After months of planning the time had finally come to set off on my summer journey away up to the Arctic Circle. Fully packed and prepared for the months ahead, I set off from North Wales with no set journey time or route in mind. The distance to my destination - roughly 2600miles.
My route took me from North Wales to Folkstone where I caught the Eurotunnel to Calais. From here I drove into Belgium, through the Netherlands, Germany and into Denmark. From here I crossed Oresuund Bridge into Sweden and travelled up the East coast of the country into Northern Finland. Here I managed to go bear watching along the Russian border. Finally I headed further north. This took me up to the Varanger Peninsular which is the most North Easterly point of Norway.
In the end it took around 47 hours of driving which I did over the course of 6 days. Norway, in terms of land area, is 50% larger than the UK and has a population of just 5.6 million compared to the 70 million who live in Britain and Northern Ireland. Everywhere feels remote and ready to explore.
The peninsula itself varies in terms of its landscape from rugged mountains around 600m in height to undulating plateaus. Much of the area used to be classified as tundra but this has rapidly disappeared over recent decades. The area, is home to fish-rich rivers, snow-covered expanses, exotic king crabs, birds, salmon, sparkling seas and, during winter months, dancing northern lights. From mid May through to the end of July, there is 24hour daylight. Even around early August the sun rises around 1.40am and sets just after midnight! Despite the constant daylight I have found that wildlife is more active during the night hours and I often plan my sleep around this and stay up until 3 or 4 am. The moose seem to come to life around these hours which is great to see!
Being in my van I have had no set location in mind to base myself and have dipped back into both Sweden and Finland since arriving where, so far, I managed to see more bears and fish for salmon in the Kallix River. As whale watching has been my main focus, I have got my tip offs from locals and various sighting pages and used these to head to various coastal locations along the northern coast of Norway with the hope of seeing some of these magnificent mammals.
I have been using the app Park For Nights which provides free parking and allows us to stay away from campsites and stay more remote. We resupply with water and food every week or so. I have found the locals to be super friendly and we have regularly been invited to stay at their homes and they have been invaluable in providing information about local wildlife.
More about my whale sightings to date in my next blog (of which there have been many!). I have had some incredible encounters that you can see on my tik-tok and Instagram pages. Obviously nothing is guaranteed but I hope to see Orca, Sperm whales and Pilot whales at some point over the coming months. Watch this space!
