Scandinavia
Ok, made a bit of mistake in here, for some reason I thought Denmark was part
of Euroland rather than Kronerville. I was wrong, thank heavens for credit cards.
The first destination was the North Cape, to get there I went over the Danish
bridges into Sweden.
Then the rain started, this was actually the first time I’d driven in the rain, yes the weather had been superb up till this point. Slight problem with the wipers, they seemed to be allergic to water and tried very hard not to touch any on the windscreen, ah well I’m sure I can get some wiper blades somewhere round here.
So after what seemed like a very long time, I reached Finland, turned left to
the Arctic Circle, past Santa’s post office. Up through Lapland and into
Norway, dodging reindeer, and peering out of the little bit of windscreen that
the wiper couldn’t avoid. I know This bit of the world gets 24 hour darkness
during the winter, but do so many cars need quite so many spotlights? And do
they know where the dip switch is? All good fun in the rain.
The North Cape actually has a visitor centre unlike the other points of the
tour. And they don’t mind you camping there, This was the most northern
point of my tour, and when I woke up in the morning on the 31st of August, it
was 2C in the van, good thing I took that blanket!
From Norway, back to Finland and the Eastern point, which by my estimation was
just the other side of a place called Niemijarvi. Well I found the road leading
to Niemijarvi, and then carried on a bit further, and a bit more, then the dirt
road started to get a bit worse, and worse, then there was a little hut, and
a sign.
Then the road got really bad, and at 31.5 east that was somewhere pretty close
to Russia and time to turn round. By this time I’d had enough of cold
wet weather, so either head home, or back to the Mediterranean for a couple
of weeks? Med here I come! And to prove there is a God of VWs, I even found
some wiper blades that fit!