Hairy Biker Si King returns to Sycamore Gap tree site

When the world -famous plane tree fell illegally in September 2023, the TV chief and the hairy cyclist Si King were among those who were devastated by immoral destruction. He was so angry that he could not visit the site again.

He breathes a few deeply, takes himself out of steel, then walks slowly to the stumps.

A few green exiles are growing in the fence surrounding the ruins of the plane tree.

“Dear I,” he says, before he comes back, he was drowned by the “big stretching gap” in the landscape.

Im I started seeing, because I didn’t want it, or he says.

SI controls the scars left by a saw knife.

“Absolutely foolish,” he adds.

On the morning of September 28, 2023, he was among those who expressed the news that the popular turning point fell globally and his anger.

“You killed Northumberland’s time and basic spirit on a guard” Furious on social media. “Whatever the reason you do, it’s shocking.”

The TV chief, known as half of the best hairy cyclists, had to postpone the shoot that day because of the “visceral response” to the news.

In his direct message to those responsible – a 44 -second clip with almost two million views about X – he said that he hoped to have anger a conscience.

Si from the north -east of England, where the tree grew for more than 100 years, knew its importance.

“There was a magic and glory,” he calls him “the absolute exclamation of who we’re in this region of the world.”

Si, after a personal tragedy, a close friend who came to feed the tree was sent to the news that he had been cut with a text message.

He hoped it was misleading, but the links to the news articles sent in the follow -up messages brought a terrible approval.

That was his anger, he had to save the condemnation video several times because of the blasphemy in the original versions.

Following a third comprehensive attempt, he asked his hairy cyclist and his best friend Dave Myers whether it was acceptable to share with one million followers in X.

“I was absolutely angry,” Si says.

“This was beyond my understanding of vandalism and the ruthless pain level.

“I just don’t understand the mentality that will do it. I don’t understand this character and personality. It was just ugly.

“It came very personal.”

This feeling was shared by millions of people both in the UK and the world.

Sycamore GAP, marriage offers, wedding photos and mourning families were a scattered place.

For SI, “peace”, “consolation” and “lawyer” moments were “a special place”.

It was also a place he visited in the “crisis”.

Five months after the tree cutting, the screen partner and the “best wife” Dave died two years after revealing that there was cancer.

If the tree was still there, Si says, “Considering the year of everyone who joins hairy cyclists, he will go there to reflect his loss.

However, only stump remaining stump was “too much” to visit Dave immediately after his death.

Once he went to the plane house, but his emotions went back and “looked away”, he couldn’t bring himself to stop his car.

Only in June, Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers, both of them from King, were found to be guilty of chopping the tree, he felt ready to return, accompanied by Sycamore GAP: BBC film team, accompanied by the roots.

“It’s hard to put in words,” he says, while researching the scene.

“I am an emotional person and this misses a lot – tragic way.”

Sycamore GAP had an extra touch of SI because of another personal tragedy.

The close friend who sent him a message to tell him that the tree was cut off, lost his son when he was 18 years old.

After the death of the young, Symamore GAP became a natural place for gathering and mourning.

“The effect of this was enormous because we were all very close,” he says.

The peace of the Symamore gap was all of them “consolation”, so the tree was depicted on the young man’s gravestone.

“Sycamore gap is so important,” says Si.

“This is not just a tree.”