Carlisle bike shop owner Mike Lee doesn’t just love getting out on two wheels – such is the owner of Palace Cycles’ passion for ticking off new places that he’s gone where most would never venture.

North Korea, a country renowned for its secrecy, its controversial nuclear programme and its devotion to the ruling Kim dynasty, was where Mike went to for his latest big adventure.

In this month’s Carlisle Living Mike tells how he finally managed to put the wheels in motion for the long-awaited trip – it was when George W Bush described the country as part of an “Axis of Evil” in 2002 that his curiosity was first piqued.

“I’ve always had a passion for visiting places which have been pivotal in world history,” Mike tells Carlisle Living.

“Then again, others might say I’m just a contrary bugger.”

In a country where North Koreans must abide by one of 28 approved haircuts, Mike tells how he and four others in an organised tour party arrived on the only flight into Pyongyang to be greeted by charming government minders and put up in a vast, fully-staffed, but otherwise empty hotel on an island overlooking the capital.

He tells of moral struggles at having to bow at the shrine of the country’s despotic dynasty, trips around the country that only made him more curious and of baffling propaganda.

Also in this month’s Carlisle Living read about how volunteer members of the public uncovered precious Roman artefacts; how Story Rail lead engineer Mark Carruthers, a former Royal Marine, has released the single Born to Fight in aid of the charity Walking With The Wounded, how Carlisle sports therapist Dan Anderton worked with the winning M-Sport Bentley team and how Miss Cumbria Claire Bell, from Carlisle, is committed to working with mental health charities.