My third motorcycle foray outside the UK. The last trip abroad to the Pyrenees had been enjoyable but I was after something a little more adventurous. I'd once visited Trondheim in Norway on business and had always wanted to take a longer look at that part of the world.
This turned out to be a long and stretching trip -about 5400 miles but it was also very rewarding, mainly because the route took me to places that were very different from my normal surroundings in the southern UK. That all said, the basics of the trip can be captured quite briefly -flat motorways across Holland and Germany; long days of quiet flat roads and open skies going north through Sweden, rocky, snowy fjords along the Norwegian coast; cold and bleak at Nordkapp -and the same in reverse coming back.
Would I recommend it -yes! Am I going back yes -if I can I'll go back to Norway in 2006.
Odometer at start of trip: 26434
Set off from home at 05:15am for the usual dash to Dover. I wanted to pick up an E111 so needed a bit of time to visit a Post Office. Still managed to get to the port before 10:00 a.m. only to find everything was running late and had to queue on the dockside for an hour. Two cheery blokes from South Wales with shiny new GSs, and all the BMW clobber turned up -on their way to the Pyrenees. The weather was fine and warm and the trip across Belgium and Holland was ok apart from the traffic jams around Antwerp.
Finished up at the campsite on the side of the Rhine near Tiel in about 8:00pm. Het Dijkje is what our continental friends call a "Motocamp" -a campsite for bikers. It's tucked away up a country lane alongside a dike and is essentially a house with showers, kitchen facilities and a large lawn to put your tent on. The owners, Dia and Joop were really friendly, made coffee when I arrived and got up early next morning to put out breakfast things -beyond the call of duty seeing I was the only guest that night. Recommended!
Trip today: (0)494 mileage: 494
The weather stayed fine but it was cold in the night -at breakfast Joop reckoned the temperature had got down to freezing. He headed off to work on his old Guzzi; I headed east across Holland, Germany and Denmark. The weather was fine and warm again and by early afternoon I reached the ferry port at Puttgarden to cross the Baltic to Rodbyhavn. This was a new ferry experience for me -none of the pomp and circumstance of the English Channel; here the boat rolls in, unloads, reloads and is away again in what seems like minutes -fast and high volume.
Carried on another couple of hours north through Denmark, crossing the spectacular bridge from Copenhagen to Malmo -made it to Sweden. Finished the day near Lomma, on the coast just north of Malmo around 7:15p.m.
This is the crappiest campsite I've been to since France in the '70s. Toilets and showers were working but all ancient and falling apart. There's nothing like fatigue and crap facilities to bring on a "why am I here?" moment (and this was a fairly severe one, but the last of the whole trip). This is one tough trip. It's going to be 500 mile days from start to finish -and I just don't think I've got the energy for it. It also feels wrong because of all that's happening back home - Sarah's exams, plans to move house... right now I want to just lie in my sleeping bag and be snug. Better would be to wake up back home.
Trip today: (1)019 mileage: 525
Woke up and got on with it. Last night's tiredness had receded. The plan was to follow the main road to Stockholm and then go north up the Baltic coast. At mid-day near Odeshog I pulled onto the old B road, that ran in parallel with the main road to admire the view over Vattern (a big lake). The prospect of spending more time onsome quieter roads was too much and over a Snickers and water lunch the route got a complete replan. There seemed to be an obvious route up the middle of the country and I'd follow that instead.
After a few wrong turnings that led through open farmland
and pretty little lanes the route started to fall into place and began
to unfold easily ahead of me. Farmland gradually gave way to what I can
only describe as moorland with conifers and lakes. I wish I had lots
to say about Sweden but the dominant image is that it's green, mostly flat,
mostly empty and very big. Few of the roads in the northern two thirds of
the country are busy; some are very quiet. Drivers pretty much keep to the speed
limit, which is 90Km/h on A roads in the busier southern half of the
country. Further north it's 110Km/h on many of the roads; not bad all in all.
Spirits rose mid afternoon after talking to Alex my student son from a roadside shopping centre. He asked when I could collect him from college and was surprised to discover where I was! Later in the afternoon he called again to say he'd just got exam results -and yes, he passed his first year OK!
Camped at Mora about a third of the way up Sweden on what the French might call the Camping Municipal -but it was a really lovely spot beside the river under willows and silver birches.
Trip today: (1)509 mileage: 490 (looks like I'm averaging 500 miles a day!)
Trip today :(2)014 mileage: 505
Nice site, nice breakfast in the hotel on the site. Dry at
first but rain came and the morning turned to cold, wet, and blustery. Sun shone
in the afternoon. Lovely sun.
After 200 miles getting gradually wetter and colder a McDonalds in a shopping centre at Ostersund provided a welcome lunch. Towns had been getting smaller and further apart and this was to be the last out-of-town-mall I would pass going north. As I continued north the clouds parted to give a warm afternoon. The strip of tarmac lined with trees went on and on. Filling the tank after another 200 miles I had helped a Russian family with a petrol pump. I saw two lots of reindeer. Finished at Adj something. Camped by a lake at the edge of town. Many bugs.
Despite worrying about the
bugs I only picked up one bite -I'd imagined clouds of midges but it was nowhere
near as bad as expected. It stayed light all night. The campsite was by a road
and we were all treated to some tosser with a noisy V8 screeching the tyres and
racing up and down in the wee small hours. Eventually a police siren was heard
and peace returned. I guess one problem with light nights is the tendency to
stay up late.
Well I thought the weather would be like February. How wrong can you be? It was already warm at 7:00am. By mid-morning it was roasting. I just got too hot. By the time it dawned on me just how warm it was I was already suffering and, combining that with being tired from yesterday the day turned into hard work. Crossed the arctic circle at Jokmokk. Felt like one goal had been achieved. The scenery was at last interesting. Arctic tundra, snow topped hills, rivers in torrent, frozen lakes, all under a baking sun.
The land rises almost
imperceptibly through the north of Sweden, the westerly "spur" of Finland and by
the time you cross into Norway it's a high, desolate plateau. In the middle of
the emptiness is Kautokeino -sunny Sunday afternoon like anywhere else -tee
shirts, mountain bikes, ice creams -but it's in the middle of nowhere!! As you
continue north rocky peaks begin to appear and the plateau starts to be cut by
deep valleys. Nearing the coast I passed frozen lakes and huge torrents of melt
water.
Made Alta by late afternoon. Nordkapp was still about 150 miles but I'd lost the will for the day and found a campsite. Didn't look too promising at first but turned out to be quiet and had good showers. Actually it was quiet for
most
of the time... the runway of the local
airport was just a few hundred yards away. Fortunately it isn't as busy as
Heathrow. Spent the evening relaxing in the warm sun -sat out until 9:30 in my
shorts. This is too good to be true.
Set the alarm for 00:30 to see the midnight sun.
Trip today: (2)496 mileage: 482
The plan for today was get up slowly, go to Nordkapp and then decide what to do next, depending on how much time was left.
Got up, had breakfast and packed up in bright, warm sun. Thinking about yesterday's heat I kept the layers to a minimum. Mistake. Within a half hour I was in gray clag -sort of like sea mist and it was freezing, probably about 2-3C. Two or three layer-adding stops later I had the full clobber on. It was as I'd imagined -January in June.
Nordkapp was a surprisingly
long way from Alta and with lots of short stops the time stretched out. The
scenery was rolling hills with patches of snow. Scrubby trees, fast flowing
rivers and waterfalls. The last 50 miles to the Kapp follow the side of the
fjord, with strong, cold wind off the sea, sweeping bends, tunnels, reindeer,
camper vans.
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Nordkapp is all I could have wished for. "Welcome to Nordkapp. That will be 190 kroner please" smiled the pretty young thing at the entrance barrier. Sigh. What do you get for your money? Just the smile as far as I could tell. The souvenir shop and coffee bar were up to standard and there's a metal thing out the back that you can take a picture of. At least it's in better taste than the shit hole at Land's End. Btw I reckon Cardiff to the Kapp is 2646 miles if you go this way.
Returned towards Alta. I'm very tired. Today was meant to be easy going but the cold took it out of me (just like yesterday's heat did). It's late afternoon so I stopped in Alta and went back to the same campsite as yesterday.
Trip today: (2)807 mileage: 311
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So which way home? (all routes are south). The easiest option would be simply to backtrack all the way. Having come this far it would be daft not to follow the coast southwards for a while and then turn east back into Sweden. Good choice -now I know why it's a popular motorcycling destination. Blue skies all day following the twisting, quiet roads in and out of the fjords and over snowy passes. The views were breathtaking; forget the Alps -they have nothing on this.
The speed limits seem low in Norway but 90Km/h (58mph) is plenty on most of this route. Passed the first speed trap today -officer with a "gun" at the end of a long, unnecessary 50Km/h stretch. I would have been dead meat but for the gestures of another biker going the opposite way. Also today I started to get flashed by other drivers and after a while it dawned that they were pointing out that my daytime headlight wasn't on -as is required in Norway and Sweden. Investigation showed that the bulb had gone and worse than that the headlamp lens had a diagonal crack right across it's width. The bulb was soon replaced at a garage but I was left with food for thought about the reason why the lens had cracked.
The weather here is prone to extremes (at least by my
standards). When the sun shines it's hot; when it disappears it's cold; when the
wind blows it's strong. And it changes from one to another in a minute.
Ended the day south of Narvik, with the tent right on the edge of the fjord.
Trip today: (3)171 mileage: 364
It rained. It was still raining when I got up at 7:00. A quick cuppa then gritted teeth and away by 8:00. I packed the tent wet, hoping for a chance to dry it later on.
Continued south. The plan for the day was to follow the E6
to south of Bodo and pick up the 75/45 to go back east into Sweden. This stretch
of the coast is lovely. The grey skies took away the colour but the shapely
peaks and island-dotted fjords were a delight.
After riding for about an hour the road came to a dead end. Progress ahead meant catching a ferry. With an hour to spare before the next sailing I had time to cook up some porridge and move the wet tent around a bit. A friendly group of Danish bikers appeared and the ferry arrived all too quickly while we admired each others' wheels.
15 minutes and 46NOK to
cross. The rest of the day went to plan, weaving south down the coast, then
turning eastwards, back towards Sweden. This last part of the day's route wound
through high ground that was some of the most remote and desolate country yet.
Rock, snow, reindeer, sky, and for the first time I felt uneasy about the
emptiness around me.
Ended the day in Slagnas on a very nice quiet campsite. Put up the tent by a small lake with fish, mosquitoes a golden retriever and evening sun for company.
Trip today: (3)493 mileage: 322
The mozzies fed well on me last night. I'll definitely keep a little further away from the water in future.
Another damp start but the sun was shining by mid morning.
It was another of those days of endless Swedish road with the occasional lake or
view over pretty flat, tree clad land to the horizon. The level of
"civilization" increased noticeably going south. The tipping point was at
Ostersund, where the most northerly McDonalds seen on the trip is located. I'd
stopped there on the way north and sad to say I was looking forward to a BigMac
all morning -when it came it really hit the spot! Also visited the
Coop and bought some new underwear -nuff said.
The afternoon was sweltering (saw 28C on a garage sign) and I was forced to ride in shirt sleeves. The increased risk of gravel rash was made up for by the sheer comfort.
Made Mora by 6:30 pm and enjoyed a couple more hours basking in evening sun.
Trip today: (3)959 mileage: 466
Changing a tyre seems to be a standard part of a trip. This time it was the front. The receptionist at the campsite helpfully directed me to the right part of town and after a bit of search found a Dackia -roughly the equivalent of Kwik Fit in the UK and got the tyre changed. 1800SEK (£132) for a Michelin Pilot wasn't cheap (about £30 more than I'd expect to pay at home) but the job was done nicely by friendly staff and it was a worry off my mind so I wasn't too upset. That was probably the highlight of the day. Other than that the weather turned increasingly grey and damp as I threaded my way south through the increasingly busy and complex roads. The scenery became much more like home -green meadows with dandelions and, to my surprise, clouds of pink and blue wild lupins lining the roadside ditches and embankments.
Finished up at a small place called Rostanga about 20Km north of Malmo. It looked dreary under grey evening skies but had good showers. Under bright sunshine on Saturday morning it turned out to be pretty and rural.
Trip today: (4)415 mileage: 456
Took quiet roads through flat, open country from Rostanga to the coast at Malmo. The air was cool, with rain-washed blue skies above. Across the vastness of the Oresund bridge to Copenhagen, south to Rodbyhavn and the ferry to Puttgarden. Midday in Germany and the temperature was really rising under a cloudless sky. The layers gradually came off and by mid-afternoon I was down to my long sleeved vest, visor was open and covered with black insulating tape to keep the sun off my face. Made it back to Het Dijkje by early evening, tired but in good spirits. The site was well occupied with bikers from Tewkesbury and MAG Holland members. Dia and Joop were away in Scotland on the Guzzi and had left the site in the care of Rens and his partner -who proved to be just as good at making the campers welcome, this time with beer and barbecue. On the outbound journey I'd picked up a bottle of beer from the campsite fridge and before leaving I returned it to Dia and Joop with a note to say thanks and let them know their bottle had been to Nordkapp and back.
Trip today: (4)976 mileage: 561
A scorching hot day.
Temperature was well into the 30s. Breakfast in the sun then away by 9:00
-slightly hung over from the night before. I was in my vest by 10:00a.m. and
didn't put the jacket back on until mid-evening, about 20 miles from home.
Though it was Sunday morning the road network around Antwerp was horribly
congested.
Phoned Norfolk Lines from a few miles outside Dunkerque and they proved as accommodating as ever letting me change my travel from Tuesday. The Channel crossing was flat calm hot and uneventful until a a little way outside Dover we were treated to a fly past by the Red Arrows.
Trip today: (5)439 mileage: 463
The total mileage for the trip was 5440
The big picture
The northern part of the route (1.3Mb)