Arctic Circle road trip - a blog

[Watchman]

Riley Blue said:

A very well written account of a great trip; thanks.

For years it's been my ambition to do a similar journey though as a precursor to a longer drive, from Nordkapp to Sagres, around 3,500 miles, just the two of us, all via B-roads in our '63 Riley and navigating using tulip diagrams just as we did LeJoG last year.

Here's the approximate route which, at around 200 miles a day, ought to take us two weeks - of course driving to the start and home again will add a day or two to that and a mile or two to the distance :

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Nordkapp,+Norway...

That's an amazingly straight line.

I would urge you to see the Atlantic Ocean road but that would be a fairly significant diversion. It's a fabulous place, especially as early in the day as I was. The absence of people whilst standing on the small islands made me feel as though I was the only person alive.

Also, perhaps try to go up one way and return on different roads so as to experience something new each day.

Love your choice of steed. Please photograph the trip and do a write-up.

[Riley Blue]

Watchman said:

Riley Blue said:

A very well written account of a great trip; thanks.

For years it's been my ambition to do a similar journey though as a precursor to a longer drive, from Nordkapp to Sagres, around 3,500 miles, just the two of us, all via B-roads in our '63 Riley and navigating using tulip diagrams just as we did LeJoG last year.

Here's the approximate route which, at around 200 miles a day, ought to take us two weeks - of course driving to the start and home again will add a day or two to that and a mile or two to the distance :

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Nordkapp,+Norway...

That's an amazingly straight line.

I would urge you to see the Atlantic Ocean road but that would be a fairly significant diversion. It's a fabulous place, especially as early in the day as I was. The absence of people whilst standing on the small islands made me feel as though I was the only person alive.

Also, perhaps try to go up one way and return on different roads so as to experience something new each day.

Love your choice of steed. Please photograph the trip and do a write-up.

That's how Google Maps plotted the route with highways excluded, I haven't yet tweaked it to use 'B-roads' only; doing so on our LeJoG trip added 338 miles to the 874 mile shortest route. Will certainly write it up when (if) we do it but it won't be this year.

[DaveTheRave87]

An enjoyable read, cheers for sharing.

[tog]

Well done, great job!

Norway road tolls will come in a month or two I'm afraid - there are no booths and it's all done by ANPR. I got a bill last month for a trip in August. (It's just a bill, not a fine, and was pretty reasonable.)

A Norwegian last year told me that Teslas are the cheapest expensive car you can buy there, due to both higher and lower taxes than here. Most cars are much more heavily taxed than in the UK, so luxury cars in general are more expensive in Norway than here, but electric vehicles are zero-taxed so Teslas there are far cheaper than their rivals than they are in the UK.

[Watchman]

I've gone back to the last couple of days and added some pics of the bridges between Sweden and Denmark, and a final pic of the Panzer in the Eurotunnel car park, wearing all the muck it had collected en route.

[Watchman]

Here's a thing you might be able to help me with...

I kept encountering this type of lorry trailer while I was in Scandinavia. The wheels on the left and right do not have an axle between them - they are totally independent. You can see this if you zoom into the blue trailer picture. The rear cross-member/bumper was totally absent in two or three I saw (but didn't photograph).

What are they for? It's like they're intended for the operator to reverse them into something that they "capture". I did see them carrying "box" type equipment occasionally but it wasn't obvious why you'd use one of these over a traditional trailer.

[NRS]

Watchman said:

FiF said:

Watchman said:

Ah, in a motorhome it'd be a great trip.

You'll need at least two weeks, I'd have thought. I'm moving very quickly in my car, and spending all day at the wheel. In a motorhome, I'd want to spend more time enjoying places to stop. Up in the mountains today, I was surprised to see many caravans and motorhomes parked up in the snow. And I think they're all there for skidoo type things. Very many cars are towing enclosed trailers with them inside (I saw someone opening one up), and pick-ups with skidoos on the bed.

A motorhome is likely only 2WD so you'll want it to have a locking diff, or some sort of LSD, and snow tyres rather than just winter tyres. I could hear something funny coming from some cars over the past few days - a sucking sound when they drive on wet asphalt. I think I've worked out that they are on snow tyres - likely a softer compound than even my winters, and with more aggressive tread patterns.

An ex colleague from my time in Sweden is into the skidoo hobby in a big way. He and a friend in that sport converted an old bus into a part motorhome part transporter part workshop area. Epic device, and the Commer two stroke diesel sounds magnificent when given some welly. Has no trouble with ice and snow, Nordic winter truck tyres obviously.

I guess this sucking sound from some tyres is different from the clatter of studs on tarmac?

I only saw one vehicle on studs this whole time, and that was that massive tractor I parked next to on the ferry.

Some of the trucks have quite aggressively patterned tyres. I say "some" because the vast majority of them were heading towards me at too an alarming rate for me to check.

I'm pretty sure the noise is from spiked tyres. The compounds are softer than normal european winters, but there's not much noise from them, and everyone would be on winter tyres anyway, so the difference must be studs (which are a lot more noisy too). Further south there is less need for them, so I'd guess you were hearing the sound more often further north?

You get used to the trucks when living here. There is very rarely issues - often the main ones are when European trucks come across without winter tyres and then crash/block the road.

[joropug]

I think the lorry trailers are similar to this maybe ?

https://youtu.be/rxvuMv2MED0

To make tight corners

[Watchman]

NRS said:

Watchman said:

FiF said:

Watchman said:

Ah, in a motorhome it'd be a great trip.

You'll need at least two weeks, I'd have thought. I'm moving very quickly in my car, and spending all day at the wheel. In a motorhome, I'd want to spend more time enjoying places to stop. Up in the mountains today, I was surprised to see many caravans and motorhomes parked up in the snow. And I think they're all there for skidoo type things. Very many cars are towing enclosed trailers with them inside (I saw someone opening one up), and pick-ups with skidoos on the bed.

A motorhome is likely only 2WD so you'll want it to have a locking diff, or some sort of LSD, and snow tyres rather than just winter tyres. I could hear something funny coming from some cars over the past few days - a sucking sound when they drive on wet asphalt. I think I've worked out that they are on snow tyres - likely a softer compound than even my winters, and with more aggressive tread patterns.

An ex colleague from my time in Sweden is into the skidoo hobby in a big way. He and a friend in that sport converted an old bus into a part motorhome part transporter part workshop area. Epic device, and the Commer two stroke diesel sounds magnificent when given some welly. Has no trouble with ice and snow, Nordic winter truck tyres obviously.

I guess this sucking sound from some tyres is different from the clatter of studs on tarmac?

I only saw one vehicle on studs this whole time, and that was that massive tractor I parked next to on the ferry.

Some of the trucks have quite aggressively patterned tyres. I say "some" because the vast majority of them were heading towards me at too an alarming rate for me to check.

I'm pretty sure the noise is from spiked tyres. The compounds are softer than normal european winters, but there's not much noise from them, and everyone would be on winter tyres anyway, so the difference must be studs (which are a lot more noisy too). Further south there is less need for them, so I'd guess you were hearing the sound more often further north?

You get used to the trucks when living here. There is very rarely issues - often the main ones are when European trucks come across without winter tyres and then crash/block the road.

100% definitely not studs - I could see them when the cars were stopped at traffic lights and in one queue going into Oslo. The noise was most apparent on wet roads further south. I am more than certain (now) that they are simply very soft compounds with very defined tread blocks (i.e. large cut-outs around the blocks).

[Watchman]

joropug said:

I think the lorry trailers are similar to this maybe ?

https://youtu.be/rxvuMv2MED0

To make tight corners

That is seriously impressive. It must take some amazing coordination.

However the trailers I saw weren't that type. The wheels weren't independently steerable (you could see there wasn't any mechanism to enable that inside them.

[tog]

Concreet sections

http://rygaard.com/specialtransport/

[Watchman]

tog said:

Concreet sections

http://rygaard.com/specialtransport/

Interesting. So they're for precast concrete sections of "whatever"... and glass. Sometimes called "inloaders" and are designed so that the trailer lifts the load off the floor, so there's no need for a forklift. I think.

Wonder why we don't see them over here?

Thanks.

Edited by Watchman on Thursday 20th February 10:17

[ianrb]

Watchman said:

tog said:

Concreet sections

http://rygaard.com/specialtransport/

Interesting. So they're for precast concrete sections of "whatever"... and glass. Sometimes called "inloaders" and are designed so that the trailer lifts the load off the floor, so there's no need for a forklift. I think.

Wonder why we don't see them over here?

Thanks.

Edited by Watchman on Thursday 20th February 10:17

Oddly enough I've seen them used to deliver folk lift trucks.

[RSTurboPaul]

Great thread

The missus and I were contemplating a 2-3 week european road trip for a honeymoon but in the end we couldn't make it work.

I will do a big trip one day!

[Watchman]

RSTurboPaul said:

Great thread

The missus and I were contemplating a 2-3 week european road trip for a honeymoon but in the end we couldn't make it work.

I will do a big trip one day!

I've done a few around Europe so if you want to know good places to stop, lemme know.

[vikingaero]

Fantastic journey,

I grew up reading LJKS, Gavin Green and George Bishop in Car Magazine amongst others. George had the most effect on me - it's as much about the journey than the destination.

[Watchman]

vikingaero said:

Fantastic journey,

I grew up reading LJKS, Gavin Green and George Bishop in Car Magazine amongst others. George had the most effect on me - it's as much about the journey than the destination.

It is.

People have asked me where I stopped to "see things". I told them that, had I travelled with companions, I would likely have explored Stockholm and Copenhagen, and I would likely have eaten dinner in the nice hotel restaurants, and gone out to eat when I was staying at lesser hotels. On my own though, there was nothing these cities had that interested me, and sitting at a table alone held less attraction than eating a sandwich in my room while I watched TV. On my own, I wanted to see the bridges, the tunnels, the Atlantic Ocean road, tick a box that I had been I to the Arctic, drive on snow, and simply stand outside in an area where there is no one else for maybe 100 miles.

That last bit was the highlight. I saved a choc doughnut to eat near to the top of my trip. In the Swedish mountains, where the only colours were the blue sky, my black car and the white snow, I stood and surveyed the monochromatic landscape, and listened to the absolute silence. I have always enjoyed my own company, to the point as I get older where I seek to avoid others, and that was the pinnacle of achievement for me.

I've decided that I will go back, to go further north.

[MercedesClassic]

Great write up and one of my grail journeys I'll probably never do. I remember the Harry's Garage trip in the Roller was epic for such an incompatible car but I suppose the prep and driving skills count for much.
I was wondering how different a Range Rover would have been.
Also I remember I think Car mag doing that route in a Bentley convertible. Imagine the new Conti convertible with appropriate tyres doing that trip with the occasional top down moments too.
Well it's all wheel drive and I think height adjustable suspension too.
That's one for the bucket bucket list hahahaha.

[tog]

MercedesClassic said:

Also I remember I think Car mag doing that route in a Bentley convertible.

I remember that article. "I put the roof down and headed south for the Arctic Circle."

[snoopy25]

What an amazing brilliant write up!!

Really enjoyed reading this Watchman!