Tour guide sets off on Yorkshire-Egypt bike ride

A walking tour guide has set off on a charity bike ride from North Yorkshire to Cairo to raise money for differently-abled people in Peru and Ecuador.

Harry Satloka left his home town of Harrogate on Monday and said he planned to cover 4,970 miles (8,000km) in the coming months to reach Egypt.

He said that while enjoying his trip across the UK and Europe, he also wanted to raise awareness for the Harrogate-based Artizan charity.

Mr Satloka said he wanted to go on the trek as he had "always fancied a bit of an adventure".

He said: “I'm desperate to do it, it's very exciting. The world is a big and fascinating place and I want to see as much of it as possible.

“I’m doing this for purely selfish reasons as I want an adventure, but it would be silly not to raise some money for charity at the same time.

“Hopefully this will raise money for our amazing charity Artizan - who we are doing all this for - who are incredible.”

Along with a cafe and a shop selling hand-crafted jewellery in Harrogate, the charity - which supports differently-abled people - also has sites in Peru and Ecuador.

Mr Satloka said he had moved to Yorkshire about eight years ago after falling in love with Harrogate during visits to his father’s hometown of Bradford.

He said he wanted to learn more about the history of the area and decided to start his walking tours, known as Harry Does History, as he was “amazed no-one else was doing it”.

He added that he had wanted to use the inspiration gained from his late father for his pedal-powered adventure which would end at the pyramids.

Mr Satloka said: “The main reason why I love history is because I was one of those miserable 14-year-olds where everything is just a bit rubbish and I had no sort of direction.

"I was very fortunate in the fact that my father realised this and he knew that I liked this history stuff and so he decided to take me to the pyramids and it worked.

“Ever since then I’ve been fascinated by history and it would be the last holiday I would ever have with my dad so I thought I’d go back and see it again.”

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