Californian Arctic

ArcticMatt · Jun 7, 2016

Got back from a few days in Sweden just camping a random spots round the lakes around Arjeplog. Not a soul to be seen in most places.

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Junkerdal by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

briwy · Jun 7, 2016

Looks great Matt. We'll be there in a few weeks time.

ArcticMatt · Jun 7, 2016

briwy said:
Looks great Matt. We'll be there in a few weeks time.

Nice! Have you got a route planned or is it just free and easy?

ArcticMatt · Jun 13, 2016

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

briwy · Jun 14, 2016

ArcticMatt said:
Nice! Have you got a route planned or is it just free and easy?

Bit of both really.
We have a list of places and things we want to do so we are just going to work our way north and see how it goes and then leg it back down through Sweden to get the ferry back from the Hook of Holland.

ArcticMatt · Jul 3, 2016

Enjoying the midnight sun in what I thought was still Lofoten but we'd passed into Vesterålen without realising.

Arctic Sun by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Sp0_0k · Jul 3, 2016

We are near Alesund now. Moving slowly to Lofoten. The weather was ugly last 3 days. Raining non stop.
Got some fish already in a river and fjords. Was funny I tried fishing in ports waiting for the ferry crossing. Was getting like 3-4 fish in 20 minutes.

ArcticMatt · Jul 3, 2016

Sp0_0k said:
We are near Alesund now. Moving slowly to Lofoten. The weather was ugly last 3 days. Raining non stop.
Got some fish already in a river and fjords. Was funny I tried fishing in ports waiting for the ferry crossing. Was getting like 3-4 fish in 20 minutes.

The weather is up and down at the moment. I usually ignore the forecast as its been wrong every day for the last week! (yr.no) They said yesterday to forget summer for the next week but its been lovely here in Beiarn. Which way are you heading north? Boring E6 or amazing Kysteriksveien?

Sp0_0k · Jul 4, 2016

Definitely avoiding all the main roads. Made a 2nd attempt (mistake) visiting the Atlantic road. So hyped place. Just wanted to try fishing there from the bridge. Useless spot but I caught somebody's fishing rod

Staying at magnillen.no for couple days.
Seen so few Calis in Norway. Tons of unfriendly germans here in July. Will never go that early again.

ArcticMatt · Jul 4, 2016

I wasnt too impressed with that road either. It looks amazing from the air but you dont see that from the road. Saltstraumen is way better in my opinion.

The Germans seem to take over in the summer. Its unbelievable how many of them come up!

Hope you have more success with the fishing :thumb

ArcticMatt · Aug 21, 2016

A couple of cheeky additions. I've waited almost 3 months for the Brandrup storage pockets from campervantastic. Thankfully they arrived in the UK the day I was flying back. The RAM mount phone holder covers up a mark from the old crappy cup holder.

Sp0_0k · Aug 21, 2016

We want to make a 2nd trip to Norway on September.
Any suggestions if we should go early or later autumn? I suppose should be few tourists in autumn, right?

ArcticMatt · Aug 22, 2016

Sp0_0k said:
We want to make a 2nd trip to Norway on September.
Any suggestions if we should go early or later autumn? I suppose should be few tourists in autumn, right?

Its actually quite nice in Autumn. When we took my syncro up a few years back, we drove back for 2 weeks in the back end of September. A lot of the campsite were almost shut by then and we had virtually had them all to ourselves for example in Nesna and Torghatten. You'll have a good chance of seeing the Nordlys too as it will be dark nights. Just make sure your heater is working though

Dont leave it too late though as you'll need winter tyres. It depends how far North you'll go though. Do you have anywhere you missed when you came last time? You need winter tyres before the end of October at least.
http://www.vegvesen.no/en/Vehicles/Seasonal/Tyres+and+snow+chains

Sp0_0k · Aug 22, 2016

Don't think we'll stay longer than 15th of October.
Won't go much further than Trondheim. We haven't been to many southern fjords yet.
Mostly going for fishing.
Any suggestions for good fishing spots from the shore/bridges and wild places to camp?
Can share the ones we found on our last trip.

kave · Aug 23, 2016

I was in Aurland last year in september with the motorbike, thats when I decided to sell it and get a Cali:

Oots of Asians everywhere, but roads where almost empty.
I can recommend Flåmsbana, the worlds most beatiful railwaynline.

Sp0_0k · Aug 24, 2016

kave said:
Oots of Asians everywhere, but roads where almost empty.

Sounds better than Germans everywhere

ArcticMatt · Nov 15, 2016

Summer has gone, roll on winter (and studs)

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

ArcticMatt · Jan 25, 2017

Well its been a while since I've done owt with the van. I've been to work and back a couple of times since and the snow has been quite bad. I can back this time and I could hardly see to van. Rain was forecast too which turns the light fluffy snow into a right old pig to shift. I got the shovel out and two days later it was out! It took a tractor intervention too to pull the rubber from the permafrost!

The first big snow fall

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Peekaboo!

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

The smurrf developed an underbite

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Can you see I was chuffed!

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Ready to rock and roll once more!

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

ArcticMatt · Jan 25, 2017

The main reason for getting the van out was to check the ice wasnt playing havoc with the exterior. I found this after letting it thaw. Needs a bit of a reseal. Ive been told Sikaflex 512 should do the trick

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Pesce · Jan 26, 2017

Hi Matt,
every photo you upload make me wan to quit my job and travel the whole live across Scandinavia!!!

Really amazing place!

Stefano

ArcticMatt · Jan 26, 2017

Pesce said:
Hi Matt,
every photo you upload make me wan to quit my job and travel the whole live across Scandinavia!!!

Really amazing place!

Stefano

Thank you very much for the kind words.

I would imagine Switzerland is equally as beautiful. :thanks

Pesce · Jan 27, 2017

ArcticMatt said:
Thank you very much for the kind words.

I would imagine Switzerland is equally as beautiful.

Yes, it's beatiful but we don't have the sea...
How is to travel with kid with cold weather?

ArcticMatt · Feb 3, 2017

Pesce said:
Yes, it's beatiful but we don't have the sea...
How is to travel with kid with cold weather?

We haven't travelled with our son during winter. Its way too cold for that. I'll wait until at least May before we can think about going further away with him. Winter is just playing about with the van at the moment.

ArcticMatt · Feb 3, 2017

Just fitted the headlight upgrade loom from Xtremevan. I've had it for over a year but it went missing until the other day. I found it in the back of the old Mercedes in the basement! This has taken the voltage up from just over 12V to just over 14V. It would have been an easy mod if I hadnt changed to the Angel Eyes which use H7 bulbs. The harness was made up for H4 so I got hold of new H7 plugs from Biltema (love that store) and modified to suit. Now I've just got the swap the existing angel eye LED's for some cobb rings and all will be perfect.
BEFORE :sorry