am warm and rested. I sit on a sofa on a balcony basking in rays of sunlight, with a gentle breeze on my face and a glass of iced tea in front of me and, for a brief moment, I don’t feel that far from my hometown of Steyning.

Today is not like other days. That’s because I’ve just completed my 1223rd km of cycling as part of my Arctic to Asia cycle tour; a journey that has, so far, taken me from the Arctic Circle and the fjords of Tromsø, Norway, to the gentle rolling hills of Nord-Odal (a county just beside Oslo) where I can take some time to catch my breath.

I have cycled in snow and rain, in an endless headwind that seemed to last the entire trip, and over mountains that seemed to ascend forever. The distance doesn’t sound like that much but, including the ferries I’ve had to take across fjords and from island-to-island, it’s the equivalent of travelling from Oslo to Milan, and I still have a long, long way left to go.

5 months ago, I dreamed up a project. What started as an idea in the back of my head soon grew bigger and clearer, and before I knew it, it was all I could think about. I have absolutely zero cycling experience. In fact, I had a cycling accident when I was 11, and since then, before this trip, I had only been on a bike 4 times.

But what if I just got on a bike, and rode as far as I could go. How far could I get? In a day, maybe London. A week, maybe Amsterdam. But what if I went really, really far? What if I took, say, nine months, and pedalled as far as my legs would carry me? I reckoned, if I really pushed, I could make it to Azerbaijan.

And so was born the Arctic to Asia cycle tour. The concept of a cycle tour peaked my interest, but I still wanted something more. I have always enjoyed writing and meeting people from different walks of life. So, I decided to begin working on the other component of my trip: “The Place, The Person, The Plate.”

By travelling by bike you get to see some of the nooks and crannies – the hidden gems – of a country; the places no one hears anything about, but would probably love to visit if they just realised they existed. I, for example, had never heard of Dovre, Norway, a town where I have just spent three nights staying with a local family and hope to return to someday.

So, the idea behind “The Place, The Person, The Plate” is to give people a taste of life in some of the weird and wonderful places the world has to offer, and I do that through interviews. I’ve just started publishing them, and I’ve never been more impassioned by a project than this one.

Over the next year, with the help of my girlfriend, Miriam Ritter, I’ll be publishing interviews on my website every Wednesday. I’ve spent months developing a specially tailored interview format that reveals a lot about people’s values, general opinions, and attitudes to things like politics and cuisine.

In all, I like to think it allows me to really get under the skin of a country or region, wherever that may be. At the end of each interview, I ask for a recommendation of a local or national dish (hence “The Plate”), and whatever that recommendation is, I seek it out and try it.

Today, it feels like there are too many opposing sides; too many ‘Us’s and ‘Them’s. So, if one thing comes out of “The Place, The Person, The Plate”, I hope that I can increase some understanding between cultures and people. Just because someone doesn’t agree with you, or is from a different area or background, doesn’t mean that you don’t have things in common and that you wouldn’t get along.

As one of my interviewees said, “You can always agree on a cheeseburger”. We are similar in far more ways than we are different. If this kind of project interests you, and you want to follow country boy from Steyning on the trip of a lifetime, search for “The Place, The Person, The Plate” on Facebook, and “placepersonplate” on Instagram.

I’ve also been recording video diaries throughout the trip, which will be up on my YouTube channel “Place Person Plate”. Website: http://theplacethepersontheplate.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theplacethepersontheplate.co.uk/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/placepersonplate/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5JY_-lwYHTyPfBy3Q8ungQ
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