Well this was supposed to be a one off trip to get it off my bucket list and never to be done again.To be honest we are getting withdrawel syptons already and thinking off doing another trip up to the lofoton islands maybe next year..
This trip had to be cut short as Jan the OH had to be back for a scan,tomorrow and a follow up gynocologist appointement so it was a case of now or never when we set off.I stuck to the original route plan apart from the Lofoton islands averaging possibly 40-50 mph.
When we got to sweden,this put my mpg up to 27 average so a win win from my usual 24 mpg.I found sweden to be very easy to get somewhere to park up for the night,so many possibilities as you drive along and a good well known app to help out for somewhere to aim for.If you like your wine or beer stock up in france or elsewhere before sweden as the strongest I found there was 3.5% and was pretty tasteless.Finland was better as they have lidl so one can stock up there before Norway where you'll pay around £9 a pint.As you go further north you'll be getting 24 hour daylight and waking up to a lovely sunny day only to find it's 3 in the morning! If you need any bits or pieces in sweden there is a great store like b&q screwfix wickes and your local fishing tackle shop all rolled into one called Biltema.
Sweden also have a great supermarket chain called ICA,the ICA maxi being the largest.
The further north we went I found the roads getting very rough in places,reminded me of back home.After hitting a few ruts I soon got the message that they mostly have plastic striped warning marker post beside the rut or hazard but not always.
There were no problems using the ferries,just roll up and get in line ,there are usually numbered lanes
The lorries and locals far exceed the speed limits but are mostly very courtious and traffic is usually very light anyway I was told by a local these are fish lorries.
You can see a lot of what appears to be fish farms for mostly salmon I assume in most of the fjords.
Most everyone I talked to spoke english so good for us.
Every stop I made had signs of campfires and quite often there would be piles of wood left behind for the following camper.We kept this up after we left .
I wanted to do some fishing in tromso but the wind was too much and it was bitterly cold so I gave up that idea.
The locals seemed to favour a light spinning rod and I saw some catching with that sort of rig.I took a 12 foot beach caster so probably looked out of place but still got some fish just south of Narvik when I spotted someone fishing from a large gravelled area beside the E6.I used some mackeral daylight lures and got a couple in no time.
We gave in once in a Hard rock cafe in Gothenborg and had to have a pint of guiness,then said sod it and had a couple more,like you do.
I would definately recommend this trip.We saw no GB plates until we paid for our one and only campsite near the birksdal glacier then we met quite a few.
In may there was no problem with flies or mosquitoes although the screen and bonnet seemed to say otherwise.I washed them off a coupe times beside a stream with a soft brush but it took me 2 days when I got home to clean the camper properly.
I topped up the lpg tank once in sweden and again in norway,the norwegian one being a 24hr unmanned self service pump.
Sorry to waffle on a bit but hopefully someone can find this usueful.I put co-ordinates in polarsteps where I thought it could be helpful and currently deciding how to knit together the videos and photos for youtube.
Cheers pete.
Also I want to call in Copenhagen,looking for somewhere to park for that one.
