Sir Nicholas White , Bt.

In 2006 I retired from a Dubai-based pipe manufacturing business to return home to the UK. I did not want to just hop on an aeroplane and fly home, so I hatched a plan to start a great adventure - a road trip from China to the UK via the North Cape in Norway. Whilst planning the trip, I decided to also raise money for charity. The charities I chose were SightSavers International and Orbis, both of which help save and restore eyesight in the many countries I have lived and worked throughout my career.

The route was one of the longest practical routes I could take. Starting in Shanghai, the route followed the Yangtse River inland, on into Tibet. From Tibet I travelled across the Tibetan plateau, skirted the Gobi Desert, before entering Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and back into Kazakhstan, heading for Russia. A diagonal route through Russia brought me to Finland, from where I crossed into Norway and to the most northerly point of the European continent, the North Cape. The final days of the trip saw me drive down the west coast of Norway, into Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Belgium, before taking the Eurotunnel from France to the UK and home.

The result of this trip is the book, "The 18,000 KM Diaries: China To The UK Via The North Cape To Save Sight", which uses my diaries from the trip and a wealth of photographs taken along the way. My hope is that the book will bring my experiences alive and inspire the reader to support the two charities, which will receive the profits of the sale of my book as a donation.