Northern Europe Trip - Scandinavia via the Baltics

Hi all

I set off next week with two mates on a trip around northern Europe, picking up a 4th who will be flying out to Helsinki to join us as he couldn't get as much time off work. We will be catching the Dover to Calais ferry on Saturday afternoon, then heading east, passing through France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia to our first primary objective, Tallinn in Estonia. From here we will be taking a ferry north to Helsinki where we will be picking up the 4th crew member. Departing Helsinki, we will head for Vaasa, where we will be catching a ferry across to Umea, Sweden. From here we will be heading west to Trondheim, Norway where we will begin our journey south, with a combination of coastal and inland roads, Oslo being our final destination in Norway. Once departing Oslo, we will be travelling through Sweden to meet friends in Denmark and ultimately arrive back in the UK.

The final route is approximately 5,000 miles and we expect to be on the road for around 4 weeks. Commitments dictate we are back within 4 1/2. Some high daily mileage at the beginning and end of the trip will help us bring our average goals down for the weeks in between and give us more allowance for any unforeseeable events.

Lots of towns and destinations marked on the maps of places to visit as well as a couple of roads in Norway that MUST be driven. Apart from a few of hostels, (Berlin, Helsinki & Oslo), we will be wild camping.

We will be travelling in a 300tdi Discovery, which has had extensive work carried out to it over the past few weeks, everything from filters to pgaskets, pumps to radiators, and even some lovely Range Rover Classic seats, front and rear (RRC seat conversion thread). Big thanks to jamesmartin for helping me out on a last minute head gasket failure.

This is by no means our first adventure abroad by vehicle so got the basics covered but of course any knowledge to be shared is more than welcome.

They'll be plenty of pics and video to share upon our return and depending on how the vehicle behaves, you may well hear from me on LZIR

Below is a printscreen of a very rough version of the route we will be taking (I don't have the actual route on this computer). Will post a few pics of the vehicle over the next few days showing some prep and equipment we are taking with us. Hope you enjoy following the thread.

~Harry

Sounds bloody awesome. Good luck chap and stay in touch

Looks like a nice adventure. I'm aiming to drive across and up Sweden to Kiruna in the winter. The Lass is Swedish so we will have plenty of friends to stay with and a translator always helps. And you have to love there right to roam law, camp literally anywhere.

payydg said:

Sounds bloody awesome. Good luck chap and stay in touch

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Cheers, hopefully it will be!

RCA said:

Looks like a nice adventure. I'm aiming to drive across and up Sweden to Kiruna in the winter. The Lass is Swedish so we will have plenty of friends to stay with and a translator always helps. And you have to love there right to roam law, camp literally anywhere.

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Sounds like a good trip. Will you be staying at the ice hotel? Planning to have a northern Scandinavian trip in a couple of years. Yeh the right to roam is a lovely law, not that the lack of it in some countries has ever particularly got in my way.

The vehicle



Looking east towards her journey; off the beautiful Lincolnshire coast.

nice looking Disco Larry. Yeah defiantly going to stay at the ice hotel. Also do some touristy things like reindeer, meet the sami, snow mobile trek and of course some cross country skiing. on the way back we will borrow a friends house in Umeå.
I always thought i would need to do allot of winter prep for for the landy but not so sure now. I have driven from stockholm to umeå before in winter in a Peugeot 307 with just winter tires. I went up into lapland the next year to Borgafjäll for skiing. we had a Mercedes E class RWD with just winter tires (no studs) just putting power down for going through snow drifts. Neither had anything done not even engine pre heaters.

looks like you made it to saltfleet

jamesmartin said:

looks like you made it to saltfleet

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Amazing place. The only **** thing was, as soon as we pulled up, my lighter broke

I'm right next to the the track there. Didn't dare go any further

RCA said:

nice looking Disco Larry. Yeah defiantly going to stay at the ice hotel. Also do some touristy things like reindeer, meet the sami, snow mobile trek and of course some cross country skiing. on the way back we will borrow a friends house in Umeå.
I always thought i would need to do allot of winter prep for for the landy but not so sure now. I have driven from stockholm to umeå before in winter in a Peugeot 307 with just winter tires. I went up into lapland the next year to Borgafjäll for skiing. we had a Mercedes E class RWD with just winter tires (no studs) just putting power down for going through snow drifts. Neither had anything done not even engine pre heaters.

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It's changed now, but I noticed the first street view images of Nordkapp were in winter, with quite a bit of snow about. I thought if a little street view car can make it, I doubt much prep is needed. At the same time, I can imagine conditiond vastly vary depending on time of year and latitude/altitude. I've never looked into it, yet.

We're off on a 'Lite' version of this trip next week: Dover-Calais then driving through France, Holland, belgium, Germany, Poland & Lithuania to Latvia. Driving my Defender 110 300 tdi and towing a big trailer which will be coming back empty a fortnight later. Camping en route but will stay in OH's flat in Latvia.

Larry365 said:

It's changed now, but I noticed the first street view images of Nordkapp were in winter, with quite a bit of snow about. I thought if a little street view car can make it, I doubt much prep is needed. At the same time, I can imagine conditiond vastly vary depending on time of year and latitude/altitude. I've never looked into it, yet.

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It does, there seasons as very clearly defined. Winters are proper winters and summers are warm nice summers. When we went up Lapland was about -25 and solid inch thick ice on the roads. I was glad i invested in marino wool thermals and a Canada Goose jacket. Most of the locals move around with snow mobiles. If you have never driven one you should they are great fun. But for cars mud/snow tyres or studded would be the best for winter. The studs are awesome especially going over frozen lakes.

Got back late last night. Unfortunately had to cut the trip short by a just under week for a couple of reasons which I will explain later. Been a fantastic 18 days though. The Baltics surpassed any expectations. Met some great people, but unfortunately did not see much of Norway, the ultimate goal. Aim to return to visit Norway in 2016. Plenty of pics and videos which I'll get round to posting when I've got things sorted. Here's a couple just to make this post interesting

Treating the Disco to a wash at a brothel open day in Holland before putting it through the next 4000 miles.

Hey,
If anyone is doing a trip like this in the future & has a spare seat for a mate, then I'd love to know.
This would be a dream come true for me. I speak a few languages so I might be useful. I'm tied by dates from my job, but thought it worth adding to this thread - just in case.

Hope you had a dash cam. Vids would look awesome.

This is what i'm going to do once i've got my 90 kitted out… can't frickin wait…


Minus the hooker car wash...

Rosie said:

This is what i'm going to do once i've got my 90 kitted out… can't frickin wait…


Minus the hooker car wash...

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lol

james6546 said:

lol

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oh em gee maybe i could wash cars in my pants and vest as i'm on my way round to fund my trip - winner!!!

Rosie said:

oh em gee maybe i could wash cars in my pants and vest as i'm on my way round to fund my trip - winner!!!

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It only cost €5.. you'd have to wash a lot of cars

I would recommend allowing plenty of time for eastern Lithuania and Lativa. Labanoras Regional Park is very beautiful and plenty of really nice camping spots, some of the best are government provided, free are charge.

The Latvian coast is also worth a look at, Tuja has some good places to camp, right on the coast.

Eastern europe > scandinavia

Larry365 said:

It only cost €5.. you'd have to wash a lot of cars

I would recommend allowing plenty of time for eastern Lithuania and Lativa. Labanoras Regional Park is very beautiful and plenty of really nice camping spots, some of the best are government provided, free are charge.

The Latvian coast is also worth a look at, Tuja has some good places to camp, right on the coast.

Eastern europe > scandinavia

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Hahaha ok, I wont wash cars… €5?? really? what a cheap ass ho!

Thanks for the tips, not got a route planned yet, all i know is i really want to head to norway and see the northern lights, if possible!

You got anymore pics online I can look at? other than your car washer?

Rosie said:

Hahaha ok, I wont wash cars… €5?? really? what a cheap ass ho!

Thanks for the tips, not got a route planned yet, all i know is i really want to head to norway and see the northern lights, if possible!

You got anymore pics online I can look at? other than your car washer?

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Yeh, pretty cheap, though the price was reflected in her work. It was more of a promotion, I dunno. There were local stores with stalls there, charity stuff going on, a band... make no mistake, it was still a brothel open day :/ You know what the Dutch are like.

I'll post some more pics later tonight. Maybe a couple of vids too. I'm not big on publishing everything I do so I'll just pick a few.