My first trip, an arctic adventure

[Kernbunker]

7,380 miles, 45 days, 9 countries, 12 borders, 6 ferries, 3 campsites, 3 stellplatz (the rest, legal free camping), 1 tyre change, 1 oil change, 4 new spark plugs, 1 distributor cap, 1 rotor arm, 6 hitchkikers, 24 hours sunshine, 800 photos - here's a just a few...

We had such a good time, the van was everything I wanted it to be and Scandinavia was breathtaking.


Aabenraa Stellplatz, Denmark


Egeskov, Denmark


Wolfie stops at a country farm loppis, Sweden


Free camping, free clothes line


Lake night, Skog, Sweden


Bad camping


Wolfie drives north into the day


Ever northward, inside the Arctic Circle


Wolfie sees the (24 hour) light


Towards the midnight sun, fog!


Nordkapp, the top of Europe


Midnight flowers


Reindeer at the end of the world


Nordkapp, Norway


Lofoten, Norway


Car park camping


Lofoten, Norway


Lofoten, Norway


Lofoten, Norway


Lofoten, Norway


Ferry to Bodo


Caving - Mo-I-Rana, Norway


Ostersund, Sweden


Jotenheim National Park, Norway


Wolfie sees double


Skagen, Denmark

[Titus A Duxass]

Helluva trip mate, looks like it was worth it though.

[fullsunian]

What a trip More pictures please.
IAN

[weldore]

i am in awe

[eatcustard]

Lucky you.

What an adventure you must have had.

[purplecrocs]

I'm jealous...! I fancy a Scandinavian trip, might have to tap you up for some advice if I do....

[ojsmith]

first trip?! nothing like throwing yourself in the deep-end!!!

looks amazing, would love to do that...

[Doctor Foster]

Amazing pics.

[Kernbunker]

Yep, first time, I'm not one for toes in the pool... Gotta jump. The only problem is setting the bar so high, what's next? I've done a lot of camping before, but never campering. The convenience of the T25, not to mention the handsome looks, were just brilliant. It took me a few days to get used to the flashes and waves from other VWs! Now, I'm loving it. After 6 and a half weeks in one, the flat felt like an aircraft hanger when I got home. Can't wait to do some shorter hops over here (while planning the next big one!) I'll start with Cromer, for the meet.

Those long empty roads (albethey Reindeer populated) in the true North are just fantastic. I fully endorse Scandinavia, and will happily recount sagas of maelstroms and trolls if required. I will endeavour to post some more pics, once I get a moment to go through them again. The van's getting a service right now, and I need to repair a break in attempt (happened in Gothenburg - a big city, you don't get big city crime in the Arctic Circle either)

[Mick & Tracey]

Great pictures. Reminded us just how good Scandinavia is. Midnight sun is amazing, awesome skies, Lofoten probably one of the most enchanting places we've been to

*** it, why aren't we travelling anymore

oh I remember, we celebrated too much and ended up with two little cherubs, hey ho a 150 mile trip to Vanfest will have to do

[koopsi]

WOW what an amazing trip, much kudos to ya

did it take a lot of planning ? what sort of things did you think off before leaving ? any tips for us that you have inspired ?

soz, but im quite excited now as it's kinda pointed me in the direction for next years hols (been wanting to go to Denmark for a while now )

well done again, and thx for sharing

[melmelody]

looks like you had a great trip great photos too i did my summer trip this yar too but nothing as long as that i did 3000 kms in 10 days and travelled to germany thenprague bratislava budapest vienna salzburg nurnberg and then rothenburg ab der tauber van ran great but te coil melted and the distributor died between prague and bratislava so 2 days and 320 euros lighter we were all set for the move to budapest had a great time travelling round .i'm planning on doing a run to scandinavia but will probably have to wait until next year now as it'll be dark there soon good luck on the next trip

[Gadders]

Some amazing pics there,love this one thou,




What an adventure...

[Kernbunker]

Didn't excessively plan. Had a vague idea of route (not kept to) and knew that I wanted full midnight sun, which meant we had 3 weeks to get up top, that was quite a leisurely 5000km really. In fact, in the vague planning I had done I estimated 8-9000km for the whole trip, but ended up doing nearly 12,000! That's told me to add at least 33% to my estimates from now on.

I took spare sparks since the van was misfiring periodically, took spare oil and 15l of extra petrol as I was worried about rural roads. However, I didn't use any extra petrol as even in the far North garages were plentiful, though I did fill up at many 1970s pumps and at least one 1950a-60s one! Other than that, took the socket set, spanners and Haynes manual. All of which got used! Country maps all got used, local maps were obtained in tourist offices on the way. My Scandinavian camping card was pretty much a waste of money. Portaloo mostly unused. Mossie nets were essential. I bought a little saw in a junk shop which helped us make fires in Norway - that'll stay in the van now.

Oh and I packed the flask as an afterthought, and we used it every day! It was nice to roll up for the night and have an instant cup of tea, before getting organised for cooking etc. Again this'll be on the list for future trips. An extra little camp stove got used a few times, when we wanted to cook and eat away from the van. Oh yes, I also took more butane than we used, since they don't sell it there. Everything else was just common sense camping stuff. One wish list item would have been bikes. Then it would have been perfect!

Koopsi, Denmark is very expensive, maybe more so than Norway (except for booze) and free camping isn't legal there, though we did find empty beaches on Jutland to stay the night. The villages are adorable though, they do cute like no other. Save those pennies.

Glad you like my washing line Gadders! Melmelody, sounds like a good run too. Such beautiful places, maybe you could show us some pics too.

[koopsi]

pennies being saved Kernbunker

many thanks for the reply, and some wonderful tips - gonna start planning now, can wait