Sadly what we have seen of Sweden so far has just not been quite as good as the other three Scandinavian countries we have visited and enjoyed so much this trip. Hopefully this will improve when we have seen areas other than this “Northern Wilderness”. We left Oulu in Finland and headed, expectantly along the coast road to the Swedish border. Unfortunately, despite having driven from one coastal town to another for 150+ miles on a road which follows the coastline of the Gulf of Bothnia we have still not seen the sea proper, just several very wide river estuaries. The sea is out there somewhere but not where we have been. Just before the border we took a detour at Tornio to some rather dramatic rapids on the Torne river at Kukkolaforsen. These extend for ... read more

All’s well again with the weather. Can’t do with persistent rain like yesterday’s, it stops us doing things and that is bad. Woke to glorious blue sky, albeit rather later than planned as stayed up late again watching the lovely midnight sun over the river. Packed up as quickly as we could and headed off for the Arctic Circle (Napapiiri), Finnish style this time. Lots of Santa’s Elves about the place as this is Santa’s village, supposedly where he lives, and the site for the Santa’s postbox where children send their Xmas letters to Santa. Stood on the Arctic Circle line and took photos and bought a few presents, as shops excellent, including really nice traditional hat for Emily’s birthday. Used Santa’s postbox to post things but not Emily’s as not sure which is her current ... read more

Hard to get up this morning as had very little sleep. Went to bed late as had to sort out the laptop which did a major go-slow on the internet and wouldn’t virus scan so was worried it had been ‘got out’ through some of the suspect wifi I have been using. Sorted it out and all ok by 3am ! Couldn’t then get to sleep as caravan behind us were partying - until 3.30 am. At 4.14 am it was not just broad daylight but it was also warm and brightly sunny which is not conducive to sleep. To get to Finland we had to go a little further North. We were hopeful the scenery would be something other than trees and tarmac but really it wasn’t so the I-spy jokes about things beginning with ... read more

Took a photo at 2am of a bright blue sky with lovely pink clouds. At 3.30am was woken up by rain pounding on the roof so when we got up everything was damp and engulfed in heavy low cloud. Very little traffic on the road as we left quite early and on a Sunday. Drove out of Norway, over a small mountain (little pimple compared to some we have crossed !) and we were suddenly, without formality, in Sweden. Not much difference at first. Plenty of lakes and water and mountains but not clearly seen as the cloud was still very low. We spotted a glimpse of a dramatically tumbling waterfall but couldn’t see it properly for the trees, then followed it for miles as it got bigger and wider until it broke out into a ... read more

Another fantastic drive today especially the first part along the “17”. This took us across from the coast at Bronnoysond, round several beautiful fjords until we rejoined the main E6 - the road which goes from North to South of the west of Norway. Up to this point we had to drive south east rather than north as no other way round except by the coast road which would have involved lots of mega expensive ferries. We have seen lots of signs for elks but to date only seen one mouse, one fox and one very quickly glimpsed small deer. Spotted an animal in the road ahead and glory be we had our very first elk. This was very young, small with legs like sticks and no antlers to speak of. We managed to get some ... read more