Arctic Circle - Europe

[horacebat]

Hi,

I'm considering doing a trip to the Arctic Circle. I've got a friend who lives in central Sweden, and was thinking of doing just a simple 600 miles or so to the Arctic Circle (its only a couple of inches on the map!).

Has anyone done a trip similar to this?, what did they do it in?, what time of year?, what did you take?, what did you do for accomodation ?, Did you take anything out of the ordinary ?

What was your route ?

Oh so many questions!

Many thanks

HB.

[Stumpy Doofleer]

I drove from Scotland to Nordkapp the northern most tip of europe in 2003, I took my Mk3 golf, a total of 6214miles in 2 weeks:eek:. I got the ferry from Dover to Dunkirk, then up through France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway. I did the trip in the middle of summer to coincide with the summer solstice at Nordkapp on the 21st of June. I did it this way due mainly to cost as the ferry to norway would have cost about another £800 on top of what the whole holiday cost. I camped everynight, only using the mitchellin europe map which has campsite's on the map, just drove to the nearest camp site at the end of every day. It was quite weird getting used to 24 hour sunshine, and having a snowball fight in the middle of summer:D. I have some pics I will upload tomorrow of the artic circle in Finland, a line in a car park:D. If camping then it might be worth your while getting a camping card for use in the scandanavian countries.

[gahooduk]

I drove from christiansan norway ( ferry from Harwich) up the norwegian coast in June 98 with a 90 and a VW t4 mobile campervan, the main motorway is ok but the t4 struggled over some roads along the coast near tronheihm and narvick which where non tarmac and gravel....basically sliding off the road

we camped and only had difficult with camping gaz..had to buy a new stove for norwegian gaz bottles

expensive, everything expensive especialy booze just got to the artic circle for 22 june....slept outside one night as could not find a campsite....total mistake....midges & mossis we all loook like we had measles

came back down via sweden.....sorry but not as nice as norway unless you like trees...the 90 did not like their diesel lots of smoke...still do not know why...the t4 had no problem.

on one very warm day the girls went for a swim....jumped into a clear lake....melt water of a glacier 0 degrees almost instant hypothermia....

[horacebat]

Thanks Chaps !, very interesting!, had it been 20 years ago we'd have been doing in a series 1, had 6 weeks to do it, and would have crammed kit and as many people in as possible to make it cost effective.

Now the purpose of this trip is to celebrate my Four Oh ! (something different, which is also in June!)!, Time is more of an issue these days than money, so think we may go up on the Ferry to make it feel like a real adventure, and means that we turn up 900 miles further into the trip fully refreshed after our "Cruise"!.

Was there many people up there, or did it feel like a tourist attraction?. We'll also be taking a tent, and prolly a trangia (so will stock up on cheap meths!) and a bbq!.

As for alchohol, think we maybe making the use of the cavernous boot and stock up at Tescos!.

Thanks for your replies chaps and look forwards to those photos!

[Stumpy Doofleer]

Here's some pics the first 3 are of the reindeer on the roads, and the 4th one was taken at 1am at the camp site at Skarsvag about 16 miles from Nordkapp, and the 5th one is from the hill beside the campsite looking towards Nordkapp at about midnight on the 20th of June. The 6th one is Nordkapp at exactly midnight on the 21st of June, and the 7th one is on the way back having a snowball fight:D. the 8th one is of the Artic Circle in Finland on the way up to Nordkapp, and the 9th one is in Hell :thedevil: on the way back home. And the 10th one was taken somewhere up the north of Norway on the way back. Sorry for the quality as they were taken off the cam-corder.

[horacebat]

Blimey ! .. that looks absolutely fantastic .. why don't other people go go there more often ... it looks so desolate!

We're definately planning a trip..

How did you cope with getting fuel and provisions up that way ?

[Stumpy Doofleer]

Fuel wasn't a problem, there are garages in every town, I was filling up about once or twice a day with the golf about 400 miles between fill up's. We took all the food before we left, and bought sandwiches at garages and general things like bread and milk. At Nordkapp i got a salmon sandwich and a bottle of Mack beer for about £5 which I thought was pretty cheap considering where we were, though it was £16 for two hamburger's and two cokes and two sandwiches on the ferry we had to take in Norway between Skarbarger and Bognes 42km from Narvik. At the time the fuel was cheaper than the UK though only by about 5p or so.

[nitwit 66]

Wow, what a fantastic trip. We were thinking of doing the same. has anyone travelled so far with young children?