RUNNING a travel company means Cirencester's Nick Laing has visited some of the most beautiful places in the world.

His latest adventure is no different and will see him tackle a 10,000-mile motorbike journey around the Mediterranean with some of his friends, including I'm a Celebrity star Lord Charles Brocket.

Nick, the founder of Steppes Travel in Cricklade Street, Cirencester, is no stranger to long bike journeys and in 2005 he travelled the width of Russia, from Moscow to Vladivostok on his BMW 1200GS.

He said: "I remember sitting at one of the tall concrete entrance columns in Vladivostok wondering if I would ever make a similar journey again. Four years on we're ready to go, only this time the terrain will be mainly sand and stone, instead of the drudgery of black mud and cold puddles."

The team of riders will travel the Mediterranean coastline, beginning in North Africa to avoid the summer heat.

Starting in London, the group will cross France and Spain before catching a ferry to Algeria. Their route then takes in the Northern coast of Tunisia, Libya and across Egypt.

They will then cross the Red Sea to Jordan, before riding through Syria, Turkey, and former eastern block countries including Bulgaria, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia, before heading through Italy and France and returning to London.

"It’s Easy Rider 40 years on, with only one of us on a Harley and ancient architecture as the backdrop," Nick said.

He has estimated they will need to cover 320 miles a day to get through the journey by June, including a ten-day break for sightseeing.

During the adventure the group will be raising money for the Galitzine St Petersburg Trust, a memorial library that holds historic Russian texts outlawed under communism.

•The Standard will be publishing Nick's blogs on the website, so keep a track on his travels.