Tom's Bike Trip(s)

Four years ago I'd never picked up a video camera. Neither had I cycled for more than one day. Now, with 15,000 miles, 35 countries and 300 hours of footage beneath my wheels, I'm beginning to grasp the fundamentals of adventure film-making.

I eke out a living from web-development, but this has no intrinsic value to me. This year is about the transition to doing what I love and making a living from it. I'm 60,000 words into my first book, and there's hope that those 300 hours will be cut into a documentary. But I've never had a mentor during this time. Everything I've learned has been through trial and error.

This video was shot on a whim in the Scandinavian Arctic in February, edited in a day. My journeys are about busting stereotypes, ditching guidebooks and itineraries in search of the authentic, whether uplifting or mundane, exciting or arduous. For 2012 I'm laying plans to learn Farsi and travel across Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, looking at life on the ground in this misrepresented part of the world. I'm hoping for a TV commission. Needless to say, this scholarship would mean the world to me.