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Darren’s 9,000-mile adventure
Thursday August 21st 2008. Posted: 09:00
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Darren ready for his 9,000-mile adventure
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Sitting in his armchair watching actor Ewan McGregor’s 19,000-mile motorcycle journey in the television series Long Way Round fuelled Darren Lupton’s desire to have his own adventure.
And on Sunday (24 August), Darren sets off on his own 9,000-mile motorcycle journey which will take in 24 countries in one month. Darren, a solutions designer based in Carlisle, started planning the trip in May last year. “I turned 40 this year so that was on my mind when I decided I wanted to do something ‘definable’ which fitted in with my life and had an element of risk,” said Darren. “I’ve travelled quite a bit but always get homesick, only speak English and am the sort of person who would rather order room service than go in a restaurant on my own - I needed to get out of my shell.” Darren decided to visit all the mainland European Community countries - passing through them only once. His route takes in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. “I haven’t planned my overnight stops and will be carrying everything I need on the bike,” said Darren. “I’ll be riding on average 400 miles every day and hope to finish the trip in 25 days. I’ll have the additional problems of catching two ferries - Helsinki to Tallinn and Greece to Italy - needing to get the bike serviced at some point and probably needing new tyres, so these little challenges may set me back a few days.” As well as meeting his personal goals, Darren has set a target to raise £8,000 for ChildLine - BT’s UK charity of choice. “I’ve been working with the BT charities people to help me reach as many people as possible to help boost the funds,” said Darren. “Just 10p from every BT employee would get me to my target. And if I can raise £8,000 banked - less than £1 for every mile I cover - ChildLine would be able to make a difference to the lives of more than 2,600 young people. “The journey is being fully funded by me so every single penny raised will go directly to those who need it.” Darren begins his journey at the Hein Gericke shop, St Nicholas Industrial Estate, St Nicholas Street, Carlisle, at 2pm on Sunday. You can keep track of Darren’s progress through his daily blog on his website, where you can also find details of his Eur08 mileage game with a first prize of a EX02 Stormrider heated body warmer. He’ll also be keeping a video diary of the trip on a camcorder provided by ITV Border. To sponsor Darren, visit his Just Giving web page.
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Last updated:
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