Artic Circle

[fullerton]

Hi boatman, any info on sites or roads not to miss would be great and places to give a wide berth (get it) (boatman wide berth) sorry best i could do at short notice.

Thanks

Steve

[wwdph02]

Have a good trip, I need to go back (check for Norway trip june 2014 - filed in Forum rather than Trip report) Not until I got to Gerainger did I read MSL I carried had a road trip report on Arctic Circle and realised I should not have left coat linings and winter leggings at home in Devon. Magazine's on the table in the photo and the reason I only went to Atlantic coast road and returned south from Trondheim. Despite good weather and only a few wet days it was too far without correct protection against the cold. Funny to read it there as I dried out my gear. Can agree about easy going ferry schedules, high speed from Hirstals to Kristiansand no problems, turn up and they even gave customers a free travel pill as the crossing could be 'rough' but it was fine.
Maybe next year I can get another pass from my wife and repeat the trip but next time get further north.

Would go same basic route dover, france holland germmany denmark and return through sweden denmark but not retrace same route. So many roads and choices in Norway it is worth the long ride just to have so much space, great views and so few road users. Very friendly everywhere in Norway.

[davem]

I did a trip to Norway this August. It was fantastic. I had 11 days in total but only 7 in Norway. If your two weeks includes getting there and back my recommendation would be to stay in the western fjord region. There are some brilliant roads to do. I overestimated how many miles per day I could do and if doing it again I would say 200 miles per day in that part of Norway is a good run.

The Trollstigen is really good but it is a tourist trap. I was lucky on my run, not too busy. My favourite was the Aursjovegen road, about 60km of gravel through the mountains but absolutely stunning. The roads in and out of Gerainger are great, but the Dalsnibba is now Tarmac and costs £10 - not worth it in my opinion. The 258 ski road is also really good as is anywhere around the Jotunheimen.

I went as far not as Trondheim. Some nights in the tent some in huts, which are not too expensive. Buying food in restaurants is hugely expensive so I took a lot of camping type food to keep costs down. Get the statoil refill cup for free coffees. Garage food and cheap supermarket stuff not that bad compared with UK prices.

DFDS freight ferries worked well for me and would use again unless hthe ferry to Bergen is reintroduced!

[MarkR]

Me and AndyB almost got there once:

[AndyB]

I can still remember thinking it was too cold to be riding a bike the day I ended up with chilled fingers

[fullerton]

thanks for the replys, i am known for my high mileage days so iam to get up north as fast as i can to spend time where i want to be, so any good routes to knock out the first 1000k miles would be good, also what is it like getting onto sites, fuel etc in summmer

Ta

Steve

[fullerton]

mental, but i luv it

[AndyB]

Everyone has a different opinion regarding routes and it depends if you want to go scenic or crack out the miles early on. We went from Oslo to Hamar using motorways then took the RV3 to Kvikne because we were there in mid January and the E6 option would have taken us over a high plateau which is often blocked. In summer I'd take the E6 and just stay on it until I'd reached whatever my planned destination was then take a scenic route back if time allowed.

We lost loads of time because of being cold and every fuel stop was an hour while we warmed up in the petrol station and drank free coffee. You set off with great ideas regarding how far you'll get but when you're riding on a layer of ice and you've only got limited daylight it's difficult to do a lot of miles in a day. Mid summer you can ride for as long as you like because it's light a lot longer and you're not getting as cold but the downside is there'll be more police on the roads waiting to nick you for speeding

Don't forget that the Arctic Circle is a long way from the Cape and there's a lot to see once you're into the northern areas.

[wwdph02]

High mileages not a problem up to Norway or on way back through rest of europe on both routes I took but I think you may need to lower your expectations through Norway. It has lower limits and although A roads were great, good surface etc but racing through would seem to miss the point. Fuel - no problems anywhere and their campsites were either open to 10pm or if unattended had multiple language translations at the cabin explaining where to camp, what cabins available for any late visitors.

[Redmurty]

potentially I would leg it up through Sweden up as far north as you want then take your time coming back down through Norway.

cheers Spud