CVC Arctic Circle Overland video series

[JED THE SPREAD]

Hi Everyone, Jed here..


I make short Vanagon/Syncro travel films in my bus and this gives us a perfect chance at the small company I work for to test out the camping and van/overland/lifestyle gear we sell on our web shop. A good few of you may have watched our Morocco Overland Series a couple of years back as well as other short films in the past and this time it was to be a trip to see if we could cross over and into the Arctic Circle. The idea was not just to drive there on the paved roads, but to see if we could find any real wilderness areas that may be left in Northern Europe/Scandinavia.
This would be the third time we have tried to set off on this trip and all was going well until the brexit happened and we lost our trip funds overnight because we had to pay back a couple of large USA accounts we had after the pound dropped against the dollar. Rather than sit down all fed up about it I decided to act positively and put a shout out on our Facebook and Instergram pages to give people a nudge to get an order in, we weren't in any financial trouble as a business it was just all our capital was tied up in stock at the time.. The response was HUGE and we took a months worth of orders over a long weekend, this put the trip back on track..

So we went off and did the trip and filmed what we got up to as usual. We set off from South London and after 5 weeks of travel and many thousands of miles we made it back. One thing that we did manage is to do the whole trip without paying for camping a single time! As a thank you to all the people who made this trip happen I am going to include the GPS location of every camp spot we used in the up coming series so you can use them yourselves if you ever wanted to do the same trip. I am busy editing now but parts 1 and 2 are now live and I am aiming to launch the rest every Thursday at 7PM London time.

Here are a few pictures so you know what to expect over the coming weeks,































And here are links to the short films in,

Part 1 - http://campervanculture.com/2016/10/campervanculture-com-arctic-overland-series-part-1/

Part 2 -http://campervanculture.com/2016/10/campervanculture-com-arctic-overland-series-part-1-2/

I hope you have as much fun watching them as we had making them. Part 3 is going live next Thursday 7PM GMT, it would be great to bring you along for the ride.



Cheers,

Jed

 

[in transit Pete]

you are amazing, what brilliant pictures and locations.

i have just block booked all my holiday time for the north norway and coast line run for next spring/summer, been researching like crazy trying to get answers to questions and time scales for traveling so we can maxamise our efforts when we go. i dont have the life style to have more than 7 weeks off in one hit so we were looking at the same sort of time scales

 

[JED THE SPREAD]

you are amazing, what brilliant pictures and locations.

i have just block booked all my holiday time for the north norway and coast line run for next spring/summer, been researching like crazy trying to get answers to questions and time scales for traveling so we can maxamise our efforts when we go. i dont have the life style to have more than 7 weeks off in one hit so we were looking at the same sort of time scales

Hi Pete,

Driving is really slow going in Norway due to the contours of the land, one road took us from sea level to 2400M plus for example and took quite a while! You can make good distance in Sweden even though the roads are quite narrow, they are reasonably straight and fast moving. Up North Sweden is pretty remote and not very populated, same goes with Finland but Norway is a little different. It's populated evenly throughout the country so we were really surprised to see big towns and small cities way up the north of Norway and even farm land. Most of the Sweden we saw and Finland is forest and lake.

If you head up through Sweden you get to the interesting stuff quicker the just amble down through Norway, there is a lot to see and the county is huge.

I hope this helps and part 3 is out on Thursday where you will then see what we got up to in the north of Norway as we cross the boarders of Sweden/Finland/Norway way up north.

 

[JED THE SPREAD]

Part 3 just went live!

Back in part 2 we had hit the tree line and crossed over and into the Arctic Circle.

Every time we find a new epic camp spot we think that things can’t get any better but we are proved to be wrong time and time again. In part 3 we head into Finland and then into Norway and onto the island of Senja. The Mosquitos are still chomping on us right up until we leave Finland and although we missed the dense forest and lake areas, it was nice to experience the landscape and free camp spots Norway had to offer.

It’s that time of the week again to grab yourself a cold one, sit back and come and join us for the ride with us in part 3 of the CVC Arctic Circle Overland Film Series..

Part 3 http://campervanculture.com/2016/11/campervanculture-com-arctic-overland-series-part-3/

 

[JED THE SPREAD]

Part 4 is now live, YEY!

Back in part 3 we went as far north as we could get in Sweden and crossed into Finland and then over into Norway.

The camp spots we find are just getting better and better as this series unfolds. A tip when watching part 4.. to get the most out of it you will be better choosing to view this in full screen. You while know why when you get to the good parts. On our journey back down south along Norway's coastline we had to take a lot of ferries to the connecting islands and headlands that joined up the roads between the fjords. This area doesn't have the huge fjords that you will witness in future episodes but the scenery is truly stunning. We were starting to have to put a little more effort into finding those perfect camp spots as Norway didn't have the thousands of miles of open forest tracks that Sweden and Finland had and it wasn't unusual for tracks to be locked by chain.

As promised we have added the actual GPS locations of the free camp spots we found in part 4 as a thank you for your ongoing support. We will continue to do this through the following five or more following episodes.

It’s that time of the week again to grab yourself a cold one, sit back and come and join us for the ride with us in part 4 of the CVC Arctic Circle Overland Film Series..

http://campervanculture.com/2016/11/campervanculture-com-arctic-overland-series-part-4/

 

[Backroadexploration]

Love the series! Inspired that you found so many free places to camp. Beautiful scenery. Our goal is to do a European tour trip and this has been such an awesome inspiration!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GNTY]

Thank you for sharing your adventure. I Really enjoyed watching, might have to find away to get my van over the pond.

 

[JED THE SPREAD]

Thanks for the kind words.

It's that time of the week again!

Back in part 4 we found paradise.. You all remember that place right? The one next to the crystal clear sea in the fjord?

We always say that the camp spots are just getting better and better as this series unfolds but it happened again! It would be hard to even imagine how we could trump the spots in part 4 but as we enter the south west part of Norway we get to the area where the huge fjords are located. Lots of up and down driving, some of it kept us on the edge of our seats but between the cloud cover we picked out some epic vistas. To get out of the van and stand with our feet on the ground and be part of this environment was a humbling experience. Isaac was introduced to fishing and picked up a valuable life skill . While we did leave out the part when the ultimate in free range food took a few harsh blows to the head (it was kind of graphic but very quick and humane) We had no idea just how tough the hard core sea fish of Norway could be. I know it's just nerve impulse but to have a fish flap around long after it had expired with no head in your fridge was just weird! We all know that food from the super market isn't born with wrapping on right! so please go easy with us on this one, it wasn't farmed and was 100% free range. I never did get over not being allowed to eat that free range squid back in the CampervanCulture.com Morocco Overland Series so it was important to me to get Isaac involved in this opportunity. For kids to see where food actually comes from is important for kids I think so thy can make their own choices in life through their own experiences.

It was delicious by the way…

We were meeting up with more and more people randomly at the side of the road. Hooking up with CampervanCulture.com followers and subscribers is the best thing about doing what we do, especially in places were you think you are totally on your own.

http://campervanculture.com/2016/11/campervanculture-com-arctic-overland-series-part-5/

 

[wanderer-rrorc]

Ive been watching your channel for weeks now!!!

Love the trips!!!!

how was whale meat??

 

[JED THE SPREAD]

It was kind of weird, can't say I totally enjoyed it.

Thanks for the kind words. This is the last leg of the trip.

Back in part 5 we went high and into the wilderness Norway had to offer.

Part 6 is the final part of the series but fear not.. We are inviting you to ask us all of the questions you may have so we can make a part 7 and answer you directly. Interested in the gear we use? Interested in the van? Interested in us? please ask us those questions you have and we will try our best to include you in part 7

Soooooo… part 6.

We get our last taste of wilderness camping before crossing back over to Sweden, into Denmark, through Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and onto France. Sweden still had an absolute gem of a place to visit and Denmark threw up a few cool places too. Before we we set off south from Norway we bumped into Sion from Australia in his van who is a customer of ours who had called into CVC HQ before he left for a grand European tour of Europe. We had fitted his van out with a bunch of stuff and his CVC ARB awning was going strong and was a must have item for him on his own trip. For us the CVC log burning stove was earning it’s keep once more, keeping us warm in the evening when we were sat outside at high altitude. If you are interested in those check them out right here.

Oh and we also got to go truck shopping in Denmark thanks to our good mate Jason.

As promised we have added the actual GPS locations of the free camp spots we found in part 6 as a thank you for your ongoing support.

It’s that time of the week again to grab yourself a cold one, sit back and come and join us for the ride with us in part 6 of the CVC Arctic Circle Overland Film Series..

http://campervanculture.com/2016/11/campervanculture-com-arctic-overland-series-part-6/

 

[Trikebubble]

Been a brilliant watch so far, loved every episode and I'm looking forward to this episode as well. Keep up the good work.

Sent from the Mountains

 

[Rosco862003]

Just subscribed to the youtube channel and have watched the series twice now. Heading to Norway in March and will be renting one of those artic campers you were parked right next to on Ersfjord Beach. The series has been invaluable in terms of giving my girlfriend and I an idea of what to expect, granted it might be a bit colder. Cheers and keep up the great series!

 

[wildorange]

Hi Jed,

Interesting thread & will follow up on your YouTube channel in time.

Nice rig & will monitor with envy.