Nordic travel plans August / September 2017

[jumartoo]

Sunday we drove to the edge of the Lofoten, found a camp site open, bit grim, maybe the end of season but would have hated to be here in summer if busy, got a fjord side pitch though so nice view at least.

Had issues finding dump options for our low level exit black tank, but did find an excellent free dump and fill option on the harbour in Reine, where you could also park with no other facilities for £20, we decided to drive on and found an 'abused' layby / picnic area that technically said no overnight parking, but was so far out of the way and out of season nobody else came by except 2 Norwegian MH's already there a Norwegian caravan and three cyclists

yesterdays drive was mainly half decent weather, but it has now closed in and looks bleak for our last day on the islands, tonight we stop over on our first repeat location at Evenes, ready to drop A + R back at the airport at daft o'clock on Wednesday morning, we are even going to see if we can park at the airport (05:30 drop off) technically this is just to save them a days hire car charge, so I might renegotiate that bit, they can do a drop off for the car and take themselves

we hope the weather picks up a little for our last 2 days together, eagle sightings would be nice, one catching a fish in sight would be a bonus , aurora still a possibility and at the site we first saw one together would be nice

piccies from yesterday

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Naughty. That's one of the places with signs in three languages. You've no excuse!!! We could have hidden behind our Spanish reg. number

 

[DavidG58]

Naughty. That's one of the places with signs in three languages. You've no excuse!!! We could have hidden behind our Spanish reg. number

we did feel a little bad, but this one isn't one of the more normal roadside picnic areas it was miles from the main road just off a coastal back road

but yes guilty as charged we hid behind the Norwegian registered hire car

 

[jumartoo]

We pulled in early morning to

we did feel a little bad, but this one isn't one of the more normal roadside picnic areas it was miles from the main road just off a coastal back road

but yes guilty as charged we hid behind the Norwegian registered hire car

We pulled in early morning to use the facilities and there was no one there. I think the signs have been put everywhere in the region. They weren't there in June but they were in July, according to CC reviews.

It's a shame if they police it, it's a good spot.

 

[Scout]

Hi both & lola only just caught up after loosing you, fantastic pics and I glad your enjoying the trip but have you seen

 

[DavidG58]

last day in Norway for us, raining properly for just about the first time in our Scandanavian part of the trip at least, so having a rest day, but we did get this aurora last night, unpredicted and almost missed, Roger went to the aire toilet came back in and said 'I think an aurora maybe starting but right now there is nothing to really see' this was just after midnight, Bev went out and came back to say he may be right, so out we all go in jarmies, but temp 12C so OK, soon after we got yet another superb display, words cant say how good it is and we keep saying e cant believe how lucky we have been

I do know the photo quality isn't brilliant, the main memory for us will be in our heads for a good while, the photos will aid this but in reality have not matched the real thing, the dancing curtains we have heard talked about move so fast it is impossible to photograph, not helped by lack of tripod, all these were hand held

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[DavidG58]

tomorrow we leave Evenes a lovely little aire, heading for Sweden, the border is only 80km away from here, possibly first night target is

500km = 310 miles, just about on our daily limit, but cloudy forecast think we might just get on with it tomorrow, A + R leave at 05:30 for the airport, but in their hire car so we might just get up and get on with the first days travel, a few breaks should see day 1 easily

going to refer back to J + M's thread for possible stop points we are virtually retracing their route up through Sweden, only difference will be the lack of walking, riding and fishing

 

[Robert Clark]

The pics have been great David
I'm guessing though that the reality of the Aurora is awesome.

 

[Scout]

last day in Norway for us, raining properly for just about the first time in our Scandanavian part of the trip at least, so having a rest day, but we did get this aurora last night, unpredicted and almost missed, Roger went to the aire toilet came back in and said 'I think an aurora maybe starting but right now there is nothing to really see' this was just after midnight, Bev went out and came back to say he may be right, so out we all go in jarmies, but temp 12C so OK, soon after we got yet another superb display, words cant say how good it is and we keep saying e cant believe how lucky we have been

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I do know the photo quality isn't brilliant, the main memory for us will be in our heads for a good while, the photos will aid this but in reality have not matched the real thing, the dancing curtains we have heard talked about move so fast it is impossible to photograph, not helped by lack of tripod, all these were hand held

I think there is something wrong with your camara David ,its got green splodges over the lens and I think you may have forgoton to take off the lens cap

 

[42208]

Love the photos, what a trip, still a long way home, if its any consolation its easy to cover long distances South from Tore although I don't think you are in any particular hurry! You have been very lucky with the lights, great memories

 

[DavidG58]

getting ready to say bye to A + R, amazingly already had 8 nights together, seems like 3, in the morning they get a plane home, back same day, we set off with 13 days to do the journey to Calais, hoping for a couple of rest days in France before we chunnel back

so final bye from A + R and us saying bye to Norway, we have loved you but time to move on

still in shorts 15C today even though cloudy

plus my final eagle, even if not flying

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[CWH]

Ah! I've been wondering about the lovely Lola

 

[Gingertom16]

Enjoying your photos and trip description, we were over in June and did the south fiords and up as far as Trondhiem, Stockholm is an interesting city to visit if you have time.

 

[DavidG58]

yesterday we left Norway, through some totally different landscape, amazing how a few miles makes so much difference

as we left the Narvik fjord

then we climbed the hills on the E10 out of Norway, looking down on the new and old bridges at Narvik

then found ourselves 500m up in totally different countryside

soon after this we arrived in Sweden with reasonable weather optimism having seen grey / cloudy forecasts, saw quite a ew of these what we think are train shelters, nowhere near avalanche risk as far as we could see, so presume just for bad weather

clouds soon appeared on the horizon, but lovely tree colours kept things brightish

as far as we can tell this is the bit of road J + M rallied across, now a lovely new tarmac section

all too soon we found ourselves in the first bit of mile after mile of tree lined road and this was day 1

the colours are nice, but it soon becomes a little boring, although we did see some of these

then stopped over in a aire type location with petrol, small shop, café 3 other MH's and a few lorries, very tired went to be as it went dark which seemed unusually early 8:30, woke up fully refreshed but on 11:30 dozed through the night, woken up by lorries on the move at 06:00, so we got up

another grey damp day, put jeans and long sleeved shirt on heading for the Swedish eastern coastline today

 

[Scout]

More great pics David, when are you back home or dont you want to think about that?

PS hows lola

 

[DavidG58]

Lola's doing great, although today we think she is missing Roger who loves her nearly as much as you Phil and she is missing the extra affection

Chunnel booked for the 26th, so plenty of days left yet, current thinking is get to France for next Thursday / Friday then have a long weekend there before heading home, still seems an awful long way home from here and we don't want to make it into a chore, more part of the trip than it currently feels

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[DavidG58]

a couple of add ons to the post above, turns out as we entered Sweden and then for the next 200 odd miles we were in Lapland This is the most northerly part of Sweden, which I also now know doesn't have a northern coast, only Norway goes right round the top and joins onto Russia

For the birdies we saw a new bird for us and fairly rare a Siberian Jay, too quick to take photo but we both described it so well it was easily confirmed by our bird book

Lichen grows like grass in Lapland, I have often heard how reindeer scratch down through snow to eat the lichen and had previously thought poor things, but it looks much more bushy than the thin layer we get on rocks, positively appetising no photos too grey and wet to stop and photo, sorry

today suddenly has promise, (the sun is sort of showing) having started really grey we crossed the arctic circle in Sweden this time heading south, only a few miles from where we stayed overnight and far less made of it here than in Norway, as we already knew from J + M 's thread

we have driven today on single track, three lane odd bits of motorway and now back to single track (that's 2 direction single, not Scottish type single with passing places )

Making good progress though, about 200 miles by this lunch stop, seen some water and less trees and what trees we are now seeing are all green, none of the yellow autumn colours we got only 200 miles north, will be looking for a stop over before we leave here for around 100 miles away

slightly disappointed to be so close to the sea and not see it, so far at least

 

[Scout]

Lola's doing great, although today we think she is missing Roger who loves her nearly as much as you Phil and she is missing the extra affection

Chunnel booked for the 26th, so plenty of days left yet, current thinking is get to France for next Thursday / Friday then have a long weekend there before heading home, still seems an awful long way home from here and we don't want to make it into a chore, more part of the trip than it currently feels

drive carefully winters coming

 

[Riverbankannie]

Just caught up on your thread David. It's great. So glad you had good weather and were able to see aurora.
By the time you have travelled down through Sweden you will be a bit tired of trees. I usually find the 1.5 hours from airport to Stockholm sufficient!

 

[DavidG58]

another fact I only learnt this morning passing the Swedish arctic circle line, the actual position moves which I did know from my Norway crossing, but it is the most southerly position where the midnight sun can be seen on the midsummer solstice

 

[CWH]

another fact I only learnt this morning passing the Swedish arctic circle line, the actual position moves which I did know from my Norway crossing, but it is the most southerly position where the midnight sun can be seen on the midsummer solstice

Just HAD to love that! So wonderfully primitive/ pagan/ earthy/ unsophisticated/ ancient/ real-life.
Joy @movan will feel it too

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[jumartoo]

So glad they've finished the road, they don't waste much time do they? I bet you saw the same reindeer as us, it was about the same place!!!

Sweden does get better on that route but the road does go through trees much of the time. Get off the road to the coast or lakes and it's a different world.

I'll be interested to see where you stop overnight.

 

[DavidG58]

travel towards home so far has been

Evenes Norway to Lansjarv Sweden where we parked at a petrol station aire type car park, 400km 250 miles, lightweight start but we had a very odd start, up at 05:00 to see off A + R, then spent the whole day tired

today Lansjarv to Ornskoldsvik 516 km 320 miles, kind of what we think we need to do per day, but it is a long way, just about to review what we 'really' need to do to get where

a lovely marina location, another country that knows how to treat motorhomes 200SK £20 as near as makes no difference, includes electrics, water fill, low level dump (which you could use without them even knowing ) in the office area there are free toilets and showers with access key right by the town, Italian restaurant next to marina office just about perfect, even an option for no electrics for 150SK, we had paid before we realised that

 

[DavidG58]

edit to above, town has free wifi

a few photos from the stellplatz

view from our door

local tower block

view of stellplatz while Bev geo cached (and found it )

and for the town that has one of everything

a ski jump, which appears to land in some back gardens

 

[jumartoo]

Ornsköldsvik is the centre for next year's O Ringen Orienteering event (the event we attended this year). Whether we go next year is to be decided. We'll probably do a bit of Sweden anyway as we enjoyed parts that we did this summer.

 

[DavidG58]

planning the rest of the way home

2397 km is 1489 miles, perfect, we can now do 200 miles a day get to France on Thursday next week 21st, then decide to return early, or have a long weekend and get planned crossing on Tuesday 26th

Or we could take a few days at a few places and risk missing our planned crossing

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[DavidG58]

just checked, we still have further to get back to Calais than if we were leaving Gibraltar now, and we have already done 900 km

worth it though (mostly)

 

[DavidG58]

two more days of homeward travel, it is starting to become a chore, coupled with Bev now suggesting getting back early for more grandchildren time, usually on our trips we plan a circular tour, this is by far the longest trip and then by a massive margin the longest return journey we have done

this had been yesterdays plan

found one of those too good to be true places to stop at Gavle, a recently completed river / dock side aire / stellplatz, with full facilities including electricity and free till next year

but because of that and maybe being Friday night it was also full

so we trundled on for another few miles and stopped at a motorway rest area, near Tierp

all the motorway stop overs here seem to have water beside them, nice places in the main, also today the number of trees seems to have reduced dramatically

some Swedish motorway stop overs for you from the last two days, that's all we are seeing for now

tonights destination still to be decided, done 200 miles so far, thinking is another 150 will leave us about 150 miles in Sweden, the Denmark stretch and into Germany overnight, back to free travel (euros saved from earlier this year )

I massively underestimated cash for the Denmark and Sweden part of the travel, my preference is always for cash for fuel, save bills arriving after we get home, but I only got £400 in Swedish Krone, just checked the miles 2000km just to cover Sweden

its even a 4 hour flight

 

[jumartoo]

Told you there were some nice places if you got off the main roads towards the coast or lakes.

We're now in Germany, north of Hamburg possibly for a push around there tomorrow. Sunday will be a better day to go around, won't it?

 

[DavidG58]

We did Hamburg on Monday morning, it actually wasn't that bad, although it did seem an awful lot worse going south, both into Hamburg and then south from there, we will find out in a couple of days

 

[DavidG58]

tpdays journey is done

came a few miles off the motorway just as it started to pour down, so glad we chose to stop, found this place in the middle of nowhere amazingly so had about 20 others, (its nice enough but not that nice) parked up with drink and cheese to follow had jacket potato for lunch (from home still ) with chilli mince and beans (mince and beans from home still, meat frozen as we left ) even the beer is still from home

https://www.campercontact.com/en/sw...plats--bauergardens-gastgiveri-konferens.aspx

people are sat out under awnings here, 18C in sun before it rained

sun just coming back out, still in shorts

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