LETTER OF THE WEEK

The idea of my new partner leaving for five months on a trip he had planned before he knew me wasn’t that appealing to either of us, so we decided I would join him. The “holiday” he had organised was an epic motorcycle adventure, riding 24,000 miles from Alaska all the way to Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina, with a company called Globebusters (globebusters.com). I rushed through my motorcycling test and was riding in Alaska just three months later. What did the experience teach me? I learnt how to ride a bike in all conditions: 100mph crosswinds, snow, sand. I learnt basic Spanish very quickly, but most valuably I learnt to breathe and absorb life – because one moment you are arriving somewhere beautiful, the next you are leaving and it’s too late. If you don’t ask questions, you don’t learn anything; if you don’t get lost exploring, you don’t see anything; and if you don’t skinny dip in the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans on the same trip, you can never say, “I did that”. Nicole Huggins, from Kent, wins a £250 Aito holiday voucher