Norway - Arctic Circle - Finland - Baltics 2013

[SpinDrift]

I am just back from a three week trip to Norway, Finland and the Baltics, having travelled up into the Arctic Circle and all the way to Nordkapp. I'll write up a trip report (with the all important pics) as soon as I get myself sorted.

The route was UK - France - Belgium - Holland - Germany - Denmark - Norway - Finland - Estonia - Latvia - Lithuania - Poland - German - Holland - UK. Although the list of countries is long, I was in and out of quite a few countries in a matter of hours. My longest stay was in Norway. I should have got the ferry straight to Denmark, but that was cancelled a couple of days before the trip - so I had to do a little recalculating - now I sound like my gps!! Cant let a little thing like that get you down, so Dover - Dunkerque it was!

Door to door I covered just over 6500 odometer miles - more than that if you include the ferry crossings. I crossed countless bridges, drove through I dont know how many tunnels and took quite a few ferries. Most of the time I wild camped in forests locations (usually logging trails), on abandonded/disused roads, and in rest and picnic areas. I stayed in campsites on 4 nights - two of which were laundry nights and 2 were R&R complete with sauna by a lake. I also had where to stay for a few nights in Latvia.

Norway is an amazing country. It is really geared up for touring, with campsites, caravan facilities, picnic areas and the like. The views are amazing with mountains, fjords, rivers, forest and islands. And you dont have to go as far North as I did to experience it, or for as long. Having said that, travelling up into the Arctic Circle was an experience in itself - the landscape, the fauna, the sparse population, and the sun that never sets - in fact it has raised my interest in Alaska and Siberia ... one day ... maybe ... And he hasn't even been back for 24 hours!

Funnily enough, when I landed in France I took to driving on the right hand side of the road automatically - roundabouts and all, but had to think twice when I landed back in the UK - but am now back to normal, driving on the right side, I mean left side of the road - you know what I mean

 

[clivehorridge]

This trip sounds very interesting indeed, my sis-in-law is Finnish, living in the UK and she's always lamenting the 365 days of permanent snow (she's from north of the circle). We've also travelled to Denmark many times, mostly Copenhagen, but the place has a wonderful attitude to life, free and relaxed from the normal racing to get to the front attitude.

Norway must be something else (apart from being very expensive). A friend of mine has just returned from there and his photos are amazing.

So, looking forward to this trip report ... I'm sitting comfortably, when you're ready to begin...

 

[warrenpfo]

This sounds like a fantastic trip. I cant wait for pictures and the right up.

I have dinner to make but look forward to reading it once i'm finished eating...

 

[ram]

Wow that sounds epic, looking forward to the trip report and pics.

 

[Leopard]

Looking forward to this!

 

[roy90]

wow, a huge trip for you, looking forward to the read!

 

[froggy Steve]

me too!
Steve

 

[SpinDrift]

Ok, lets get the stats and costs of the trip out of the way:

Diesel: £2160 for 1399 litres. Average cost per litre works out to be £1.54 - but this is mostly due to high Norwegian prices. So with a total of 6505 miles (or 10,468km) for the trip, that works out to 21 mpg - fully loaded and with roof tent.

Ferries: £662 - Dover to Dunkerque, Hirtshals to Kristiansand, Helsinki to Tallin and Amsterdam to Newcastle. Half that cost is the last ferry - would have been cheaper to come back through Dover!!!

Tolls: £82 mostly in Norway, but also a few in Poland. That includes a down payment for the Norwegian tolls from which I think I will get a refund.

Ferries within Norway: £143

Camping - 5 nights, plus laundry: £110

That works out to around £3000 for two people for three weeks. When you look at it as £500 per person per week it doesn't look that expensive but, yes, we did have to rough it.

There were some other costs like food, beer and wine was mostly purchase in the UK (not included in the above costs because you have to eat at home anyway). We did purchase some local fruit and veg, delicacies and ice cream. Also there were some costs for parking, local transport and stuff we bought.

 

[SpinDrift]

This was our route:



We spent 11 days in Norway, 5 days in Finland and 3 days in Latvia. The rest of the three weeks were travel days.

 

[Shayne]

EPIC!
If only I could talk my mrs into that , but Helen thinks a cruise would be fun

 

[SpinDrift]

Now that I have solved the picture uploading issue by switching to Firefox - goodbye IE, not sure why I hadn't switched sooner - I can get on with starting my report!

The original plan was to take the ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg in Denmark, however this was cancelled a couple of days before the trip because of some fault. We considered a number of other options including crossing over to Holland or Belgium. The problem was that these ferries tend to arrive mid-morning and we had to drive all the way up to Hirtshals in the north of Denmark in order to catch a pre booked 8.45pm ferry to Kristiansand. With some 1000km to cover, we would not make it especially with disembarking delays and the need to be at the embarkation point some 2 hours prior to departure. So the solution was to get the ferry from Dover to Dunkerque instead, cover a few k’s by driving into Holland in the early hours, get some sleep at a services and then make an early start in the morning. In combination with the fast and relatively clear roads, we made it to Hirtshals by 6.00pm.

The ferry crossing from Hirtshals to Kristiansands took 3 hours, arriving at midnight. The sea was rough and the wind strong, but it was fine. After locating an ATM to withdraw some NOKs, we hunted around for somewhere to sleep and eventually found a small parking area next to a lake. In no time the roof tent was up and we were asleep.






After visiting friends in Grimstad we picked up the E39 and heading for the coastal route (route 44) in the direction of Stavenger. As we drove along the E39 we spotted a sniper wearing camouflage. A bit sneaky. We think he was the worst camouflaged sniper in Norway as we didn't spot the others. No big speed camera signs or wearing of florescent vests here. It is coincidental that we got a photo of him. I wonder if he took one of us!





Route 44 took us up into the hills. The landscape turned rugged, with forest, rocky outcrops and lakes, and we passed the occasional settlement.

 

[SpinDrift]

That evening we wild camped in a car park in Jossingfjorden next to some restored old miners’ houses, alongside three camper vans. Jossingfjorden is the place which saw the first military action in Norway in WW2.





The road continued above us, going through a series of tunnels and hanging on to the rock face





The next morning we followed the coast to Stavenger.











We were not really interested in visiting the city itself and turned off onto route 13 just before in order to catch the first of many ferries that bridge the fjords.

 

[SpinDrift]

We were heading for Preikestolen, or Pulpit Rock. The Rock is a 600 metre cliff above Lysefjorden. It is a 2 hour trek from the car park to the rock along a (mostly) uphill, rough and rocky path. And it is not an easy trek as some sections are pretty steep, and the climb up involves both ascents and descents. And when you get there, you have another 2 hours to walk back. But the views from the top are worth it.











Yes, that's me making a fool of myself



From here we headed off to find a campsite – yes a campsite – because after the climb we were in desperate need of a shower.

 

[Gary820]

Looks like it was a great trip, some great pics.

 

[Dave]

Just in case no-one knows, there's a Ro Ro ferry from Hull to Gothenburg, with a stop in Norway, that takes cars as well.

Why didn't you come to Sweden? Cheaper fuel and better roads!

 

[Chas]

Just in case no-one knows, there's a Ro Ro ferry from Hull to Gothenburg, with a stop in Norway, that takes cars as well.

Why didn't you come to Sweden? Cheaper fuel and better roads!

Which ferry line is that? I couldn't google one.

 

[Dave]

DFDS Seaways - http://freight.dfdsseaways.com/DFDS_ferries/North_Sea_ferries/Gothenburg_Immingham_ferries/

 

[wobbly]

Had a look at that ferry, its a commercial one, so less than no frills, but would be option with least driving. Its a rough old crossing though, used to do it as a kid when we lived in Norway.

I would love a trip up to the North Cape, bought the maps, did the research etc last year, but the cost pushed me towards the Portuguese trip.

Pete

 

[Dave]

Sure it's a commercial one, but they have special cabins for the car passengers, TV, internet, and decent restaurant now. Bare in mind you're sleeping for 10 of those 24 hours anyway.

 

[AndyCook]

Great photos so far. I want to visit pulpit rock one day, but have always missed it as headed north to fjords instead.
Looks like you went to Lofoten Islands too, another place on my list to visit.

Suprised you didnt better 21mpg given the 50mph speed limit in most of Norway.
We averagef 20mpg for our 2500mile alps trip in our Collie.

Look forward to the Lofoten pics
wish the newcastle to Bergen ferry would be restarted. Otherwise its a long trip to Norway from Aberdeenshire