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Baltic Circle 2016; Bit more than a day out.

Chris

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Well only a few more days and it's off with the water and gas, put the cat out, cancel the milk and papers and we're away. We'll do our best to do some sort of blog thing, but doubtless we'll just end up with ipads full of photos and GoPros full of random roads; social media just isn't our thing and neither are we film makers. But I think it's going to be a cracking run.

We leave Harwich on Weds over to Hoek and on up through the Netherlands and Germany into Denmark.

We've a mix of camp sites and as much wild camping as we can do all the way around. We're staying a couple of days with my Uncle in Finland then back down the other side and home. See it sounds simple doesn't it. 3500 miles roughly and 3 weeks to do it in.

We have itemised it all and we're:
  • Not leaving before 09.00 in the morning.
  • Not parking any later than 17.00, mostly well before that.
  • Taking an hour for lunch and relaxing
  • Not doing much more than 200 miles a day but if we need to push then we can

Here's the rough route. Miles of nothing but trees and water? Precisely. This is about relaxing not trying to set a World land speed record. It's a holiday.

Screen Shot 2016-07-28 at 11.34.57.jpg
 
Have a great trip , and enjoy all those countries.
Hope you can stick to those plans
 
Looks absolutely brilliant Chris. Might copy it some day.

Stay safe and enjoy.
 
Small suggestion...try and include the Kvarken Archipelago in Finland. Well worth a visit esp if you are carrying your home-made canoe. Safe Travels.
 
Cheers Guys. We've been planning a while and there is flexibility plus escape routes in the way of ferries across certain sections and so on. We've some firm targets to hit but enough slack here and there in the right places. Of course if the engine blows up then all bets are off. But we have breakdown recovery to the UK, full trailer insurance and so on. Mrs doesn't like mild peril so we've taken great care in picking the best support packages.

Other than that it's a few ferries and a ring of tarmac. Just loved the Hairy Biker's Northern exposure series. Looked beautiful. Thought, right, we'll do that then.
 
Not taking the canoe Mojo, we did think about it but we've so much kit already but we do plan to hire some for sure. I'll plot that destination in the route. Thanks

C
 
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Chris, looks like you are driving through Ssiauliai, Lithuania. Worth stopping at the Hill of Crosses for 30mins.

Also looks like you are going through Kaliningrad Russia, if so be aware that they do not speak a word of English at the border and you will have to complete a customs vehicle import and export form.... we had fun doing that when we crossed with our motorbikes in 2011. I'll see if I can find the reference form we used which may help you when filling yours out.

Finally if you are going through Kaliningrad, you may consider driving via Klaipeda and then down that spit of land into Russia, we loved that part stopping part of the way down and dipping our toes in the Black sea. There is a border crossing half way down and once in the main part we also found a interesting post WW2 cemetery, if you are interested I will grab a reference for you.

Enjoy, awesome trip indeed.
 
Trust me Tony we are not going through Russia. That just a representation of our route because lots of people don't know where the Baltic is. They are straight lines drawn between our camping spots rather than the actual roads we're taking. We've taken the decision to stick completely to Europe.

Hill of Crosses was in the Hairy Bikers trip, if you've seen it.
 
Happy for you that you are missing out on Kaliningrad... absolute dump of a place but did not want to spoil it for you if you were really looking forward to going there...
 
What is the Estonian "lady" waypoint all about ;). On your map
 
Not a clue. I must have just rested the cursor when I took the screen shot.
 
Thanks Rob, I think it will reveal many hidden delights. And cheap beer.

C
 
That looks like it'll be fun. Enjoy. Keep posting pics :)
 
Looks like you're doing the inner loop. I did the outer one :) Its a great part of the world. Have a great trip Chris!
 
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