That’s a lot of sort-ofs – but the most important thing is that I’ve definitely started drawing lines on maps and making spreadsheets. This is how my trips start. Just 15 months to plan!

The Map

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The Dates

The Money

On the way out the gentleman who was looking after the place noticed I wasn’t a local and asked where I’d come from. I told him my story – a short run out from the UK on my motorbike – I’d hardly finished the sentence before he was digging around in a pile of pendants… he gave me a St Christopher and told me to take it home to my local church and ask my priest to bless it.

Click to read the full prayer

This is the prayer that the vicar at Bledlow wrote for me – we said it together with Catherine last night. I think it’s beautiful and it will come with me on all my travels. I hope you have something that you can carry next to your heart on your travels, something that gives you faith that the road ahead will not be too dangerous, that the people you meet will be kind and friendly and that your motorbike hangs together just long enough to get you around the world.

My Travellers Prayer
Written for me by our vicar, Jennifer Locke. 

Heavenly Father, we ask for your blessing upon this emblem of your saint, Christopher, holy patron of travellers.

May Matthew travel consciously with Christ as his companion.

Give him wisdom that he may travel prudently and with due regard to the safety and customs of others he may meet on his way.

Give him the awareness to perceive in the beauty of nature a reflection of your glory.

Still his heart that he may be at peace with your world and your people and reflect your light to those who have not yet come to know you.

As Matthew wears this emblem, may it be a reminder to him that you are there to protect and guide him in his going out and his coming in.

In Jesus name, Amen.

Coast to coast through the Pyrenees from Today Adventure on Vimeo.

From the gentleman’s blog:

Pizza Boy
Bragança, Portugal
One tiny scooter that dares to leave town and just can’t stop anymore. An ordinary sedentary driver in shorts and t-shirt, whom they call Pizza Boy. Stories and sensations of a world seen at 25 mph, on top of a motorised flea.

More of his videos can be found over on Vimeo.

No.

Have a read of this piece on the BBC Magazine written by a poor poor journalist who has been forced to experience the internet and phone signal in an area previously untouched by such modern inconveniences.

Sorry, I know I’m sounding snarky. The thing that gets my goat here is that it’s wonderful to be a tourist experiencing the un-touched parts of the planet – but the reality is those places have people living in them, and why on earth should they be denied access to the internet or mobile signal to make us feel better and really ‘get away from it all’.

I feel the same way towards this journalist as I do to 40 year olds who complain about Radio 1. There’s a simple answer here… turn it off.

Best line in the piece:

Take Ernest Shackleton’s heroic Antarctic feat – one of the greatest adventure stories of all time.

One wonders whether it would even have happened had the internet been around in his day.

Of course, you’re quite right. The internet has killed the spirit that led to explorers wanting to push the limits. These guys are quite clearly  just sat in front of their computers experiencing the small world via the net and not getting out there.

…and breath.

That’s what awaits me on Sunday at The Ace Cafe in North London as I attend the Overland & Adventure Travel Bike Day. The day kicks off at 9am and I’ll be there from around 6am helping Les set up the Traveldri Plus stand. I can’t wait to show off the XT on the stand and explain to everyone why I have a rubber mat on my seat.

I’ll also be announcing the winner of the 2012 most inspirational travel book awards (voting closes on Friday so go vote now). In true thelondonbiker style I also have some stuff to give away.

Motorcycle Direct – the bike insurers – have given me two hampers to give away. The first is a valentine’s week special – this is your get out of jail free card – if you’ve left the Mrs behind to get to the Ace and play with your mates – head home with this to calm the waters. The hamper has:

It’s easy to win these hampers – I’ll have them with me on the day – all you need to do is find me and say at the top of your voice ‘These BMW jobs are crap!‘ See, easy. First person to find me and say these magic words after 9am gets both hampers there and then – can’t say fairer than that.

See you on Sunday!

And the winner was: Alex Richards from London! Congratulations Alex and I hope you other half enjoyed the bubbles and chocolate.

I stopped commuting into London when I moved out of town and had to ride down Euston Road and out to the Old Street roundabout every day. I had four near-death experiences on that stretch of road in as many days and decided it was time to hide the bike away for commuting and concentrate on the adventure bit. But reading through the stats it seems I’m in a minority.

London has more bikers than Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle combined. In fact 12 per cent of the total UK bikers are based in London. Which is hardly surprising when you consider the daily grid lock into and out of town. It also turns out that over the last year we’ve been registering more low-powered bikes (50-125cc) than ever before. There were 17 per cent more new, low engine bikes registered in the UK between December 2010 and December 2011. I just hope they’re not all scooters. (not that I have anything against idiot scooter riders you understand).

We all know that biking into London is quicker, cheaper and greener than pretty much all other options – so I think it may be time to reconsider that season ticket with Chiltern Railways and get back on the bike. I may even get the gear out in time for the ride from The Ace Cafe on Saturday with Ross Noble and friends in aid of Riders for Health - something you should consider if you’re heading to the show on Saturday.

For me though, the highlight of the show has to be going to see Dougie Lampkin wreck the place – I love the press blurb:

By day he’s the mild-mannered 12-times World Trials Champion, but by night Dougie Lampkin roams the streets in pursuit of an ASBO. This should do it – breaking and entering the ExCeL London where in just a few days he’ll be racing David Knight, John McGuinness, Neil Hodgson, Ian Hutchinson and Chris Walker in our Revolution extreme obstacles enduro challenge, sponsored by Michelin. But will he get past the SAS-trained guard to do the pre-race research he craves?

Nothing else to say really… mild-mannered 12-times World Trails Champion? Surely that’s not possible. Take a look at the video to see what I mean.

I’ve been stunned by the response – so many books have been nominated that I’ve had to narrow them down to the top 20 so that voting will be a little more sensible. The winners of the nomination competition to win a £30 Traveldri-Plus voucher and a Lonely Planet book up to the value of £15 are:

• 1st Place - Greg Hughes (voucher)
• 2nd Place – Steve Freeman  (book)

Congratulations to you both. Now, without further ado – get clicking the votes below and help make your favourite travel book the 2012 Inspirational Travel book of the year!

• Power Traveller Products
• Power monkey
• Mini gorilla
• Exped Down / Syn Mats
• TATONKA – Narvik 2
• EXPED – Orion
• Garmin Zumo 660 – long term test

I want to do a lot more than that this year – especially when I head down to the Pyrenees in September – but I’d really like your feedback on what you’d like to see reviewed. So please… take a moment and use the form below to make some suggestions and I’ll get right on it.

I’ve already started to gather recipes to film over on Horizons – but if you’ve got something you’d like to try let me know using the form below.

Cooking videos planned

• Frittata
• Sausage Casserole
• Provincial Fish Stew
• Sardines and Spinach
• Paella
• Scallop and Chorizo Kebabs
• Eggy cheese sandwich

Let me know what you'd like me to review.

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Suggestions so far:

• Spearmint Rhino (I’m going to say no here)
• Bike luggage (will do a comparison I think – soft vs hard, different types of hard)
• Brick lane bagel shop (no idea, but okay why not)
• Tucano Thermal Aprons
• France (what the whole country?)

So to kick things off here is the 2012 nominations form. I’ll keep nominations open for 10 days (closing at midnight on the 21st January 2012). The titles nominated will then be put up for public voting over another 10 days – we’ll then be able to announce the top 10 most inspiring travel books for 2012. You can nominate any book – it doesn’t need to have been published recently.

To help things along I’m going to put two prizes up for grabs – 1st prize is a Traveldri Plus £30 voucher and 2nd prize is a Lonely Planet book of your choice up to a max value of £15. In order to enter you must provide your details on the form below (which you can also access directly here). Judges (my) decision is final and winners will be selected at random from all nominations received.

::NOMINATIONS CLOSED::

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