Nordkapp Adventure

[JockandRita]

Smashing reading guys. :thumb:

Thanks for the update.

Stay safe,

Jock & Rita.

 

[Sundowners]

You are getting our taste buds going Pamala, glad you are still having a great time and not going hungry, lucky Garry is good with his rod.

What a shame about the American car show, I thought the Americana shows here are a rip off, must be an American thing.

Love reading your blog and great pictures, safe trip and will have to meet up when you get back, we went to Rutland a couple of weeks ago, very nice but not the same without the Nordkapp Gang there. :thumb: Bob and Jane.

Can soon sort that - must arrange a date when we get back.

Nigel and Pamala

 

[Sundowners]

Well at this moment in time we are sitting in an airconditioned McD's in Lokeren in Belgium and have had breakfast at €2.50.

A day early for the ferry, but heading the last 80 miles to see if we can get an earlier crossing, but hope to get to a hypermarket to stock up on some french goodies beforehand.

The last update will hopefully be an overview of the whole trip.

Til then - keep smiling.

Nigel, Pamala, Garry & Chris

 

[Sundowners]

Nordkapp Adventure 8
Following on from Nordkapp Adventure 7, we headed south with only one intention and that was to go straight to the ferry terminal at Malmo, yes still lots to see in Sweden but we decided to leave that until another time as we will definitely be back, if circumstances allow. We will also be visiting Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland at a later date, as that was also to be included in this trip, we all felt we would like to bypass those places this time for various reasons. That route was only really for transit reasons and we would like to do a bit more research before heading that way in the future.

We covered the drive south in good time albeit very hot as our aircon. isn’t working. In the evening we parked next to a cemetery in the shade to cook our evening meal before carrying on for another couple of hours when it was a bit cooler, this helped to cover our miles. On the way we saw many big yank tanks driving in the opposite direction, nice ones too, we believe they had been to the American Car Show we would have liked to gone to, if it hadn’t been so expensive. We don’t normally do motorways but on this occasion we decided to get on one that takes us just in the direction we wanted to go and this would help to cover the miles as well. By doing this we arrived at the ferry terminal by early afternoon. The double act (Nigel and Garry) hit the booking clerk with their wit and came back with a very nice deal. Our one way trip over cost us €103.00 (for a 9 hour crossing) thinking it was going to be a lot more for the return I was completely shocked when we got it for €78.00. We were actually given a 50% discount which was a special offer they had on at the moment as they are trying to encourage tourists rather than their usual custom of truck drivers/freight. It was even suggested by the clerk that our Ringleader get in touch with Finnlines to work at getting a Funster discount, a suggestion we will put to Jim. And to top it all we got on the 4 p.m. ferry that day. We arrived at Travemunde at around 1a.m. and knew that we could camp up on the car park for the night. We slept well that night even though we were surrounded by trucks loading and unloading on the ferry all night long.

Now for the drive across Germany, not looking forward to that, as the experience coming over was a bit frantic and there were major tailbacks mostly in the opposite direction, and you think the M25 is bad. We took a slightly different route back, but all motorways. We already had bookings for the ferry from Dunkerque for midday on the 11th, so we knew we had to cover some miles. The first day we travelled 425 miles which was quite good for us, especially as we did not hit the roads until 11 a.m. after having filled with fuel, water and provisions in Lubeck (a place we visited on the way out). We did the same and stopped to have tea before heading off for another 114 miles in the cool evening. Found a nice aire in Lokeren in Belgium about 80 miles from the ferry. We had intended on an early start – 9 a.m. (well that’s early for us), unfortunately, Garry awoke to a flat tyre on the rear of his van. Battery pack came out of his trailer, blew it up and we made our way to a tyre fitter only about 2 km down the road. Within 10 minutes it was fixed believing it was a leaky tubeless valve – cost €5. Decided to hit McD’s for breakfast and a fix of internet access, plus it was airconditioned which made it more pleasant. When we had all had our fix we went outside only to find Garrys tyre was flat again. Thankfully we were only just down the road from the tyre fitter so we returned and they found that his rim was split right next to the valve. We were off again after a tube had been fitted to get us back to the UK (unfortunately, this time is was €25).

We also refuelled at Lokerne as diesel was €1.34.1 per litre and lpg was €.54cents per litre – well wouldn’t you at that price?

By the time we had all that sorted and travelled the 80 miles and visiting another aire to dump, we arrived at the ferry terminal about 4 p.m., the day before our ferry was to leave, so we made it in plenty of time. We could have asked if we could change our ferry that day, but did not want the drive north from Dover late at night and it was a possibility that we would not be able to park on Marine Parade nor find a wild camping spot on the way home, we decided to leave the next day, but we changed our booking from midday to 10 a.m. Had a nice lazy evening parked in the large car park at the terminal.

It was time to say our goodbyes to our fantastic travelling companions and the realisation that our trip was finally over which seemed really strange, handing over our walkie talkie we made our separate ways from the ferry. BOOHOO!

Our overview of the whole trip is to follow.

That’s all folks.

Nigel, Pamala, Garry & Chris

 

[JockandRita]

Hi Nigel, Pamala, Garry & Chris ,

Glad to hear that you are all back safely, after what sounds to be a fantastic adventure. Our experience with the Dunkerque/Calais crossing, is that a sailing before or after your original booking, is free, pending space. Anything else outside those sailings, does result in a fee greater than the cost of your original return.

Hope to catch up with the four of you soon.

Cheers for now, and thanks again for all the updates and descriptions, which got the imagination going. :thumb:

Jock & Rita.

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[Sundowners]

BUMP

 

[wizzer59]

Thanks for taking the the time to tell us about your adventures guys its been very entertaining :thumb:

 

[MR. FUSION]

By chance only I was there on the 22.6.13 - the longest day I believe - bit of a party as people wanted to see the midnight sun at the (disputed) highest point of Europe on the longest day......But have you noticed the Norwegians behaviour in 24 hour daylight? I wild camped (as you do) throughout Norway and me and the Germans & French (where where the Brits ?????????) were regularly awoken by locals pitching up at anytime between 12am - 3am to start a barbie in our wild camping picnic site/layby. I must admit after a couple of weeks of 24 hours daylight my body clock had gone sideways. Anyway good luck with the rest of your trip.