“Why we launched Freedom Trike Tours..”
Welcome to our blog.. I’m Chris Hurst and with my fiancée Ceri Keighley, we launched Freedom Trike Tours in the summer of 2009. Why did we choose such an unusual idea ? Well, Freedom Trike Tours was born out of passion. A passion for the great outdoors, a passion for adventure, and a passion for sharing these experiences with others (oh and Billy Connelly, plus New Zealand played their part, but I will get to that later).
You see, we both love being outside, in the fresh air, enjoying beautiful landscapes and exploring new and exciting places. This was the reason for choosing the Lake District as our main ‘playground’ for trike tours. If you’ve never been to the Lake District it really is an incredible place to visit. Apart from the glorious lakes and mountains, plus the many charming towns and villages, one main advantage is it’s so compact. This means you can really get out and about and geographically explore a lot in a short space of time (although the scenery will often keep you spellbound and slow you down. It really is that spectacular). And because we’re so familiar with the area, we know exactly where to take you if you’re looking to get off the tourist trail, to some more remote places.
Anyway what does this have to do with Billy Connelly and New Zealand? Well, if you remember, a few years ago Billy set off on a world trip taking in Australia and New Zealand, touring the country on his custom made trike. Watching Billy, it was clear to see how much fun he was having on the open road, with the sun on his face and the wind in his hair, taking in some of the most amazing scenery I’d ever seen. These images stayed with me and for years I longed to experience the same freedom of the open road.
And then in an act of serendipity, in Feb 2008, Ceri and I were invited over to New Zealand for a family wedding (my brother moved there in 2005 but I had never visited him or New Zealand before). Whilst there, Ceri and I embarked on our own road trip, taking in both the north and south Islands on an epic 5 week journey. To keep things practical, we hired a camper van, but the images of Billy on his trike were never too far from my mind. We both fell in love with New Zealand, the people and it’s laid back culture, but decided it was too far away to call home. However, my recently renewed desire to hit the road had reached fever pitch.
So, on our return we looked into buying a trike, and after a bit of searching we soon purchased our bright yellow, three seater Boom trike. Before we knew it, we had this website designed and had leaflets in place all over Lake District. We took our first customers on our inaugural tour in June 2009. On the day, the weather was kind and the couple both thoroughly enjoyed their experience. With this first successful tour completed I knew this was going to be a fun business to operate. And with miles and miles of open road and beautiful scenery to explore what else could we call our newly launched business?
Enjoy the ride!
Chris Hurst - Freedom Trike Tours
