We kept pretty close to the route set before going, we did
make a few changes, mainly having a day off in Stockholm and visiting Copenhagen instead of Odense.Route
This is just a taster of our whole North Cape Challenge trip. I will not
put any more on the web just yet, in case it is reproduced in the Bug Club’s
Buggin’ Magazine (Join the
Bug Club). We have loads of great photo’s, just a few here.
A few of my Stats (Rory):
Total kilometres travelled: 8972Total miles travelled: 5576
Litres: 442.01Gallons:
97.24
Average mpl: 12.07Average
mpg: 55.20
Day 9: 380 miles
Sun 15th June
The early morning clouds just covered the tops of the
mountains, which made an eerie sight being so close. We set out to reach the
North Cape, according to our sat navs a full tens hours drive, not including
breaks. We decided on the short cut route, which meant catching a ferry instead
of following the coastline. Just as we pulled in, the ferry was leaving which
meant we had to wait well over an hour and half for it to return. The further North
we travelled the fewer vehicles we came across, in fact by the end of the day
we virtually had the great to drive, hilly, twisty roads to ourselves. As there
is only one route to the north we had to go that way, part of it was totally
under construction and our little cars had to crawl along at a very slow speed
as we were bumped and jostled by the very uneven unfinished road. The
construction was about 6k long so it took a long time to get though it. On this
road Richard and I saw an Eagle fly over our Bugs, we were well behind the
others who were crawling along a little faster. The road took its toll on
Jeff’s Bug and an arm to his trailer tow bar snapped. A temporary roadside
repair was done, helped by a local man, who had some necessary clips. We had
one very scenic stop and many tourists took photos of the cars and asking lots
of questions, questions which were mainly the same few; what is it? How fast
can it go? What type of engine has it got? Is it electric? Etc etc…
Passed loads of reindeer, more the closer we got to our
destination.
We reached our campsite near the cape at 12.30am in total
day light; apparently the sun never sets so it is light all night. As it was so
late we decided to do the last 20k and visit the cape centre tomorrow.
Weather: Cloudy then Sunny but getting colder as the day
wore on.
Late start as we had the day off driving any sort of long distance.
Once breakfast was out of the way and a short push start all of us headed for
the final destination at the top of Europe – Nordkapp or to you and me the
North Cape.
We spent about three and half hours at the capes centre,
taking loads of photographs and video clips for prosperity. Elvis with his
remote expensive camera took a picture of all of us at the Cape monument, as we
all raised a glass of champagne in celebration of our achievement.Brought a few gifts and watched a very
entertaining five screen 125 degree film of the Cape and the surrounding area.
Geoff & Elvis had left a bit earlier than us for a bit of sight seeing. I
needed another push start to leave the cape too, but since then the Bug has
started ok (fingers crossed). On the way back coming in the other direction was
a Reliant Robin, two from the Netherlands (Renee & Shaun). Told them where
we were camping and they continued for their visit to the Cape, while we went
for petrol and to find a welder for Jeff’s and Richards Bugs. No luck on the
welder but all fuelled up. Back at the Campsite Jeff managed to fix his tow bar
with a metal bar found by Geoff, who we met in the town. Richards trailing arm
joint needed a weld so Rich will try the local garage early tomorrow. Everyone
phoned home to give them the news that we had made it. In the evening joined by
Renee & Shaun we all went for a celebratory meal at the campsites hotel,
which also happens to be used by coaches taking groups to the Cape. All you
could eat for a set price with lots on the menu. Everyone stuffed we all went
back to the tents for a relaxing evening.
