A bientôt EU

Day 37 - Bodo to Lofoten

No sunset

We had our earliest start yet, leaving the campsite at 08:30 after breakfast and walking the dogs. Despite the early start, we were last to arrive in the reserved lane for our ferry to Lofoten (8:45 for a 9:30 ferry). It costs an extra 100 NOK (£9.50) to reserve a place on the ferry, and each crossing half the places are kept for vehicles that just turn up.

Initially the crossing was calm, but once out of the shelter of Bodo's islands there was quite a swell. The passage is four hours, and initially the boys were hard work, but eventually they fell asleep.

When eventually the Lofoten Islands came into view they were quite a sight - snow capped mountains rising straight out of the ocean.

We docked soon after 1.30 and immediately looked for a supermarket, then headed for a campsite I'd identified on the Atlantic side of one of the islands.

Midnight at our campsite.


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Day 38 - Lofoten

After over three weeks in Norway we have started to get fed up with the high food prices, cold and frequent rain or drizzle, and difficulties properly exercising our dogs so will speed up our journey to the North Cape. Norway is a stunningly beautiful country, but its people very reserved and crazy prices for most shopping essentials. Not a good advertisement for life inside Europe but outside the EU - perhaps Switzerland will be better.

Tomorrow we leave Lofoten and we hope to be at Nordkapp on Sunday or Monday, and entering Finland on Tuesday. We will spend some extra time in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania where we can afford a few nights off from camp cooking and I can tuck into an extra large juicy steak with whatever trimmings the Baltic people serve with it.

The highlight of today was bathing in the Arctic.




Lofoten really is stunningly beautiful. 10 degrees warmer and it would be paradise. It still claims to be the warmest place on the planet relative to its latitude.


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Day 39 - Lofoten to Bardu

We packed up and left the campsite at 12:30 and said goodbye to stunning Lofoten for the long drive north. Pretty much constant rain. Enjoyed setting the adaptive cruise control and allowing the radar to track the vehicle in front at maximum distance. The radar will track trucks around tight bends but loses smaller vehicles. Speed probably averaged 40mph on the smaller roads, but the pace quickened once we were on the E6.


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@Amarillo , been reading here frequent , going great it seems!
What distance did you do so far ? What is about you average a day ? I know you had days without driving

When we did our three weeks in south Norway i drove just over 5000km in those three weeks home -trip - home so was a lot behind the wheel!

hotel california said:

@Amarillo , been reading here frequent , going great it seems!
What distance did you do so far ? What is about you average a day ? I know you had days without driving

When we did our three weeks in south Norway i drove just over 5000km in those three weeks home -trip - home so was a lot behind the wheel!

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3500 miles, a modest 90 miles per day.


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Day 40 - Bardu to Alta

Great progress today putting us within striking distance of the North Cape, 150 miles north of here after our 40 days in the wilderness.

We have also discovered a new "sleep mode" for the van without opening the boot and re-arranging luggage. Clare and the boys in the mezzanine bedroom and me downstairs longitudinally on the bench seat. The child seats go on the driver's seat and in the footwell. One dog goes in the front passenger footwell, the other dog goes on the front passenger seat. I have to sleep in the fetal position but it's surprisingly comfortable on the bench. It's cheap too!

To celebrate our new-found austerity sleeping position we went out for a meal. Clare and I had reindeer stew, Ben had a reindeer wrap and Jack a reindeer sausage, all eaten in a Sami tent with a log fire in the middle and LED icicles strung around the sides. The reindeer meat tasted like doner kebab meat, and, I suspect, was processed the same way. The boys ran excitedly around the tent blowing out all the candles.

Rain all day today, but Saturday evening into Sunday morning is forecast as sunny, solar midnight is at about 00:45 on Sunday morning, so it may well be a good day for seeing the midnight sun.




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Kudos Tom, I'll admit I had to Google exactly where Alta is

hirsty said:

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Kudos Tom, I'll admit I had to Google exactly where Alta is

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It's a small town but was signposted from about 500kn away.

We've discovered that we have about 4000 NOK (£370) to spend before we leave Norway before we enter the Eurozone via Finland probably sometime tomorrow.

We managed to squirt 1000 NOK of Diesel into the van which will get us well into Finland. We've blown a further 500 on steak and chips (nuggets and chips for the boys) and it's 500 for us all to enter Nordkapp and stay the night in our car. That still leaves 2000 to indulge ourselves before leaving Norway. After scrimping and saving for 6 weeks I feel a little like Brewster in Brewster's Millions.


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Day 41 - Alta to Nordkapp

It didn't take long to get going in the morning, just a walk with the dogs, quick wash, child seats in and we were ready to go.

As we headed north our thoughts turned to our departure from Norway. After four weeks of scrimping and saving, a quick audit revealed we still had 4118 NOK to spend. The one thing I hate more than waste is paying bank charges. Changing Pounds to Krone to Euros is wasting money on bank charges, so we'd rather spend our Norwegian currency, getting good value, than waste money converting it to Euros.

Feeling like Brewster (from Brewster's Millions), we squirted 1000 NOK of diesel into the fuel tank, had steak and chips for breakfast/lunch for 500 NOK and paid 910 NOK for entry to Nordkapp including a buffet breakfast.

Nordkapp is by far the most touristy place we've visited. And I'm not really sure of its claim to fame. Being an Island, it's not the most northerly point of the European mainland, and it's certainly not the most northerly point of Europe, there being more northerly islands in Europe.

Still - it's a fun place to visit and spend the night, and we've met some interesting people, including a couple who have driven from Shanghai, a city we feel connected with having visited it several times since 1994 when my brother moved there and made it his home town. The boys were awestruck by the IMAX film depicting the changing seasons in Nordkapp.


Ben and Jack at the most northerly point of Europe drivable by campervan.


Solar midnight at 00:46 looking towards the sun in the north.


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Day 42 - Nordkapp to Nuorgam

No sunset

The sixth week of our travels ended with a drive along the barren north coast on Norway, then entering Finland at the most northerly point of the European Union, Nuorgam, the south bank of the mosquito Infested Tana River is home for the night.

Having spent the previous two nights sleeping three up and one longitudinallly down in Amarillo, we were determined to either stay 2 nights on a child friendly campsite or one night in a hut so we could have a decent shower.

The first huts we found were charging 70 Euros per night. The second lot were warmly advertised as "fishing, sauna, huts". Feeling optimistic we entered the compound to find it not only infested with mosquitos, but also stark naked men sitting around in small groups, presumably while critters nibbled their warm moist zones. The third one was charging 75 Euros (plus 15 for linen which we did not need). Finally we found one charging 60 Euros which we accepted. I'd have happily spent a third night roughing it in the van, but we all were beginning to stink.

En-route, in a remote part of Northern Norway, we stopped briefly so I could have a comfort break - something that we call a "slash and dash". On resuming our journey, with the first oncoming car we encountered, I discovered that for some inexplicable reason I was driving on the left. After 3,500 miles faultlessly on the right, this was a danger I thought had passed. Fortunately I realised instantly my mistake and swerved over to the right, but it does highlight that after a lifetime of driving on the left we can never drop our guard when driving overseas.

Tomorrow we head south through Finland to a nice campsite where we will stay for 2 or 3 nights, and the boys will have a Lapland treat well out of season.


Reindeer at Nordkapp


The boys eating a biscuit

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Great stories, keep them coming!

Amarillo said:

[...]we were determined to either stay 2 nights on a child friendly campsite or one night in a hut so we could have a decent shower [...] we all were beginning to stink.

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During our Cali trips in Scandinavia we often camp 'wild'. First unpaved road left, second track right, bang! you're on some little river or lake or fjord in the middle of nowhere. Ample opportunities for a swim/bath with no-one else around for miles... We never stank!

Amarillo said:

On resuming our journey, with the first oncoming car we encountered, I discovered that for some inexplicable reason I was driving on the left. After 3,500 miles faultlessly on the right, this was a danger I thought had passed.

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Oh, we can imagine that! It's not that difficult to drive 'on the wrong side of the road' when there is other traffic. But when it's quiet... I remember driving on deserted roads in South-Africa one night late with some south african colleagues, chatting merrily, when all of a sudden their chatter stopped to a death silence: I had inadvertently and automatically rounded a roundabout the wrong way...!

Day 43 - Nuorgam to Rovanirmi

Sunrise 02:58
Sunset 23:48

Farewell to the Arctic Circle, and a return to the more usual day/night cycle.

After Norway we are finding Finland surprisingly expensive, yesterday 60 Euros for a cabin, and today 40 Euros for a campsite pitch. In Norway the camping charge was just for the pitch, regardless of the number of people, here there is a charge for the pitch (16 Euros) plus each adult (8 Euros) plus each child (4 Euros). In Belgium, Germany, Denmark and Sweden we were perhaps spoiled by paying the ACSI Camping Card off season price of 17 or 19 Euros for everything (including electric hook-up which we never use).

The road south was fast and boring, endless wide tree lined roads. Four or five times we had to break rapidly to a standstill to allow reindeer to cross. Overtaking slower moving vehicles is easy enough - when they are ready for you to pass, the driver indicates left and you pass. After being told by a fisherman staying in the cabin next to us that our van was the first GB registered vehicle he'd ever seen, we were somewhat surprised that the first vehicle we passed on the road south was a British Ford Transit.

We were wrong to expect better weather south of the Arctic Circle- it's raining again.


Reindeer on the local town green.


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Day 44 - Rovanirmi

We are camped at the confluence of Finland's longest and third longest rivers, the river discharges about 10 times the volume of water that either the Thames or Severn discharges. It was into its fast flowing waters that Ben threw the dog's frisbee this morning. Totally uncharacteristically, and almost inexplicably, neither collie followed the frisbee into the torrent. They say Collies are clever dogs, ours certainly showed some hint of this this morning.

Once recovered from this heart-stopping moment we went to SantaPark. It's a massive nuclear fallout shelter, built with taxpayers money, converted into an under-mountain theme park. The acrobatic show was good - we saw it twice, and at the elven run gingerbread decoration workshop Jack showed less restraint than the dogs did this morning by eating his gingerbread man before the workshop started. But overall it was pretty naff. If you want to give your children a real Christmassy experience, I'd recommend carol singing in aid of a Bethlehem donkey sanctuary, unless, of course, you want them to understand the true meaning of naff.


How to and how not to decorate a gingerbread man


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Day 45 - Rovaniemi

Spent most of the day on the campsite. Had a family sauna and came out refreshed to meet our new neighbours in a modest campervan.

They entered the boot and drove out in a fiat 500!


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Looks like they could fit Amarillo in the boot.


Mike

Day 46 - Rovaniemi to Nurmes

Seemingly endless birch and pine forest. Found a farmhouse offering food - fish soup only on the menu. Then a wild camp at the end of a track off the main road.

Copy and paste into Google Maps "9GMFFCX8+CG"

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The most easterly toilet in the EU.

From here the only way for us is westward.



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Amarillo said:

Day 45 - Rovaniemi

Spent most of the day on the campsite. Had a family sauna and came out refreshed to meet our new neighbours in a modest campervan.

They entered the boot and drove out in a fiat 500!


Follow my blog at www.au-revoir.eu

Click to expand...

I expect they had a Sauna in their MH as well.

DM said:

I expect they had a Sauna in their MH as well.

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With that much room in the back I would have gone for an MX5.

Day 47 - Nurmes to Lappeenranta

A long drive through seemingly endless forest to the most easterly point of the EU on the European continent.

The border with Russia runs through the island photographed. There's no physical barrier for much of the EU eastern border between Finland and Russia. Each side restricts access for about 4km either side of the border zone, the place where we took the photo is an exception but where you cannot tread is clearly marked. The actual border is inspected annually in a joint exercise by both sides, and is marked by white stones, with red and green pillars on the Russian side and blue and white pillars on the Finnish side. These pillars and the white border stone can just about be seen in the middle of the island.



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Day 48 - Lappeenranta to Tallinn

An early start, 8am, and a fast drive to Helsinki. After weeks of being restricted to 80kph in much of Sweden, nearly all of Norway and most of northern Finland, it was nice to see speed limits of 100 and later 120 kph.

I tried to fill up with AdBlue at a credit card only pump, but my cards are, apparently, invalid. We still have 2000 km left, but I really mustn't run out of the stuff.

We arrived at the ferry terminal at 11.30, only to discover it was the wrong terminal. At least three operators ply the Helsinki to Tallinn route, and each, it seems, has its own port. So we then had a frantic scramble to the other side of the bay to arrive by midday for a 1pm sailing.

We were 4th or 5th to be loaded, and sped across the Baltic on a catamaran. Great crossing. I took the boys to the only open deck on the boat, called the observation deck, to find it fully enclosed except no roof, so no chance of observing anything except the hoards of smokers.

We arrived at our chosen campsite in the early afternoon, and after paying Nordic prices of anything up to 40 Euros per night for a pitch, are delighted to be paying 14 Euros, with truly excellent facilities, and the best children's playground yet.

Estonia has been an EU success story, with a population of just 1.3 million, its per capita GDP has soared since it joined. Thankfully, for us, it is still a fairly cheap country.


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Day 49 - Tallinn

We are loving Estonia! After the priceiness of the Nordic countries, restrictive dog exercising rules, miserable weather and the hoards of vicious insects in Finland, Estonia is proving to be a paradise: cheap prices, permissive dog exercising rules, excellent weather and surprisingly few critters.

We went shopping for doggy things today: replacement frisbee - after Ben threw the previous one into Finland's biggest river (and thankfully the collies had sufficient intelligence not to follow it into the torrent); more food - a 14Kg sack that should last about three weeks; poo bags - we had run out and had been using nappy bags but the danger with them is a finger going through; a chew toy for Jess - she's a teething one-year-old and I've already lost two socks to her and she's destroyed much of their bedding; a two dog Y chain - to walk both dogs on a single lead; a new rope lead - we left the UK with about six leads, two have been chewed through by Jess in frustration at not being able to run free, and two are in a poor shape by being continually twisted with the dogs on leads so much; and a harness for Jess - I am pretty sure that by this age Meg had been trained to stop pulling on the lead, but Jess is a much more powerful dog and can be hard to handle, collie "teenage years" can stretch on for ages; all for about 2/3 the UK price.

It was our wedding anniversary today, and the 23 year old daughter of the campsite owner baby sat for us so we could go into the centre of Tallinn for dinner. Child free in Tallinn for four hours was a real luxury. After a lovely meal at a Latvian restaurant we returned to unexpected calm at the campsite with the boys fed, in their pyjamas, watching a DVD in the van , and we had a full hour playing frisbee with the dogs while the boys stayed in the van watching the end of Finding Nemo.


Ben reading Jack a story in the back of the van.


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Hello, enjoying the account of your travels. We're currently in Slovakia and planning to travel up through the Baltic states so would love to know of any specific campsites that you would recommend, as we are finding some of the facilities in the former Eastern Bloc to be somewhat 'rustic'. P.s. We're also travelling with two dogs (one of whom is young and energetic) and find a 10m line really useful for exercise when they can't go off the lead to just chuck a ball and run around.


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skinnywhippet said:

Hello, enjoying the account of your travels. We're currently in Slovakia and planning to travel up through the Baltic states so would love to know of any specific campsites that you would recommend, as we are finding some of the facilities in the former Eastern Bloc to be somewhat 'rustic'. P.s. We're also travelling with two dogs (one of whom is young and energetic) and find a 10m line really useful for exercise when they can't go off the lead to just chuck a ball and run around.

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Vanamõisa Caravan Park: 14 Euros without electricity in the camping field or 22 Euros with electricity as a motor home.

The railway station is a ten minute walk and the train takes 30 minutes to central Tallinn. Good beaches are a 30 minute drive.

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Thanks, we'll certainly look at that one.


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