Twitter adventurer showcases the North East
Aug 19 2009 by Sam Wood, The Journal
AN INTERNET adventurer who travelled to the other side of the world thanks to his Twitter followers has been adventuring closer to home.
Paul Smith, dubbed the Twitchhiker, was made famous around the world earlier this year.
He set himself the challenge of seeing how far he could travel from his home in Low Fell, Gateshead, in 30 days, relying on nothing but the goodwill of Twitter followers.
The 34-year-old made it all the way to New Zealand using donations from his followers.
But now he is in the middle of another challenge, designed to showcase the best of the North East, completing an activity a day all this week. Using the new ‘Adventure Generator’ interactive tool at the Visit North East website, which selects three activities from across the region at random, Paul then asked his followers to vote on what he should do.
He said: “I’m really excited by this new challenge.
“It just shows what there is to do in the North East. The generator selected three things for me to do each day and then I got people to vote on which one I should do. I said I didn’t really want to do anything involving water or heights, so that has backfired quite badly.”
On Monday he climbed Roseberry Topping, near Middlesbrough, and yesterday Paul spent a day bouldering in Durham Climbing Centre.
Today he will take a hot air balloon ride over the region, weather permitting. And tomorrow he will be walking on water inside a big plastic ball in Hartlepool harbour, before flying down a zip slide at Matfen Hall on Friday.
Throughout the week long challenge he will be tweeting and posting video and audio clips on his website.
To follow Paul’s adventures visit www.visitnortheastengland.com/twitchHiker
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