Nordkapp and Knivskjellodden, Norway (within the Arctic Circle) - 3204 miles from London

After a reasonably short ride from Tromsø, during which we battled against some of the worst rain we have seen so far, we arrived, thoroughly soaked, at a place in the north called Alta. This was a tiny town with a central area that was reminiscent of a business park and not much else. The guide book had recommended a campsite just outside of town which had been Norwegian campsite of the year in 2000. Despite having this option we opted for the next campsite along which had a sauna and mini-golf and ended up spending the night in a small wooden hut with a bad smell of damp and a Baby Belling stove. We left this place the next morning with dark threatening clouds overhead and rode north for Nordkapp and Knivskjellodden. The countryside became increasingly bleak and windswept as we neared our destination and for the forty or so miles before we reached the end of the road at Nordkapp nearly all signs of habitation disappeared and the only houses we came across were in the coast and were either Sami tourist shops or small clusters of fisherman’s houses. The Sami are the indigenous people who live in both this part of Norway and also in Lapland in Finland and historically survived by both fishing and herding reindeer. Nowadays both these are things are dying out and so one wonders what the future holds for these peoples.
Nordkapp itself is billed as the most northerly point on mainland Europe. However, it turns out that Nordkapp is not actually the most northerly point, but that this honour belongs to the next peninsular along – Knivskjellodden. We presume that the reason Nordkapp claims this title is because this is where the road ends and as Knivskjellodden cannot be reached by any way other than a long walk. It is additionally somewhat confusing that both Nordkapp and Knivskjellodden are actually on an island which can only be reached from the Norwegian mainland by driving through an eight kilometre tunnel linking the island with the mainland.

View of Nordkapp from Knivskjellodden
Whatever the merits of the claims of both Nordkapp and Knivskjellodden we made the trip and upon arriving at Nordkapp on our bikes we were greeted with the sight of toll booths and beyond what appeared to be a large car park and a visitors centre. We were not going to pay for what we believe is nothing more than access to a car park, restaurant and gift shops and instead, after a nights sleep in a nearby campsite, made the free eighteen kilometre walk to the actual most northerly point in Europe – Knivskjellodden.

Peter standing at Knivskjellodden and Tom signing the book at Knivskjellodden
The walk was a good way for us to get stretch our legs after three weeks of riding most days and doing little in the way of proper exercise. Amazingly we were incredibly lucky with the weather. When we woke on the morning of the twenty-fifth the rain was heavy and the sky (as it has seemed to be almost constantly for the last week or so) dark and menacing; however when we set off on the walk the skies cleared and it warmed up nicely. In fact when we got back from the walk almost six hours later the skies were blue and the weather warm (well as warm as it probably gets up here). Although there is no properly marked path to Knivskjellodden piles of stones have been put at various points along the route and these serve to send you in the right direction. When we arrived we were the only people there and it was quite a strange though to think that at that precise moment in time we were standing at a point further north than anyone else in Europe. We signed the book which is kept in metal box on a rock. We discovered from the signatures in the book that due to the winter weather no-one does the walk between October and April. People also leave odds and ends in the box, we came across a lighter, some coins, business cards, pens, and a photo of a random chap.

The Nordkapp car-park and ticket booths
Judging from the fact that we saw almost no-one on the walk and the sparse number of cars in the car park serving as the jumping off point for the walk it would seem that relatively few people make the effort to come to Knivskjellodden and instead make the far easier trip to the Nordkapp car park. While this is a shame it does mean that Knivskjellodden is pretty much untouched by humankind and incredibly peaceful and that made the effort of the walk all the more worthwhile.
One of the events on the walk was bumping into a British couple just before we got back to our bikes. He was a wood scientist who specialises in wood, rotting wood and the things that live in wood and he had come with his wife to Norway for a conference in Norway’s conference capital - Tromsø! Further confirmation, if this was needed that Tromsø does not party, but instead conferences.

Written by Peter

Tromsø, Norway (within the Arctic Circle) - 2780 miles from London

12.45am in Tromsø
After leaving Hell we headed north for Tromsø¸ through some terrible weather. We stopped briefly at the Arctic Circle which is celebrated with a big car park, a Russian military memorial (for a reason unclear to us) and a circular cafe which was very tempting due to our sodden state, but closed. Although it wasn't getting dark, it was getting late so we decided to stay in a log cabin which was affiliated with a petrol station and was approximately 10 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

Tom at the Arctic Circle
The next day we continued on to Tromsø and, after a long ride in the rain during which we were stopped by the police and earlier by some deer that had wandered into the road, we arrived in Tromsø with an hour to go before the England Sweden match started. It was at this point that we found that every hotel in town was booked up - something to do with a midnight marathon and the summer solstice some people said. One of the hoteliers was kind enough to make some phone calls and we found ourselves booked into a Catholic bible school which was open as a hostel in the summer months. We decided not to tell them when we checked in that we had been in Hell only the day before and we were given a couple of mattresses on the floor of one of the classrooms for a very reasonable price with breakfast included. We caught the second half of the England game and wandered around the town. Tromsø had sounded promising as the chapter in the Lonely Planet opens with the remark "Simply put, Tromsø parties". In the time we have been here we have found this to be wildly inaccurate. To be more precise "simply put, Tromsø conferences" turned out to be another reason why all the hotels are full and "Tromsø has alot of alcoholic Norwegians who have half killed themselves with home brewed moonshine".

The mid-night sun in Tromsø
The longest day passed without celebration in Tromsø¸ but we are told that it would be more lively on Friday. However to avoid any disappointment and because we really ought to move on, we have decided to leave tomorrow morning and head for Nordkapp from where we can walk to continental Europe's northernmost tip. We are also considering bringing our date for entry to Russia forward in an attempt to save some money. This would mean entering Russia further north than we had planned (possibly entering at a point level with Murmansk). We have found Norway extremely expensive. Here are a few examples of prices in Norway:
A beer in bar - between four pounds fifty and five pounds fifty;
A bottle of Coke from a shop - approximately one pound sixty;
A bread roll - approximately sixty pence, but you could be lucky and find one cheaper;
Milk (half a litre) - approximately one pound eighty;
Internet access in an internet cafe - approximately eight pounds an hour (we are currently in the public library where it is free); and
A night on the floor in the bible school including breakfast -approximately thirteen pounds (bargain!)


Tom talks to Halvard in a bar in Tromsø

Written by Tom

Welcome to Hell - 2051 miles from London

We can't easily find an online translation for "gods expedition" but we are pretty sure that it isn't meant to be funny. We think it means "help with luggage" but if anyone knows it's exact meaning we would be grateful for an email on the subject.

Trondheim, Norway - 2045 miles from London

Trondheim is Norway's third largest city but it really doesn't feel that big or that heavily populated. In a country with a population half that in London, I suppose that really isn't surprising. We arrived yesterday with hopes of staying in a cheap hostel we had read about. Unfortunately that hostel was in use as a student concert venue and so, with nowhere to stay in the city and tired from a very long ride, we decided to stay in a hotel which turned out to have free internet access. So, here I sit in the lobby of the Comfort Hotel in Trondheim writing this blog and watching the rain fall in the street outside. The city itself is pleasant enough with a picturesque harbour lined with warehouses and cathedral which apparently is Scandinavia's largest medieval building (constructed in the late 11th century). We wondered around the city today and visited Nidaros Cathedral and the archbishop's palace which houses a military museum. We spent Saturday night in a micro-brewery which served bitter which for some reason needed to settle for five minutes after pouring. After the brewery we went to a couple of other bars in town and chatted to some locals. One guy, a civil engineering student from the north, told us a very sad story about how the love of his life had left him for a midget. He was a very nice, but a rather sad bloke, who used a form of tobacco which you put under your top lip. This type of tobacco is pretty popular in Norway as smoking has been banned in public places for quite some time. Using this tobacco seems to have a rather nasty effect on the top lip of the user as it is placed the underneath the top lip to be absorded into the blood stream through the lip lining. I wonder whether this will take off in England as smoking is more widely outlawed. After a fairly late night, during which we discovered that it doesn't get dark here and that it is actually bright daylight at 2.30am, a leisurely day was definitely in order.

Early tomorrow morning we are heading north out of town. Our first stop will be the town of Hell, about 16 miles north of Trondheim. Unfortunately we will not have time to come back! With the promise of the mid-night sun, we want to try to make it into the arctic circle for 21st June, the longest day of the year.

Written by Tom

Road from Bergen to Trondheim, via Lustrafjorden

We are camped at the moment next to a fjord which according to the map is called Lustrafjorden. We left Bergen this morning and, after a few easily solved problems with Tom’s front head light bulb (the bulb blew just as we were about to leave and the spare bulbs he had brought with him had a lifespan of seconds), we took the E16 to Voss and then Road 13 in the direction of Hermansverk. A short ferry crossing took us over the impressive Lustrafjorden and after perhaps an hour’s ride we stopped at this campsite. The campsite has a number of (at the moment unoccupied) cabins which and Tom has opted to sleep in one of these and hope the owner doesn’t find out. The campsite owner didn’t suspect a thing when he saw that we were camping here and so, while we feel a bit bad about being so flexible with the truth, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him! It is incredibly peaceful here and, although we are right next to the road, all we can really hear are the waters of the fjord lapping the shoreline and the muffled thunder of a waterfall on the other side of the fjord.

Peter rows to the waterfall
We left this campsite just before twelve after taking out one of the small rowing boats we assumed were available for use by people staying at the campsite. Tom wanted to row to other side to see how people lived on the other side of the fjord. However, less than half way across we gave up and rowed back – the distance to the other side was greater than we had thought and we lacked the requisite degree of athleticism needed to make it. The ride from Lustrajorden to Trondheim was incredibly demanding. The countryside was (as always!) spectacular and when we joined the Sognefjellet Road this took us up to near Sognefjell, one of Norway’s highest moutains.

Friendly sheep take an interest in the bikes
This road is (according to the guide book anyway) described as the “road over the roof of Norway” and takes you to a height of 1434 metres. It was built in 1939 by unemployed young people and presumably served to connect Bergen with Trondheim.

Written by Peter

Bergen, Norway - 1626 miles from London

We arrived yesterday evening in the port town of Bergen and decided to stay for two nights in the YMCA in the centre (picture of our dorm left). It was still light here at mid-night last night and we are told that as we head north there will be no darkness hours.

The north of the country sounds pretty crazy. We were told by a local last night that you can only tell whether it is day or night time up there by whether the inhabitants are sober or drunk.

A bird on the head of a statue of Edvard Grieg (right)

View of Bergen on the walk down from the top of the funicular railway.

Road 7 from Oslo, via Flå, to Bergen

We left Oslo late in the afternoon on the 13th June and picked a random town on the map called Flå which is on Road 7 heading towards Bergen. We purposefully tried to avoid taking main roads wanting to see some of the countryside and also wanting to save a bit of money and camp on uncultivated land (which it appears Norwegian law allows you to do for no cost). After a night near Flå we continued through spectacular countryside and arrived in Bergen around six yesterday evening. The countryside around Flå was wooded and the campsite was nestled in a gently sloping valley along the bottom of which ran a wide but very shallow river. We were already seeing the effects of the fact that it is getting dark later and later as I took the picture above of the boat and the river at nearly eleven at night and the light was still very good.

As we rode to Bergen the road climbed higher and higher into the mountains. Along with the falling temperature the scenery changed from forest to flat moorland and as we reached the highest part of the road (at an altitude of four thousand two hundred feet) patches of snow were increasingly common as were high mountain lakes which were still partially frozen over with thick ice. When we eventually descended from this inhospitable and isolated area we almost immediately noticed an increase in the temperature and even more so a further change in the scenery. The scrubby moorland was replaced again with thick woodland and deep valleys with sheer cliff walls down which we descended on narrow, windy mountain roads. Arriving in Bergen we realised that journeys of any length in Norway take more time than we would have usually expected and we are now intrigued by what lies ahead in the rest of Norway.

Oslo, Norway - 1317 miles from London

We arrived in Oslo this morning after uneventfully crossing the border from Sweden yesterday evening into our first non-EU country. The border crossing was so uneventful that we weren't even required to stop the bikes, but were cheerfully waved through the border toll gate. We are also very fortunate that motorbike are not required to pay a toll on any of the many toll roads or bridges in Norway. Oslo seems like a fairly unattractive city. We decided not to stick around and so we took bus tour in order to get an overall impression of the city without actually walking anywhere! We actually ended up getting stuck in traffic jam after traffic jam and by the end we were not at all impressed by the over priced tour with its American commentary and not particularly impressed with what we saw of the city. After the tour we headed for the hills (quite literally). Heading north west along the same route taken by the famous Oslo to Bergen train line (famed for the stunning and varied countryside the line passes by and referred to in the guide book as "one of the most spectacular rail journeys on earth") we were looking forward to riding through some more of scenic Norway.

Here are a few interesting facts about Norway:
Norway has no external debt!;
Norway has a GDP per capita of US$37,700 (3rd highest in the world);
Norway has 413 doctors and 1840 nurses per 100,000 of the population (compared with 162 / 500 in the UK);
27% of the country is covered by forests;
Oil wealth: 14th largest reserves in the world, 6th largest producer, and 3rd biggest oil exporter, and
Alcohol is extremely expensive in Norway. Norway was one of the few countries in the world where the population actually voted for prohibition (in 1919, although the ban was lifted in 1927).




Above, two views of the exterior of the central station and the National Theatre with statues of Ibsen outside

Written by Tom

Ängelholm, Sweden - 999 miles from London

We crossed into Sweden using the Oresund tunnel / bridge. The 10.5 mile crossing wasn't as impressive as we'd hoped due to fog which limited the visibility. After crossing into Sweden we headed up the Swedish coast a short way to Ängelholm, which seemed like a Swedish version of Brentwood in Essex, near where my grandparents used to live. Everything was very modern and clean and tidy but a little bit boring. The campsite was located in a pine forrest, minutes from the beach which was accessed by taking a short walk through the forrest. I had never considered Sweden to be the type of country to visit and have a beach holiday but my impression of the country has been altered by this stop off. There was a large sandy beach and the North Sea water was fairly warm which was surprising as we were pretty much level with Newcastle Upon Tyne. The only problem was the jelly fish which made swimming a little hazardous. With sun burn threatening we went walking in the forrest. We stumbledacrosss a train goods yard with abandoned rolling stock and after investigating this we went into town for a couple of extremely expensive drinks. We met a drunk drama teacher and on the way back to the tents visited a Swedish nightclub which was playing appalling music in a mock beach environment (you needed to have been there to really get the picture!).


We stayed in Ãngelholm for a couple of days during which time we selected and sent back to England quite a few items we had been carrying. We were finding that we had over-packed which meant we had no spare space to carry anything like food or anything else we picked up along the way and that packing up every day was becoming a real chore, like one of the puzzles that used to be set in Krypton Factor! Having left Ängelholm we then continued north up the coast and crossed into Norway on 12th June. It was extremely hot in Sweden, in the mid thirties, and we found the tarmac on the motorway was actually melting in places and causing black tarmac tire marks to be drawn across the carriageway. It was a relief, particularly when wearing the bike gear, to find the weather a little cooler once we entered Norway. We had a good experience in Sweden and it is certainly a country that I would like to vist again more extensively.


Written by Tom

Copenhagen, Denmark - 910 miles from London

We are currently sat in an internet cafe in the town centre. We spent Thursday night in Northern Germany and left early in the morning for the 300 mile journey to Denmark which we entered yesterday evening by taking a short ferry crossing from Puttgarden in Germany to Rødbyhavn which sits in a cluster of islands in Eastern Denmark. The ride here was fairly exhasting, on motorways most of the way and oblivious to the time or even what day it was we got caught in the Friday night rush hour outside Hamburg. Once in Demark we were fortunate to spent the night in a very pictureque campsite on the way to Copenhagen, but had to take shelter early in the tents due to the swarms of mosquitoes that descended upon us due to our waterside location. We carried onto Copenhagen this morning and we are planning to continue on from here today into Sweden via the impressive 10.5 mile Oresund tunnel / bridge. We haven't spent long enough in Denmark to get an accurate impression, but what we have seen seems suprisingly shabby but not in an unpleasant way.

The view from the tents last night:



Written by Tom.

Ghent, Belgium - 276 miles from London

After we had left De Panne we headed further into Belgium and happened across Ghent pretty much by accident. Wandering around the town we were struck by what a lovely place it was; it seemed to be very relaxed and this is probably attributable to the fact that there is a large universtity there. In fact it turned out that Ghent University is Belgium's equivalent of Oxford or Cambridge and certainly the place had some of the feel of both those cities. Since the weather was so good and the town so welcoming, we felt no inclination to leave the place in a hurry, a decision made easier by our finding a small funky hotel on a converted barge on one of Ghent's many canals.

Written by Peter.

Day 1 – De Panne, Belgium – 161 miles from London

Driving north from Calais up the coast we stumbled across De Panne on a mission to find petrol on day one, which also happened to be a bank holiday in Belgium. De Panne is a fairly smart but clinical feeling seaside resort in Belgium which is also home to a theme park called Plopsaland. We gave Plopsaland a miss, but having no pre-booked accommodation for day one (or any other day on the trip for that matter) we were very pleased to find a centrally located campsite where we set up camp for the night. Once this was done a seaside bar served us well for a few hours. Back at the campsite we were completely perplexed by a metal bar which was deliberately positioned right over the toilet seat in an outside toilet.

Calais

Calais, France's busiest passenger port with a population of approximately 80,000 and ferry business dominating this town. Badly bombed during World War II, there is very little to see here.
Yes, we're on our way! On schedule, we left this morning at 08.30 and after some emotional goodbyes caught the 12.15 ferry from Dover. Briefly stopping in Calais for essential cheese and wine supplies we have headed to a campsite for the night. More to follow ...