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Baltic Circle 2016; Bit more than a day out.
- Thread starter Chris
- Start date
As I did all of the driving, set camp up at the day's end and cooked the evening meal, I'd rather hoped that one of my two travelling companions would have kept a log or diary. But the sulky one declared that she didn't have those sorts of skills but went on to produce something each day on the ipad that she refused to let us read and the navigator was too busy reading about other people on social media to even try. The result is therefore that I don't have a blow by blow blog, but more of an overall summary. Maybe I'd have had more time if we'd got away in decent time in a morning!
Well, what can I tell you all about the trip. Firstly I guess that it didn't turn out to be the trip I had anticipated. I'm figuring that the Hairy Bikers had a better time of it, probably due to a huge production crew and some clever editing. Was it fun? Was it exciting? Was it challenging? Errm, on balance no, not really. But I set out to circumnavigate the Baltic which I successfully did and saw my aged Uncle for what will most likely be the last time. The stay with him and my auntie was worth the whole voyage really. Their place is paradise.
We got some fishing in, ate great foot, drank lots, had a sauna each night and swam in the Baltic; which is more like a lake due to the low salinity.
So in that respect it's a big tick in the box. But would I recommend it as the new 'Morocco' for over-landers? No I wouldn't. The thing is there are some great bits in there but you have to string them together with all of the other incredibly boring bits. I did get to cross 9 countries (possibly 10) with some great kit that worked brilliantly. We did get some lovely weather but we also suffered some appalling weather too. Everywhere we went the locals said it was the worst summer for years. Meantime back at home it was 23 degrees. Oh well. On reflection I think that this trip would have been different if we'd seen no rain and been able to sit out every evening until midnight under the stars. Some nights we went to bed before 22.00 because there was nothing else to do but listen to the rain hammering down on the Foxwing. We should have renamed it Duckwing.
What I'm trying to say is that it's not a particularly interesting trip. We took three weeks roughly with a weekend stop over in Finland. So you could physically get round in less. But, in order to do it even in the way we did, you have to stick to the motorways; and they are as boring as f*** trust me on this. You would need much longer to use back roads and see more things. Probably a month at least and then there is still the problem with Poland. Which I'll come back to later.
So, a bit about the roads and driving; or more accurately drivers. European drivers are in a different league to us. Imagine an entire continent of Sunday pensioners all driving 911's. All the power and no will. We drove for miles behind BMWs doing 10 mph less than the limit – where the limit was only 50 mph in the first place. It's been agonising. Even when you pull right over to let someone past on a road so straight that would be envied by the Roman's, they simply don't come past you. They're happy to just sit in a line of traffic all bimbling along line astern.
Many parts of Sweden have single carriageway on one side ad double on the other. This swaps every so often so you can get past. But the single lanes are one car wide so if you are stuck behing a granny then you are stuck for miles. And if you break down in there than Lord knows what happens.
There are lots of trees. And I mean a LOT of trees; so many in fact that it's enough to make you wonder if chopping down the Amazon is really a problem at all. But the place is so damn flat that you never get a view. But they are beautiful trees nonetheless unlike the Scottish trees which are so tightly packed they’re dead from the neck down.
The speed limits over there almost universally go up and down like a whore's drawers. Just as you hit 100, it's back to 90, 70, 40 all for a T junction that's not seen a car for years, then back up to 100 then 500 meters later …. It's enough to drive you insane. I may need therapy in fact.
Poland. Ahh, Poland. If you ever fancy driving across Poland, don't. You can't. It's officially not possible. Beautiful country with immaculate fields, but the roads. Arrrggghhh, the roads. Jeez. The surface of most is so poor that you can't hit the speed limit even of you wanted to. My plan is to retire to Poland and open a suspension repair business in every town. Not that I could actually get any parts to the garages of course due to the roads. We actually got a pre 09.00 getaway in Poland, determined to get the miles done. By mid afternoon we'd managed 49 miles. At times we hit modern, two-lane black top. Utterly deserted with 130 kph limits. I felt like a pit-pony let up out of the mines for the Summer. Until of course 5 miles later it all ended in a dirt track. Whilst we're in Poland, let's mention the camp sites. Hmm, super locations and great views. Cheap, but frankly I have been to festivals with better toilet and shower facilities. It's not that they weren't clean, but there comes a point where even professional cleaning ain't gonna raise the quality any further. There’s something about a row of wooden huts in a Polish forest that really is unsettling.
OK so a bit about equipment. What worked, what broke? What was great and what didn't we use?
We had no punctures and not a single roadside emergency. The worst that happened in 4339 miles was a wire broke in the trailer plug and the indicator stopped working. I found a man-shed in Finland called Motopoint which sold everything you could ever want from outboards to guns. So I filled a trolley with bits such as exhaust bends and soundproof matting. And a trailer plug or two of course. Super quality and with the new ends all soldered up, we never had another problem. The second and last failure was with the roof tent. I like the Ezi Awn and having looked at just about all the brands, still think it's the best; very easy to set up and stow and utterly watertight in the worst rain. But as with all RTTs it has it weak points and design flaws. One is the front pram hood base. The aluminium channels are fastened to the wooden platform with screws. These are quite short and only something like a number 6. When we pulled down on the front porch to set the tent, I pulled all the screws out! A quick rummage in the trailer and some really good self tappers replaced the rubbish old wood screws. These have all now been replaced with 4mm machines screws and Nylocks right through the frame.
The Foxwing was fantastic. Designed to provide shade and used once again as shelter. With the sides on and the trailer parked along side we had a dry time again and again..
The new ARB awning room to go with the Direct 4x4 2500 awning on the trailer was good too but we only used that twice.
We never used the toilet nor the pop up changing room. Both the gas and pop up BBQ were great and we had some decent fillet steaks whacked on there one evening. The Waeco and Nat Luna fridges kept everything cool and fresh and twin Optima yellows were never challenged. The Dometic cooker was OK-ish, but on several occasions the Coleman came to the rescue to knock up some decent grub.
The CTEK set up seems to be sorted and on start up was replenishing the batteries very quickly. The bluetooth sender from the Victron was a source of entertainment when driving on the motorways. The Garmin 760 Dezl never really let us down either. It located some good camp sites for us and never failed to find us a Maccy D. Which were disappointingly common especially in Sweden.
Fuel was cheaper everywhere in Europe. The most expensive being in the Netherlands at close to UK prices and the cheapest and the cheapest was around £0.80 per litre down pretty much the East side of the Baltic. Sweden and Finland were not expensive and around the 85p mark. The best the cruiser returned was 20.11 mpg and the worst 17.67 with an overall average of 18.84 mpg. OK I'd have liked that to be closer to 50 mpg but come on, we must have been 4000kgs rolling with speeds up and down all the time. You could perhaps better that but not in a mobile breeze block.
If it wasn't for the need for the JB RTT we could have pulled the trailer with the green one as we barely used the actual functions of the 80 at all, living almost entirely from the trailer. But, and it's a Jennifer Lopez sized butt nothing would induce me to do a trip like that without cruise control. I agree with Andy, a 24v auto import would be a perfect vehicle for this sort or trip. Was there ever a moment where I though, Oh fantastic, I get to change gear? Errrm, nope. Sorry Shayne.
Now if only I could find a blue one ….
Should you be driving a petrol with LPG conversion then you'll be in gas heaven. LPG is available absolutely all over the place. And it's cheap.
The 80 though? Well it never missed a beat. OK so it sounded awful at times due to still having this over-run grumble which I now know to be delaminated carrier bearings in the front diff. But having now been to Morocco and round the Baltic and still grumbling, I think it’s just another example of how tough these things are.
The trailer? Wow. What a thing. Unbreakable. It also never let a single drop of water in despite being towed off road along the Russian border in a deluge. The worst that happened was one day when we parked up, one of the spatulas hanging in the kitchen had fallen off its hook – what a disaster.. Although we topped up the water tanks from my Uncle's well in Finland, we could have made it all the way round on the fill from home. Outstanding items in the trailer were the toaster and the oven. The water boiler was brilliant too. Apparently making washing-up a pure delight. Oh another failure I missed was the gas regulator. It just stopped. OK so after calling my gas mate back in the UK, I fixed it. Who knew that throwing it against a tree was the technical remedy. It's gone in the bin and has been replaced by a new one and a spare.
Everywhere we went we attracted attention with people gawping, pointing and even filming up as they came past. The Baltic States are the home of cruiser. Every third car is a 150, 120 or a Collie, I swear it's true. I saw one other 80 on the entire trip when I met up with Saulius in Lithuania. We saw a tricked up 60 near Belsen which we visited and 4 Merc trucks 2 of which were from Italy visiting Tallinn in Estonia. They were going to North Africa but said they'd had some trouble? So took their 'desert trucks' to the Baltic instead. We didn't see a single Landie until Poland and then saw the odd Rangie and Disco in Germany. A few G Wagens were on the road but in truth very few 4x4s of this type at all.
Leaving camp one morning the sat nav suddenly announced "In 1/4 of a mile, board ferry" WTF? Really, are you sure? We tiptoed down a little lane to discover a chain ferry across the river. 4 Euros later we were aboard. Turns out to be able to carry 28 tonnes.
But then, again near Bergen-Belsen, we found a Toyota dealer with a Landcruiser specialist attached. There was a sort of covered display area which I had a walk around. The dealer was shut as it was the weekend, so I couldn't chat to anyone but I snagged some pics. If you want to see more then you'll have to pay! But here's a teaser.
Another high point was stumbling across the Gransors Bruks Axe Forge in Sweden. What a treat. Watched the guys forging axe heads and even had my Small Forest Axe serviced with a nice regrind on the blade.
I've some vids and more pics which I'll sort and put up for posterity later. Some of the Swedish back roads, which are gravel, are a pure delight to drive.
Well, what can I tell you all about the trip. Firstly I guess that it didn't turn out to be the trip I had anticipated. I'm figuring that the Hairy Bikers had a better time of it, probably due to a huge production crew and some clever editing. Was it fun? Was it exciting? Was it challenging? Errm, on balance no, not really. But I set out to circumnavigate the Baltic which I successfully did and saw my aged Uncle for what will most likely be the last time. The stay with him and my auntie was worth the whole voyage really. Their place is paradise.
We got some fishing in, ate great foot, drank lots, had a sauna each night and swam in the Baltic; which is more like a lake due to the low salinity.
So in that respect it's a big tick in the box. But would I recommend it as the new 'Morocco' for over-landers? No I wouldn't. The thing is there are some great bits in there but you have to string them together with all of the other incredibly boring bits. I did get to cross 9 countries (possibly 10) with some great kit that worked brilliantly. We did get some lovely weather but we also suffered some appalling weather too. Everywhere we went the locals said it was the worst summer for years. Meantime back at home it was 23 degrees. Oh well. On reflection I think that this trip would have been different if we'd seen no rain and been able to sit out every evening until midnight under the stars. Some nights we went to bed before 22.00 because there was nothing else to do but listen to the rain hammering down on the Foxwing. We should have renamed it Duckwing.
What I'm trying to say is that it's not a particularly interesting trip. We took three weeks roughly with a weekend stop over in Finland. So you could physically get round in less. But, in order to do it even in the way we did, you have to stick to the motorways; and they are as boring as f*** trust me on this. You would need much longer to use back roads and see more things. Probably a month at least and then there is still the problem with Poland. Which I'll come back to later.
So, a bit about the roads and driving; or more accurately drivers. European drivers are in a different league to us. Imagine an entire continent of Sunday pensioners all driving 911's. All the power and no will. We drove for miles behind BMWs doing 10 mph less than the limit – where the limit was only 50 mph in the first place. It's been agonising. Even when you pull right over to let someone past on a road so straight that would be envied by the Roman's, they simply don't come past you. They're happy to just sit in a line of traffic all bimbling along line astern.
Many parts of Sweden have single carriageway on one side ad double on the other. This swaps every so often so you can get past. But the single lanes are one car wide so if you are stuck behing a granny then you are stuck for miles. And if you break down in there than Lord knows what happens.
There are lots of trees. And I mean a LOT of trees; so many in fact that it's enough to make you wonder if chopping down the Amazon is really a problem at all. But the place is so damn flat that you never get a view. But they are beautiful trees nonetheless unlike the Scottish trees which are so tightly packed they’re dead from the neck down.
The speed limits over there almost universally go up and down like a whore's drawers. Just as you hit 100, it's back to 90, 70, 40 all for a T junction that's not seen a car for years, then back up to 100 then 500 meters later …. It's enough to drive you insane. I may need therapy in fact.
Poland. Ahh, Poland. If you ever fancy driving across Poland, don't. You can't. It's officially not possible. Beautiful country with immaculate fields, but the roads. Arrrggghhh, the roads. Jeez. The surface of most is so poor that you can't hit the speed limit even of you wanted to. My plan is to retire to Poland and open a suspension repair business in every town. Not that I could actually get any parts to the garages of course due to the roads. We actually got a pre 09.00 getaway in Poland, determined to get the miles done. By mid afternoon we'd managed 49 miles. At times we hit modern, two-lane black top. Utterly deserted with 130 kph limits. I felt like a pit-pony let up out of the mines for the Summer. Until of course 5 miles later it all ended in a dirt track. Whilst we're in Poland, let's mention the camp sites. Hmm, super locations and great views. Cheap, but frankly I have been to festivals with better toilet and shower facilities. It's not that they weren't clean, but there comes a point where even professional cleaning ain't gonna raise the quality any further. There’s something about a row of wooden huts in a Polish forest that really is unsettling.
OK so a bit about equipment. What worked, what broke? What was great and what didn't we use?
We had no punctures and not a single roadside emergency. The worst that happened in 4339 miles was a wire broke in the trailer plug and the indicator stopped working. I found a man-shed in Finland called Motopoint which sold everything you could ever want from outboards to guns. So I filled a trolley with bits such as exhaust bends and soundproof matting. And a trailer plug or two of course. Super quality and with the new ends all soldered up, we never had another problem. The second and last failure was with the roof tent. I like the Ezi Awn and having looked at just about all the brands, still think it's the best; very easy to set up and stow and utterly watertight in the worst rain. But as with all RTTs it has it weak points and design flaws. One is the front pram hood base. The aluminium channels are fastened to the wooden platform with screws. These are quite short and only something like a number 6. When we pulled down on the front porch to set the tent, I pulled all the screws out! A quick rummage in the trailer and some really good self tappers replaced the rubbish old wood screws. These have all now been replaced with 4mm machines screws and Nylocks right through the frame.
The Foxwing was fantastic. Designed to provide shade and used once again as shelter. With the sides on and the trailer parked along side we had a dry time again and again..
The new ARB awning room to go with the Direct 4x4 2500 awning on the trailer was good too but we only used that twice.
We never used the toilet nor the pop up changing room. Both the gas and pop up BBQ were great and we had some decent fillet steaks whacked on there one evening. The Waeco and Nat Luna fridges kept everything cool and fresh and twin Optima yellows were never challenged. The Dometic cooker was OK-ish, but on several occasions the Coleman came to the rescue to knock up some decent grub.
The CTEK set up seems to be sorted and on start up was replenishing the batteries very quickly. The bluetooth sender from the Victron was a source of entertainment when driving on the motorways. The Garmin 760 Dezl never really let us down either. It located some good camp sites for us and never failed to find us a Maccy D. Which were disappointingly common especially in Sweden.
Fuel was cheaper everywhere in Europe. The most expensive being in the Netherlands at close to UK prices and the cheapest and the cheapest was around £0.80 per litre down pretty much the East side of the Baltic. Sweden and Finland were not expensive and around the 85p mark. The best the cruiser returned was 20.11 mpg and the worst 17.67 with an overall average of 18.84 mpg. OK I'd have liked that to be closer to 50 mpg but come on, we must have been 4000kgs rolling with speeds up and down all the time. You could perhaps better that but not in a mobile breeze block.
If it wasn't for the need for the JB RTT we could have pulled the trailer with the green one as we barely used the actual functions of the 80 at all, living almost entirely from the trailer. But, and it's a Jennifer Lopez sized butt nothing would induce me to do a trip like that without cruise control. I agree with Andy, a 24v auto import would be a perfect vehicle for this sort or trip. Was there ever a moment where I though, Oh fantastic, I get to change gear? Errrm, nope. Sorry Shayne.
Now if only I could find a blue one ….
Should you be driving a petrol with LPG conversion then you'll be in gas heaven. LPG is available absolutely all over the place. And it's cheap.
The 80 though? Well it never missed a beat. OK so it sounded awful at times due to still having this over-run grumble which I now know to be delaminated carrier bearings in the front diff. But having now been to Morocco and round the Baltic and still grumbling, I think it’s just another example of how tough these things are.
The trailer? Wow. What a thing. Unbreakable. It also never let a single drop of water in despite being towed off road along the Russian border in a deluge. The worst that happened was one day when we parked up, one of the spatulas hanging in the kitchen had fallen off its hook – what a disaster.. Although we topped up the water tanks from my Uncle's well in Finland, we could have made it all the way round on the fill from home. Outstanding items in the trailer were the toaster and the oven. The water boiler was brilliant too. Apparently making washing-up a pure delight. Oh another failure I missed was the gas regulator. It just stopped. OK so after calling my gas mate back in the UK, I fixed it. Who knew that throwing it against a tree was the technical remedy. It's gone in the bin and has been replaced by a new one and a spare.
Everywhere we went we attracted attention with people gawping, pointing and even filming up as they came past. The Baltic States are the home of cruiser. Every third car is a 150, 120 or a Collie, I swear it's true. I saw one other 80 on the entire trip when I met up with Saulius in Lithuania. We saw a tricked up 60 near Belsen which we visited and 4 Merc trucks 2 of which were from Italy visiting Tallinn in Estonia. They were going to North Africa but said they'd had some trouble? So took their 'desert trucks' to the Baltic instead. We didn't see a single Landie until Poland and then saw the odd Rangie and Disco in Germany. A few G Wagens were on the road but in truth very few 4x4s of this type at all.
Leaving camp one morning the sat nav suddenly announced "In 1/4 of a mile, board ferry" WTF? Really, are you sure? We tiptoed down a little lane to discover a chain ferry across the river. 4 Euros later we were aboard. Turns out to be able to carry 28 tonnes.
But then, again near Bergen-Belsen, we found a Toyota dealer with a Landcruiser specialist attached. There was a sort of covered display area which I had a walk around. The dealer was shut as it was the weekend, so I couldn't chat to anyone but I snagged some pics. If you want to see more then you'll have to pay! But here's a teaser.
Another high point was stumbling across the Gransors Bruks Axe Forge in Sweden. What a treat. Watched the guys forging axe heads and even had my Small Forest Axe serviced with a nice regrind on the blade.
I've some vids and more pics which I'll sort and put up for posterity later. Some of the Swedish back roads, which are gravel, are a pure delight to drive.
AndyCook
Well-Known Member
Cheers for the report and photos, I always enjoy reading people's reports.
Used to visit Poland a fair bit for work trips, and agree the roads are "interesting"
Think I would prefer the Norwegian fjords and mountains to the flat forests though - you should try Norway, beer terribly expensive though so load up in Denmark and Germany
Used to visit Poland a fair bit for work trips, and agree the roads are "interesting"
Think I would prefer the Norwegian fjords and mountains to the flat forests though - you should try Norway, beer terribly expensive though so load up in Denmark and Germany
4339 miles in total. Just shy of £1000 in fuel. All things considered, the whole trip wasn't bad for a family of three for three weeks.
I'd like to take a look at Norway for sure. My trailer needs another sticker on it.
I've still got two week's leave to take and it would be nice to get an Autumn trip in somewhere, maybe in the UK especially when I've got my rebuilt diff in and the new soundproofing installed.
I'd like to take a look at Norway for sure. My trailer needs another sticker on it.
I've still got two week's leave to take and it would be nice to get an Autumn trip in somewhere, maybe in the UK especially when I've got my rebuilt diff in and the new soundproofing installed.
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Great write-up Chris, glad you're all safely home with no issues.
I'm no overlander but I can imagine the boredom of mile after mile of straight flat motorway. At least, in Poland, you didn't have chance to fall asleep!
Thanks for posting!
I'm no overlander but I can imagine the boredom of mile after mile of straight flat motorway. At least, in Poland, you didn't have chance to fall asleep!
Thanks for posting!
- Joined
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great report Chris 
I have just lashed out on a new portable bog for hwmbo - she better bloody use it! I hope our trip to Tabernas goes without problems 
I have just lashed out on a new portable bog for hwmbo - she better bloody use it! I hope our trip to Tabernas goes without problems 
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You would be more than welcome - 3rd Oct till...whenever! Taking about 4 days to get down there, mainly on chemins (gravel tracks) across mountains hills and national parks etc, once there a few days doing desert tracks and then slow trundle home again via rural chemins etc
again via rural chemins etc
hopeless wanderer
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Great reading Chris, Glad you had a great time and i now know i need an axe .... and a trailer.
