Scott Brady
Founder
Safe travels. You will really enjoy finishing the trip in Vlad - incredible city. I have a list of people that can help you with anything from translation, shipping to guiding. Wonderful city!
Sirocco Overland 2013 Expedition: UK - Vladivostok (Siberia) Adventure
- Thread starter Sirocco
- Start date
Scott Brady
Founder
Great start! Enjoy the adventure.
Dan Grec
Expedition Leader
Have an awesome time guys!
If you get the chance, please post a quick rundown of the entry requirements for each country you go through, I'd love to get it all into wikioverland.org, Gas and diesel price would be very helpful too.
Thanks!
-Dan
If you get the chance, please post a quick rundown of the entry requirements for each country you go through, I'd love to get it all into wikioverland.org, Gas and diesel price would be very helpful too.
Thanks!
-Dan
Sirocco
Explorer
Just a quick note to say a huge thank you to Kurt and Mel for having us, it was an absolute pleasure. Dinner was exceptional and the pancakes for breakfast were out of this world! It was great spending time with you both 
We had another long day up to Copenhagen where we are now with friends. Tomorrow we will do some sightseeing and probably leave here on the 31st and head for the Fjords in Norway before heading to Trondheim to meet 3 other Land Rovers for the drive to Nordkapp. will get some photos shortly
Services near Hamburg - We met a 'Journeyman' ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journeyman ) from Munich who had been on the road for over 3 years spending time in mainland Europe and a number of months in the north of England. All he carried was on his stick! put us to shame. Nice chap, and we gave him some tea!
G
We had another long day up to Copenhagen where we are now with friends. Tomorrow we will do some sightseeing and probably leave here on the 31st and head for the Fjords in Norway before heading to Trondheim to meet 3 other Land Rovers for the drive to Nordkapp. will get some photos shortly
Services near Hamburg - We met a 'Journeyman' ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journeyman ) from Munich who had been on the road for over 3 years spending time in mainland Europe and a number of months in the north of England. All he carried was on his stick! put us to shame. Nice chap, and we gave him some tea!
G
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Sirocco
Explorer
Been in Copenhagen for the last 2 days staying with our friends Sara and Kim. Got some stuff sorted with the Landy yesterday and a little tidy-up in the trailer etc as when we left things were pretty manic. We visited the Viking Museum in Roskilde today and had a walk around Copenhagen. We will leave tomorrow for Norway driving through Sweden on the way. temperatures are set to drop from about +4-5 here in Copenhagen to around -5 near Oslo by Friday. I think we will be wildcamping around the Fjord region if we can find somewhere quiet.
Photos from Copenhagen below. Some of these were too big so I have left them out but they can be found on Facebook... sorry!
Photos from Copenhagen below. Some of these were too big so I have left them out but they can be found on Facebook... sorry!
Landroverholic
Observer
Good to see you are on the road at last.
Good luck with it all.
Will catch up with you at the other end (Australia)
Callum
Good luck with it all.
Will catch up with you at the other end (Australia)
Callum
Sirocco
Explorer
Thanks Callum.
A quick update. We passed into the Arctic Circle yesterday and wild camped. Luckily it was only -10 last night so we had a cozy one. Heading north still, Alta tomorrow then onto a cabin near Nordkapp. Photos to follow as its a mad rush here getting things done in the evening!
Some quick observations:
Norway is beyond beautiful in the winter
They don't have enough places to pull over to take photos!
Land Rover heaters are actually ample even when the outside temp is -25 degrees C. (only +15 in the cab though).
KM2s are quite slippery on ice!
A kebab is £20!
Wildcamping spots are harder to find due to 3-4ft of snow in the verges. the only cleared paths are ones people use regularly so often go to their house.
G
A quick update. We passed into the Arctic Circle yesterday and wild camped. Luckily it was only -10 last night so we had a cozy one. Heading north still, Alta tomorrow then onto a cabin near Nordkapp. Photos to follow as its a mad rush here getting things done in the evening!
Some quick observations:
Norway is beyond beautiful in the winter
They don't have enough places to pull over to take photos!
Land Rover heaters are actually ample even when the outside temp is -25 degrees C. (only +15 in the cab though).
KM2s are quite slippery on ice!
A kebab is £20!
Wildcamping spots are harder to find due to 3-4ft of snow in the verges. the only cleared paths are ones people use regularly so often go to their house.
G
Irchyfeet80
New member
Looking forward to following your adventure!!
Sirocco
Explorer
So we made it to Nordkapp :wings:
We had to wait for the convoy to arrive as the weather was bad so we joined 3-4 cars and about 6 coaches behind the snow plough up to the top. It was basically a whiteout on the drive up and it was blowing a gale! We did get some photos but they are not great.
Anyone planning to come up here don't be put off by previously published costs. You no longer have to pay for the Honningsvag Tunnel or entry to Nordkapp. These are now free.
We also got a great show of the Northern Lights and I managed to get some great photos. We spent 2 nights in the fishermans cabin there and had time to catch up on some washing, internet stuff etc. We left Nordkapp and headed south on the E6 for Finland. Stopping off at a closed campsite to wildcamp as there were no facilities. Entering Finland on the E8 we headed for the only place we really wanted to visit which was Enontekio or Hetta. We booked ourselves onto a dog-sledding tour with Hetta Huskies and found somewhere to stay. We made much quicker progress in Finland due to the roads being straighter and flatter. Much easier when your towing! It was nice to be among the mountains of Norway but the roads were hard work in the 90 pulling the trailer on ice-roads. In Finland we could haul along at 80kph with the trailer and cover the distances easier, I was also more relaxed driving like this.
We have been very lucky with the weather as we had planned on temps down to -30 but only had -16. So it was a bit of a risk with some of the kit we packed, but it paid off. Overall everything has worked well but wildcamping has been hard. everything freezes. washing up liquid, shower gel, everything you need day to day. Even our pre-packed 'look what we found' meals got flash frozen (when it was -25) and are still frozen now! Sometimes it takes 45 minutes just to make a cup of tea so life is difficult.
Will do another post for the dog sledding
G
We had to wait for the convoy to arrive as the weather was bad so we joined 3-4 cars and about 6 coaches behind the snow plough up to the top. It was basically a whiteout on the drive up and it was blowing a gale! We did get some photos but they are not great.
Anyone planning to come up here don't be put off by previously published costs. You no longer have to pay for the Honningsvag Tunnel or entry to Nordkapp. These are now free.
We also got a great show of the Northern Lights and I managed to get some great photos. We spent 2 nights in the fishermans cabin there and had time to catch up on some washing, internet stuff etc. We left Nordkapp and headed south on the E6 for Finland. Stopping off at a closed campsite to wildcamp as there were no facilities. Entering Finland on the E8 we headed for the only place we really wanted to visit which was Enontekio or Hetta. We booked ourselves onto a dog-sledding tour with Hetta Huskies and found somewhere to stay. We made much quicker progress in Finland due to the roads being straighter and flatter. Much easier when your towing! It was nice to be among the mountains of Norway but the roads were hard work in the 90 pulling the trailer on ice-roads. In Finland we could haul along at 80kph with the trailer and cover the distances easier, I was also more relaxed driving like this.
We have been very lucky with the weather as we had planned on temps down to -30 but only had -16. So it was a bit of a risk with some of the kit we packed, but it paid off. Overall everything has worked well but wildcamping has been hard. everything freezes. washing up liquid, shower gel, everything you need day to day. Even our pre-packed 'look what we found' meals got flash frozen (when it was -25) and are still frozen now! Sometimes it takes 45 minutes just to make a cup of tea so life is difficult.
Will do another post for the dog sledding
G
Attachments
Sirocco
Explorer
Arriving in Enontekio we went straight to Hetta Huskies to see about getting on a day tour the following day. There are a few companies that do this sort of thing in Finland but few take care of their dogs as well as Hetta. We got a full tour on arrival and a very warm welcome from Anna and the dozen or so guides that were there working with the dogs. You can tell from speaking to these guys how much they love the dogs and know each one of the 100+ dogs by their personality.
We had a 3-4hour tour across frozen lakes and through forest tracks and the dogs were amazing. I am generally not a dog kind of guy but every one of the dogs I met that day were friendly and beautiful. At the end of the day we helped put the dogs back and were invited in for some lunch with the guides. We stayed for a while chatting with them and got back on the road around 1600. The last thing to note was that while trying to find somewhere quiet to camp on a backroad I managed to drive into a deep snow ditch! I reversed the trailer into a small opening and then on the last turn just drove to the edge of the road but it soon gave way to over 3ft of snow and we nearly tipped the whole thing on its side. I stopped forward motion farily quickly and we rigged up the winch to the nearest Birch tree at close to 90 degrees to pull the front end around. This all happened at 2200 when all we wanted to do was sleep It all went well except during rigging I was battling through 4ft of snow to get to the treeline. I'm guessing there are steep drainage ditches on either side and these look flat in the snow covered landscape. Anyway, lesson learned.
We crossed back through the Arctic Circle in Finland before heading into Sweden. The star photos are from our Wildcamp about 2km from the Gransfors Bruks Axe forge which we will be visiting tomorrow morning. http://www.gransfors.com/htm_eng/index.html
So we are up to date...
Other news is that our route has changed due to Lisa needing to return to the UK (hence why we are down in Sweden not Finland!) Lisa will fly from Stockholm and I will drive down through Germany to Munich where I will pick her up next Saturday and continue through to Slovenia. We will be missing out on St Petersburg and the Baltic states, but we can always return to Europe. We will save some time and money now so it has its plus points.
4500 miles done.
G
We had a 3-4hour tour across frozen lakes and through forest tracks and the dogs were amazing. I am generally not a dog kind of guy but every one of the dogs I met that day were friendly and beautiful. At the end of the day we helped put the dogs back and were invited in for some lunch with the guides. We stayed for a while chatting with them and got back on the road around 1600. The last thing to note was that while trying to find somewhere quiet to camp on a backroad I managed to drive into a deep snow ditch! I reversed the trailer into a small opening and then on the last turn just drove to the edge of the road but it soon gave way to over 3ft of snow and we nearly tipped the whole thing on its side. I stopped forward motion farily quickly and we rigged up the winch to the nearest Birch tree at close to 90 degrees to pull the front end around. This all happened at 2200 when all we wanted to do was sleep
It all went well except during rigging I was battling through 4ft of snow to get to the treeline. I'm guessing there are steep drainage ditches on either side and these look flat in the snow covered landscape. Anyway, lesson learned.We crossed back through the Arctic Circle in Finland before heading into Sweden. The star photos are from our Wildcamp about 2km from the Gransfors Bruks Axe forge which we will be visiting tomorrow morning. http://www.gransfors.com/htm_eng/index.html
So we are up to date...
Other news is that our route has changed due to Lisa needing to return to the UK (hence why we are down in Sweden not Finland!) Lisa will fly from Stockholm and I will drive down through Germany to Munich where I will pick her up next Saturday and continue through to Slovenia. We will be missing out on St Petersburg and the Baltic states, but we can always return to Europe. We will save some time and money now so it has its plus points.
4500 miles done.
G
Attachments
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