9547 km later...

...its back home. It has been a wonderful trip and I enjoyed all of it, the camping, the great light in the north, the midnight sun, all (well almost all) of the 6000 miles we did and, looking back, even the cold rain and miserable weather we had on very few days added some charm to it, I don't want to miss.

We reached our goal


















Crossed that Arctic Circle a few times















Some of us did crazy things..


















We were always on the look for good roads















And guess what - we found them :)



We've met nice people, seen great things and all in all, had a nice little adventure. I think, what I enjoyed most up there was the loneliness of the roads and land. Driving through woods or tundra for miles without meeting a car is quite special for a guy coming from slightly overpopulated Switzerland.

oh, and if you would like to see some more pics, just go to http://www.schnydrig.ch/Nordkap there you'll find... some more.

Oh, and for those who were worried about my plants - they all survived, even the plastic bush ;)

As usual, as the end of the trip came closer, we started to think about where to go next.

French Alps maybe... some nice curve dancing on the bike.
Or the mediterranean islands of Sardinien and Korskika... always good food.
But then we've also heard that Rumenia could be nice.. a bit wild as well with bad, lonely roads...

Waiting for the ferry

So it's about time to leave Norway. A beautiful trip is coming to an end, all that is left now is to drive home. We'll take our time doing this and most likely avoid the highways (I hate the German highways with their lunatic high speed junkies), so it will take us about 4 days or so. I just hope, the weather is better on the mainland. Here in Norway, the drizzling rain found us again this morning as we were driving to the ferry.

this entry has been sponsored by McDonalds in Kristiansand :)

A rainy day

What a lousy, miserable weather. It started with drizzling rain in the morning and then got progressively worse. The rain even managed to find a way into my rain gear and soak my sweatshirt. Even worse, it somehow got into my bag and soaked my sleeping bag. It was so wet, my bike even got mossy, as the picture proves. I really hate these rainy days when you have to be on the bike all day. But at least it stopped raining now and maybe we are more lucky tomorrow. And sorry, no pretty pictures today, as our cameras are not waterproof ;)

We are heading home now and will probably take the ferry back to Denmark on Wednesday.

Back to Norway

Well, we finished our crossing of Sweden and passed the Arctic Circle twice, once in Sweden from South to North and then again a bit later in Norway from North back to South on the E6 with all the other tourists.
Not much to tell about today, so you get some pretty pictures from today instead.

Camping in Sweden

Today's camp ground is a bit special. I am actually not even sure, if it is a campground at all. On our way back to Norway, where we crossed the Arctic Circle two times (once going south, once again going north) we decided not to drive all the way Norway. We saw a little sign that announced a camp ground and left the road. When we saw a place with two trailers, we stopped and asked the man there how much it would be for a night. He looked a bit puzzled first and then told us he would charge 50 Kronen. He was even so kind to accept Norwegian money as we have no Swedish cash.
After we installed our tents, we realized that the place rather looks like a farm with guest houses. So it looks as if we would camp in the farmers freshly mowed field. But we don't complain at all, its a lovely place.

Friendly people these Swedish folks!

Finland

Finland... Take the biggest forest you can imagine. Then add some trees. More trees, much more trees. Then add some lakes and swamps. Swamps, where all the mosquitoes breed and happily grow up. Intelligent mosquitoes even, as they are clever enough to avoid the roads where they would be killed on the windscreens of the cars that drive through the forests. Instead they wait in the grass until tourists stop. And then it takes them about 3 minutes to locate you and gather for supper.
When you have all that, add some roads. Some of them with tarmac, some without. Not too many roads, just enough to connect the few villages and towns in the land. Got it? Well, that's Finland.
Oh, and when you want to tell your children, where Rudolf, the Reindeer is... He's here in Finland, visiting his family.

We were first a bit afraid to drive here, as we thought it would be very boring to drive for hours through the woods on endless roads. But actually, it is quite nice and doesn't look all the same all the time. But we just drive through it never the less. There are really too many mosquitoes to stay and camp more then one night.

From Russia with Love

Well, I admit, I am a bit disappointed. I definitely expected more. Something like a tall guy with fur cap, having his kalaschnikov machine gun strapped to his chest. And maybe a few tanks, barb wire and a few helicopters, yes helicopters would have been nice.
Or at least a black limousine with one or two guys wearing dark sun glasses inside who stare at us, only waiting for us to do one false move.

But the Russian border station looks pretty much like any other border station I've seen so far. Well, I guess cold war ended up here in the north as well.

At least the weather is a bit Siberian today, cold and a bit of rain all day. And the thermometer outside the cabin says it is -4 centigrade. But that one is probably as much
exaggerating as Toni's usually is. That one reported optimistic 16 degrees earlier today.

The Cape

So we made it. We didn't got bust, we didn't get lost and found the cape. We actually were pretty lucky with the weather, as we arrived just in time to take a couple of pictures before everything was covered in thick fog and rain. Good thing we didn't expect more. If you plan to go the the cape as well, have some cash ready, the toll road to the cape and the entrance to the visitor centre costs almost 80 Franks per person and bike (380 Kronen).

And the weather today was actually how I imagined it to be up here, cold, windy, a drizzling rain... Actually, I'm glad, it was only today like that so far!

The scenery at the cape is not that spectacular, but that wasn't the reason why we got here anyway. It was all about driving the way up here. And the best thing is, the trip is only half over.

Next stop: Russia!

Lonely roads

Driving here in the north is quite special as today we didn't came across many villages and were for miles alone on the road. That somehow gives a feeling of being really far far away from home. About 5500 km from home to be exactly.

Oh, and when you see a gas station - better fill up!

Long ride north

Today we got a big step closer to the Cape and are now about 200 away from it. We are now back on the E6. It is better to drive up here as there is not much traffic, but it was a long and rather boring trip never the less.

It is still surprisingly warm up here (about 25 centigrade) and we are somehow waiting for the bad weather surprise any day now. Either this is global warming or the summers are just much warmer in the north than we expected!

Lofoten Islands and Hobbits

What can we say about the Lofoten... Other then when you go to the northern part of Norway, you absolutely should spend a couple of days there. If you have the time, you can go fishing, hiking, sailing or just drive up and down the Islands and enjoy the view. And what a view you will have! Steep, dark mountains that rise from the sea, green rolling hills, white sandy beaches and here and there colourful fishermen villages. And as it was a wonderful day, I didn't whistle songs while driving the bike, no I was even singing :)

A tip for the traveller, when you go from the Lofoten north using the E10, be aware, that camp grounds get more and more rare. After we decided to not yet take one, we had to drive about 100 km until the next one came.

Since a couple of days, the scenery reminds me pretty much of certain landscapes from the Lord of the Ring movies. And guess what we found on the camp ground we took today? Yes, a hobbit house!! So, they have to be somewhere around here. Maybe we can surprise them later, when its dark.

No wait... We're in the land of midnight sun now, so that won't work.

Meeting a friend

Today's trip went to the island of the Lofoten, were we met with Roland and his family, a friend I know from a school I did last year. A very pleasant trip and I think the ferry we took from Bodo to the islands was the last one for a while.


First thing Roland said, after I took off my helmet was “Man, they got you!”. He was referring to the mosquito bites I guess. I stopped counting them, but my face looks like I would be in second puberty. Or have the black plague. The good thing is, they only start itching after three days. The bad thing? It itches like hell.


It was a pleasant evening, talking about cars, bikes, a bit about work and the company. Not too much about work, as he is on his sabbatical as well :) They rented a house, right at the beach and I think they have a splendid time up here, travelling through Scandinavia, renting a house for a week or two, and then go to the next place. Their son told us quite proud about the fish he caught, and the kids seem to enjoy it here definitely as well.


From today on, navigation will be rather easy. I simply enter “North Cape” in to my GPS and follow the the pink line on the display :)


Oh, and something for the geographicly challenged like myself: We are now further north than any big town in Alaska.

Past the Arctic Circle

Yepp, we made it. We are now officially in the Arctic. How do we know? Well, the mosquitoes and little flies are eating us alive, the days are even longer and the speaker on the ferry announced it when the ship crossed the Arctic circle. And if you look really carefully, you see a globe on the shore. We looked really, really carefully, but we didn't see a line where the Arctic circle came down the hill and hit the shore. All we saw was a rainbow spanning over some hills.
And best thing was, that we got that ferry ride for free. Somehow, nobody thought of charging us for the ride and so we didn't have to pay for the longest and most expensive ferry ride on road 17 :)

The day started with a wet surprise (again), but as the days before, it stopped raining and the sun came out. The road number 17 is still fantastic, good to drive and the scenery is still very, very nice. It starts to look different now, the woods climb only a a few above sea level and then every thing seems to be rock and moss. And the tree look different as well, smaller, kind of a hobbit version of the trees we know. And the light up here is really fascinating. Not so much around lunchtime, but in the long mornings and evenings the light is awesome.

Almost midnight Sun

Almost midnight sun... 11 PM, when we were about to go to bed, we were surprised by this view when then sun came out of some clouds.

Boring road to the North

Well, when ever you go to Norway and plan to go North, stay away from the E6 Road as long as you can. It is the main road north and every tourist and truck uses it. We had to use it in the morning for about two hours ad felt as if we would be part of a convoy.

The friendly Swiss people we met yesterday told us to leave it after Steinkier and use the road number 17 instead. And this is definitely a road I can recommend. Its again a very nice scenery and much, much less traffic. The only drawback is that we have to use more ferries now. I hope we will have more luck than today when we just missed it and had to wait for a full hour.

And now, we didn't made it to the Arctic circle. Following the road it definitely isn't just around the corner, so we will be there tomorrow... or the day after... maybe.

Going north

Well, to get up when it is just 12 centigrades outside is definitely refreshing, even if we spent the night in a cabin. Specially as we forgot to turn on the heating.

First was a visit to a place called Geirangerfjord. The weather wasn't nice with us today, so we didn't have a great view. I guess we upset some Trolls yesterday when we refused to share our beer. If you have some time, it would definitely be a very nice idea to spend a day or so and take a tour in a boat. When we arrived at the fjord, two huge cruse ships were there. They came all the way from the coast, driving into the fjord and it is impressive to see these huge ships so far away from the sea.

Next stop was at a waterfall called Trollstigen. Yepp, another waterfall. Looks like hey have plenty of them here. And it looks as we arrived where all the tourists are now :) It is a pity it was raining all day, the road would really have been fun to drive with the bikes.

We are heading north now and are about 1000 miles (1600 km) from the North Cape. Maybe we will arrive at the Arctic circle tomorrow.

But for now we are on a camp ground, where we found a few fellow Swiss campers who volunteered to put our beer in the fridge. Guess it should be cold by now – so bye for today :)

Rain, sheep and gravel roads

Ah, what a way to start a day by listening to the raindrops falling on the tent! Luckily, the waterfall next to the camp ground was so loud, I didn't notice it until I had my head out of the tent and got a fresh shower. So we started the day with full rain gear, but it look as if Thor, the god of thunder and the local trolls are happy with us, because it soon stopped raining and it got actually a very pleasant day.
The scenery is just spectacular, there are snow covered mountains (although only 3000 feet high), wild rivers, waterfalls where ever you look ,and the ever changing light makes the landscape look so great, we almost forget to look where we are driving. Ooops, there was a sheep!

The sheep are everywhere in the mountains, and as they have about the same colour as the rocks, we often see them laying next to the road just when we pass them. Luckily, so far they are quite cool and don't run on the road.

And we found our first gravel roads. First one was in a road construction site. Although we had green lights, we had to evade some traffic and got into deep, soft gravel. That was a rather interesting experience :)
In the evening, on our way to the famous Geirangerfjord, we came across two gravel roads. The first one started quite surprisingly. One moment we were happily cruising along with 80 km/h, the next moment we were in a big cloud of dust. Once the dust settled, we were able to see the landscape, and if you ever go to Norway, I would recommend to go there.
The second one was a toll road. We paid about 50 Kronen each (about 10 swissis). And the road goes up to a lookout point where you have a great view on the Geirangerfjord. Unless you get into fog and see only about... 10 feet.

Finally a beer!

I slowly start to worry. Who ever we tell, that we are going to the North Cape, looks at us as if we would come from outer space and goes like: “Oh really? That's far...” And today, I start to understand why. Our plan is to do about 300 km a day, which isn't a big thing on normal roads, specially when the sun never goes down. But here, after 20 km, you come to the first ferry, wait an hour, then you drive a bit to the next and wait an hour... hmmm... this might take a lil while.

Interesting here are the tunnels. Most of them are just – pitch black. No lights, no nothing. We both pray, that our headlights don't give up in such a thing. Not that we would see much. Loaded as our bikes are, we are illuminating the ceiling more than the road :)

The camp ground we found today is at a waterfall called Twindefossen. We have our camp right at its bottom (talk about noise, lol) but its a cool place to be. Talking of cool: As booze is so expensive here, we had our first beer since two days. Beer we brought with us all the way from Switzerland. And all we had to do to cool it was to but the cans in the river :)

For Dinner we had yummy Penne Arrabiata, mixed with just a few drops of rain. It looks now as if the heatwave would be over and we are approaching more Arctic conditions – and finally we have the right cloths to wear :)

Hiking?! not with me :)

Another nice, although still short trip as we did some sight seeing. First one was a waterfall, called Manafossen. Of course with another 30 minuted climbing stuff, but at least the view was once again worth it. But boy, do my legs remind me of yesterdays hike! So, when we arrived at the Preikestolen camp ground, we first asked, how long it would take to hike there. And you know what? I am now sitting here in the shadow, having a cold drink while Toni is doing the 2 hike. And even I haven't been there, I am sure it will be another climbing trip.

So one word about hiking in Norway: You definitely get to spectacular places, but the local toursit office thinks that you:
A: Are an experienced hiker who knows how to do light climbing
B: Are not afraid of heights
C: you know what to do and what not to do when you stand next to an abyss – as there are no security ropes – ever.
D: that you know the track, as the trails are not really well marked.

Oh, and we met somebody today who told us, that there is still snow at the north cape.