Travels in the Arctic Circle - Research & Book

Hi, I am David Buiks and I'd like to welcome you to Travels in the Arctic Circle.

This ongoing travel & exploration project, which has started in 2021, originates from the time of the Covid pandemic. During lockdown, I’ve come up with the initiative to make a series of explorations in the lands and regions surrounding the Arctic Circle. I want to tell the story of their many traditions, histories, myths and interconnections. And I am going to do the whole thing by motorcycle.

Travelling the Arctic Circle on two wheels unlocks the possibility to visit places and meet people beyond the regular boundaries. All the while I will be researching the cultural-historic background and current developments in this unique part of the world. The final goal is to write and publish a book about it all. It will include both my research and my travel experiences.

Update November 2023:

The second Arctic Circle trip is on! I will visit Iceland in 2024. Research is ongoing and technical preparations and training have started. I will travel by both land and sea this time. Meanwhile, the baseline for the book is taking shape. So many wonderful stories to tell already!

More about the project

These travels and the final book will be as much a study of the history and culture of these lands, as a research into ways of travelling there. It’s been inspired by the work of writers such as Bruce Chatwin, Geoffrey Blainey and Fernand Braudel. I mean to capture a place and time which, as a result of climate change, may be lost to us in a few decades. And I mean to do tell the story in a thorough and involving way.

Late September 2022 I returned from my first tour in the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia, travelling solo with my motorcycle through Sapmi (the northern regions of Norway, Sweden and Finland, also known as Lapland). You can read all about it in my Arctic Circle travelblog.

Currently I am planning the second tour, to Iceland. I will visit the volcanic lands in the interior as well as the polar coastline in the north. A third trip to Arctic Canada is planned for 2025-26. This tour will include a visit to Tuktoyaktuk, the northernmost point reachable by road in Yukon territory. Further ventures will include Labrador and, hopefully, Greenland.

From a practical viewpoint, these journeys are quite difficult at times and certainly not without risk. I do believe firmly though that this story needs to be told.

As I have experienced on my first Arctic Circle tour (and on many journeys besides), it’s the support of others that make travels like these possible. So I kindly ask for your donation, however great or small. Your contribution will go toward making both these travels and the resulting book possible logistically and financially. The book will be sure to have a dedication to your name, as well as being being provided to you for free, if you wish so.