[eiriksmil]

Somebody gotta remove the YouTube tag, I couldn't get this posted with the (none) tag in the title, so I selected YouTube.

A couple of weeks ago, a buddy and me decided it'd be cool to go to the northernmost point of Europe, the North Cape in Norway. We both live in the capital Oslo, located on the other side of the country, in the south. None of us had been further north than Trondheim, which is a city 300 miles north of Oslo. We decided on going, why not, it'd be fun. We got some tips of what to see and where to eat from people on a Norwegian forum, I'd bring my 190k mile/306k km Rolla and my buddy would bring his boy scouts skills. This is the story of the two Norwegian kids on their journey towards the North Cape and the midnight sun. I'm going to be mentioning a whole lot of names you won't know. Keep Google Maps alongside you as you read, so you'll know where we are. Then you can hit up Wikipedia for more info on the places too, if that tickles your fancy. Here's a map that gives you a general idea of the area we covered, we were driving the European route E6 almost to the North Cape, then following the E45 to Östersund in Sweden, E14 to Sundsvall, E4 from there to Stockholm and E18 home to Oslo. Keep hitting up Wikipedia if you're lost



Day 1 - Monday
We had packed all our stuff the previous night and started driving north around 9 am, the time flied with the miles and life was good. We were driving through a valley called Østerdalen, which translates to the Easter Valley, on the Rv3 road. It was raining, but we would soon be happy in the mountains. Then the unthinkable happened, the front right tire blew out on a almost non-existing road shoulder and the car swerved into the ditch and after jumping two or three times, landed on a rock (either that or we moved the rock with the car).. Got the car back up on the road, it even started up, but this car could not take us to the North Cape, not the 180 miles home either.

We called a tow truck and were towed to the nearest garage. I was optimistic as usual and was just going to hammer out the control arm or whatever bent and drive on... Sometimes reality suck! Everything was closed, Toyota was 60 miles off and even if we had the parts, the car couldn't necessarily drive 3000 miles. As I was standing next to my KE70 thinking I needed a parts car, I recalled a KE70 I was going to look at when I was coming home from the North, which I was planning to use for parts.

Instead I called a couple of friends and the owner of said Corolla and talked a bit back and forth. We left the luggage in the white Rolla (that includes the camera, therefore no pics), took the train to Oslo and a few hours later I owned another KE70. I didn't even test drive the car (which was called Einar by the old owner), but we were going to the North Cape, that was definite.

Day 2 - Tuesday
Another try! Started driving north after sleeping at my buddies place and sorting the paperwork at around 11am. Einar is from a small place along the road to where the white KE was left, and probably felt more hope than what I did there. But we got there, and moved all the stuff over to the beige one. Even got use of the camera:

An unevenly lowered Rolla:


Einar and Rolla, side by side:


We continued where we left with a bang the day before. Exciting roads..


We scared away all the children, I jumped up on the world's largest kicksled where I apparently belonged:


The weather improved, Einar in his 4th county of the day after having played Alf Prøysen (a late kick-ass Norwegian singer) on his radio/cassette player:


Towards Trondheim, Norway's 3rd biggest city:


More lanes than two for the first time since greater Oslo:


We showed off Einar the Rolla at the local university:


Ate a burger at a recommended place, looked at the map and realised that the white Rolla's spectacular death (?) had delayed us by a lot so we kept on driving (after all, 300 miles a day wouldn't cut it). Amongst other cool stuff, we drove past Hell


The main road we were driving on from Oslo and almost to the North Cape, E6, became more sceneric after Trondheim:


Day 3 - Wednesday
Day 3 continued where the previous ended. We drove into the wee hours of the day through entertaining mountain roads and towards the midnight sun. This picture was taken around 12am:


And this about an hour later. The later it was, more light came from the sky - that's insane:


We drove past a place called Mosjøen and took this in Mo i Rana, where one of Norway's three big racing tracks are:


It was 4am and the action was not so great on the race track, in fact it was closed. Instead we drove past Bimbo:


The Polar Circle:






Towards a town called Bodø the weather again improved and I saw Einar in sunlight for the first time ever:


Then we were in Bodø. I drove over the city sqare because I thought was the road, saw two police cars within minutes after that and we slept for the first time in 24 hours and 745 miles/1200 kms..

Day 3, after an hour sleep

We then called a guy from a forum who lives in Bodø and I met him:


This sign translates to Quiet Valley:


Nice roads north of the town of Fauske:


Chill place:




Somewhere between Fauske and a place called Borgnes, where a ferry brings E6 over a fjord and alternativly takes you to an island called Hinnøya:


We took the ferry to Hinnøya. Me chilling out on the ferry:


Off the ferry:




An oldschool telephone box in the town of Harstad:


We ate a burger in Harstad and met another guy from a Norwegian forum:


Yngve, my buddy I travelled with, and his party look:


We couldn't figure out why Harstad was so quiet, but then we realised it was 12am:




Einar:


And finally, we saw it - the midnight sun:




Just before we went to sleep for a couple of hours:


Day 4 - Thursday
We just got into the county of Troms before we went to sleep. Woke up way too late and started driving north towards Alta and the county of Finnmark:


Some reindeer in the road, we would learn that was quite normal:


There were no more pics this day for some reason neither me or my buddy remembers, we just drove through one county (albeit a big one). Arrived in the town of Alta around 9pm, ate chinese and went to sleep in a cabin (the kind you'll find at campings).

Day 5 - Friday
We overslept as usual, didn't get on the road before 1pm, but we still made a good driving day, this is between Alta and Skaidi:


In the town of Hammerfest we had reached goal, atleast according to the banner above us:


We hadn't reached our goal though, so we continued (you guessed it, north). Finally we were getting close:


We're here!




From there we went south (!) and put up the tent near the place Oldenfjord, just 40 miles or so from the North Cape:


Day 6 - Saturday
The previous evening we had arranged to meet an old collegue of my mother, Alf, so the first place we went was Lakselv. The phone network was down though, so we didn't get hold of him before in the middle of the day. He was in a town called Karasjok, but luckily for us, that was just on our way to home. 35 miles later Alf treated us to traditional Sami food and showed us some movies regarding the Sami people. Me and Alf:


In Kautokeino Einar the Rolla wanted to race on a rally cross track:


After some gas and oil we contiuned. Finland!


Smooth Finish roads and lots of crap on the windshield:


After a little drive (maybe an hour or so), we were in Sweden:


This has got to be the slowest moving stretch of the whole 'international E-road network':


Not a lot of traffic:


Day 7 - Sunday
We slept in the car from 6am and overslept (again!!), woke up in Storuman, Sweden. On our way to the town of Östersund the roads were still clear:


Einar killed a bird, this became a huge attraction in Östersund, people started taking pics while we ate. When the Swedish took pics of it, we had to:
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h319/eir...il/IMG311-2.jpg

On our way to Stockholm the rainbow showed. I asked my buddy if we could go looking for gold, but we realised that was dumb - it ended in some water and we hadn't brought scuba gear:


Before we knew it (okay, after a loooong drive), we were in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden:




Here the camera died, but the last 6 hours and 300 miles/500 kms between Stockholm and Oslo were dark (no more midnight sun) and boring anyway. We rolled into the drive 6:30 am Monday morning, and had killed one bird, almost driven into a group of reindeer, avoided a Swedish moose/elk that found the road a cool place to be and driven almost 3500 miles/5700 kms since Day 2 with a car I had owned less than a week

Epilogue:
The white Rolla was collected home on Monday after some sleep and it's back where it belongs. On intial inspection, it looks like a strut has been torn in two and that's it. There's hoping


Midnight sun, here's to you:



Thanks for looking

[homeforsummer]

Fantastic

Really interesting read Eirik. Pretty shocked you mangled the white Corolla! I wondered why you'd said two Corollas in the title... Einar looks like a worthy replacement though (if he's going to be a replacement, of course).

I'd love to do a journey like that one. Perhaps in the next few years I'll embark on a European road trip and make my way up there...

[LolCats]

That looks really fun to do. I live in florida and there isn't much intresting stuff here.

[Kylehnat]

Really cool! . Thanks for sharing .

[TB]

Very nice trip, eiriksmil!

Any more planned? I'm itching for the time when my kids are old enough to go on longer road trips...

[Picc84]

Completly jealouse of where you live, America is not near as Beautiful as that! Great job on the trip/report!!!

[Revheadnz]

That's a very cool story Eirik, I like the fact that you just up and decided to take a 3000 mile road trip just because. You don't look too overjoyed once you'd arrived at your destination, was that because you were functioning on about 2 hours of sleep ?

[niky]

First... a good scolding is in order for not buying new tires for such an epic road trip... though you actually went one better by buying a whole new car!

Then... congratulations! Sounds like a wonderful adventure!

[a6m5]

The camera died!? Am I the only reader who waited for the part the car died? I think I found one of the bravest member on this site, because I'd be afraid to take that Corolla to a nearby 7-Eleven.

Seriously though, awesome, awesome pictures, and it was a great read. And your Corolla is a trooper.

[Speedy Samurai]

I had a Corolla just like that not long ago. Sans the rust, that is.

[Flerbizky]

a6m5

The camera died!? Am I the only reader who waited for the part the car died? I think I found one of the bravest member on this site, because I'd be afraid to take that Corolla to a nearby 7-Eleven.

It's a Corolla - Friend of mine had a 200K+ km version, 1.6, drove the wheels off it everywhere - crashed it (slightly) a couple of times - That thing refused to die :-)

Awesome Trip Report Eirik!

[TheCracker]

Nice write-up Eirik, some beautiful countryside you guys have up there

I don't think i could get my head round having day light at mid-night

[Bram Turismo]

TheCracker

I don't think i could get my head round having day light at mid-night

It's pretty cool actually, and it's easier to get sleep at that time since your body is used to it. I live down south, I think even more south than Eirik in Oslo, but in June, the sun goes down at 11 pm and you can see it coming up again at 4-5 am. It never gets dark at that time, you can literally see the orange tones in the sky moving from west-north-east, pretty cool

Loved these pictures Eirik! I've never been to the Northcape myself, I can't imagine myself taking a trip that long with a car. So I'm probably doing it with out Cessna 177 sometime, although the weather forced my father to return last time.

[Danster]

Sorry to sound a bit daft, but are there any fjords that far north
Beklager til lyd dumme, men er det noe fjorder som langt nord ?

Im not totally stupid

[homeforsummer]

Bram Turismo

in June, the sun goes down at 11 pm and you can see it coming up again at 4-5 am. It never gets dark at that time, you can literally see the orange tones in the sky moving from west-north-east, pretty cool

To be honest, it isn't much different in the North of England either - in mid Summer it gets light at 4am and only gets dark again around 11. I recently went camping and the light through the tent woke me up at 4.30am... In contrast in Winter, it's dark by 4pm and only gets light around 9am!

[sandfisch]

Great pics and trip!
Thanks for sharing! I've been to Northern Sweden 15 years ago on holiday and it is pretty cool to have sunlight at midnight

[El Drifto]

Amazing.
Now I miss Europe lol.
Every time I go I want to stay, but fortunately and unfortunately I have to return to Sydney.

[-ultraflow-]

Cool trip and in a toyota even better

My neighbor have a corolla coupe [E20] from 1974 and until now zero problems!

[eiriksmil]

homeforsummer

Pretty shocked you mangled the white Corolla!

**** happens Just another challenge, you know.. Looks as if it can be saved though, then it's just another battle scar. It's not exactly pretty anyway.

[Tom Servo]

Wow, what an amazing road trip.

Kinda reminds me the ones I used to make when I was in college. These are always fun... my workmates liked it as well since everytime I saw an amazing pic/scenery, I would show it to them and they'd all go "awwww, that's so cool" (they're all women).

Really enjoyed reading it