Kouvola-Simo-Kautokeino-North Cape-Inari-Kuusamo-Joensuu-Kouvola
I've been thinking about a trip to Lapland and Norway for a long time already. I've visited Lapland nearly every other year for years but haven't been to Norway for about 35 years. Naturally I cannot remember much of that trip.
My original plan for this summer was to ride to Pamir highway but due lack of time and money I had to postpone the trip and stay a little closer to Finland. I knew I could use about a week for the trip so Nordkapp became the goal.
As some of you might have seen in Instagram this time I'm not traveling alone. I'm accompanied by my good friend, my youngest son's godfather Riku with his KTM 950 adventure S. We share some of the equipment to save some weight.
The trip began on Saturday morning. The first task was to ride through Finland. As we knew we cannot waste too much time on the way northbound we took the fastest (the most boring) route by highway 4 (E75) to Oulu. Damn it really is a boring route to ride. If you're riding through Finland any day there's a lot of nicer ways to go.
Well... For the first night we rode all the way to Simo. About 650km for one day was definitely enough. A good friend of mine accommodated us for the night and of we went again in the morning. Following Tornio River north until Muonio and then northeast towards the border of Norway. After eating late lunch at Hetta I realized at some point that I do not have any kind of paperwork for Annie with me. As I didn't have any experience in border crossing between northern countries I got a little worried. It turned out there was nothing to worry about. That border crossing was the easiest I've ever experienced. All you have to do is slow down a little because of some road work.
Then we were in Norway. The scenery had changed rapidly soon after Hetta and little by little it turned more and more harsh and almost dead. No trees anymore. Just some nearly dry flowers and short grass. The scenery reminded me a lot about Mongolia. Same kind of harshness and emptyness surrounded us everywhere.
Finally we arrived at Kautokeino, a town in Norway. Since it had been raining occasionally during the day and the forecast didn't show anything better we decided to get ourselves a real roof above our heads instead of camping. That was definitely a good decision. We got ourselves a small cabin near the town with a private toilet and shower. Our gear dried out during the night and off we went again in the morning.
Monday was a day of adventure. One of our main goals of the trip was "Alta's old postal road". Apparently the road was made ages ago to serve the postal service between Kautokeino and Alta. Since the new paved road had been built the old road has been mainly used by crazy motorcycle riders and hikers. About 100km of unmaintained gravel, rocks and mud. Huge, deep potholes filled with water and mud. Hard and challenging - yes. Impossible - no. The road is doable with any off road cabable motorcycle. One bridge was missing but fortunately the water wasn't too deep.
The main problem on the way was occasional rain. As the visor got wet it became nearly impossible to see the road. With that kind of rocky road it made riding very hard.
After the adventure on the postal road we reached the Arctic Sea at town of Alta. We found it a bit difficult to find 98 octane gasoline for Riku's KTM. Annie isn't so picky about the fuel. I've ran even with 82 octane fuel in Mongolia. In Finland I usually use 98 octane as the Finnish 95 contains 10 persent of ethanol and I'm not sure if Annie can handle it without damages.
The road to North Cape (Nordkapp) mainly followed the coast line and included altogether 15km of tunnels. The longest one begun at about the sea level and had 3km of 9 persent decrease, 1km of flat on the bottom and 3km of similar increase. It really felt weird to go underneath a fjord.
The sceneries in Norway are stunning, incredible and impossible to capture in photos properly. No photo can show the beauty of the coast line of Norway.
On Monday evening we finally arrived in North Cape. We were not willing to pay the fee of the official North Cape lookout. We took some photos and turned back south in search of a place to stay. Camping was absolutely out of the question. It was way too cold. So we ended up renting a room at Scandic Hotel Nordkapp.
It was time to turn back south on Tuesday morning. Obviously there was no way to go northbound anymore. Riding alongside the coastline was great in sunshine. Beautiful views and curvy roads. We stopped occasionally to take photos but there is no way to capture the beauty of the landscape with a camera. We even saw the first police car on the way and a speed control where the police had the radar on a tripod. That really looked a bit old fashioned. We weren't speeding so we were not stopped.
Crossing the Finnish border was as easy as it was the other way too. To south we took a route via Karigasniemi. Our next goal was Lake Muddus a little north of Inari where we had a privilege to spend a night in our friend's cottage by the lake. Absolutely beautiful place. No running water or electricity but a great sauna.
Our timetable was strickt which meant rushing south again in the morning. Riding all the way through eastern Lapland showed us plenty of raindeer to avoid hitting to and some rain - again. Saariselkä, Sodankylä etc led us to Kuusamo at our club's previous president's summer cottage. Eating sasliks and of course evening sauna with some club members. The location of the cottage was probably the most beautiful one I've ever seen. A little pond between the building and the lake is leveled about 1,5 meters higher than the surface of the lake. Amazing wonder if nature.
In the morning it was time to get going. The next planned overnight stay was planned to Joensuu. An easy 500km ride for the day. With 200km of pouring rain. My rain gear leaked and I got thoroughly wet. Luckily after Kajaani the sun showed itself and dried our gear. Little south of Kajaani we met other two club members as they were on their mission to take photos of hundred churches in eastern and northern Finland. At the point the count was around 80 and they still had more than 500km home. Nice hobby - riding from church to church and take photos.
Sixth day of riding long distances without any day off begun to feel a little hard. Also the nearly constant rain took its price. We bought water repellent for the visors and cleaned our gear in the evening but mainly we focused on eating and sleeping.
The last day's ride through Savo was plain boredom. Road constructions and traffic made the ride time consuming and slow. As the roads were very familiar there wasn't much to see. But hey... We made it safe back home.
What were the highlights of the trip? Definitely the sceneries in Norway and northern Lapland. The harshness and emptyness that surrounded us. Not a single person or vehicle in sight for long times. Of course it was great to see North Cape - the northernmost point of continental Europe. And the Alta's old postal road, which gave us some great adventure.
What would I do in a different way? Riding 7 days of long distances in a row was a little too much. It would have been better to have a day off the bike in the middle.
My original plan for this summer was to ride to Pamir highway but due lack of time and money I had to postpone the trip and stay a little closer to Finland. I knew I could use about a week for the trip so Nordkapp became the goal.
As some of you might have seen in Instagram this time I'm not traveling alone. I'm accompanied by my good friend, my youngest son's godfather Riku with his KTM 950 adventure S. We share some of the equipment to save some weight.
The trip began on Saturday morning. The first task was to ride through Finland. As we knew we cannot waste too much time on the way northbound we took the fastest (the most boring) route by highway 4 (E75) to Oulu. Damn it really is a boring route to ride. If you're riding through Finland any day there's a lot of nicer ways to go.
Well... For the first night we rode all the way to Simo. About 650km for one day was definitely enough. A good friend of mine accommodated us for the night and of we went again in the morning. Following Tornio River north until Muonio and then northeast towards the border of Norway. After eating late lunch at Hetta I realized at some point that I do not have any kind of paperwork for Annie with me. As I didn't have any experience in border crossing between northern countries I got a little worried. It turned out there was nothing to worry about. That border crossing was the easiest I've ever experienced. All you have to do is slow down a little because of some road work.
Then we were in Norway. The scenery had changed rapidly soon after Hetta and little by little it turned more and more harsh and almost dead. No trees anymore. Just some nearly dry flowers and short grass. The scenery reminded me a lot about Mongolia. Same kind of harshness and emptyness surrounded us everywhere.
Finally we arrived at Kautokeino, a town in Norway. Since it had been raining occasionally during the day and the forecast didn't show anything better we decided to get ourselves a real roof above our heads instead of camping. That was definitely a good decision. We got ourselves a small cabin near the town with a private toilet and shower. Our gear dried out during the night and off we went again in the morning.
Monday was a day of adventure. One of our main goals of the trip was "Alta's old postal road". Apparently the road was made ages ago to serve the postal service between Kautokeino and Alta. Since the new paved road had been built the old road has been mainly used by crazy motorcycle riders and hikers. About 100km of unmaintained gravel, rocks and mud. Huge, deep potholes filled with water and mud. Hard and challenging - yes. Impossible - no. The road is doable with any off road cabable motorcycle. One bridge was missing but fortunately the water wasn't too deep.
The main problem on the way was occasional rain. As the visor got wet it became nearly impossible to see the road. With that kind of rocky road it made riding very hard.
After the adventure on the postal road we reached the Arctic Sea at town of Alta. We found it a bit difficult to find 98 octane gasoline for Riku's KTM. Annie isn't so picky about the fuel. I've ran even with 82 octane fuel in Mongolia. In Finland I usually use 98 octane as the Finnish 95 contains 10 persent of ethanol and I'm not sure if Annie can handle it without damages.
The road to North Cape (Nordkapp) mainly followed the coast line and included altogether 15km of tunnels. The longest one begun at about the sea level and had 3km of 9 persent decrease, 1km of flat on the bottom and 3km of similar increase. It really felt weird to go underneath a fjord.
The sceneries in Norway are stunning, incredible and impossible to capture in photos properly. No photo can show the beauty of the coast line of Norway.
On Monday evening we finally arrived in North Cape. We were not willing to pay the fee of the official North Cape lookout. We took some photos and turned back south in search of a place to stay. Camping was absolutely out of the question. It was way too cold. So we ended up renting a room at Scandic Hotel Nordkapp.
It was time to turn back south on Tuesday morning. Obviously there was no way to go northbound anymore. Riding alongside the coastline was great in sunshine. Beautiful views and curvy roads. We stopped occasionally to take photos but there is no way to capture the beauty of the landscape with a camera. We even saw the first police car on the way and a speed control where the police had the radar on a tripod. That really looked a bit old fashioned. We weren't speeding so we were not stopped.
Crossing the Finnish border was as easy as it was the other way too. To south we took a route via Karigasniemi. Our next goal was Lake Muddus a little north of Inari where we had a privilege to spend a night in our friend's cottage by the lake. Absolutely beautiful place. No running water or electricity but a great sauna.
Our timetable was strickt which meant rushing south again in the morning. Riding all the way through eastern Lapland showed us plenty of raindeer to avoid hitting to and some rain - again. Saariselkä, Sodankylä etc led us to Kuusamo at our club's previous president's summer cottage. Eating sasliks and of course evening sauna with some club members. The location of the cottage was probably the most beautiful one I've ever seen. A little pond between the building and the lake is leveled about 1,5 meters higher than the surface of the lake. Amazing wonder if nature.
In the morning it was time to get going. The next planned overnight stay was planned to Joensuu. An easy 500km ride for the day. With 200km of pouring rain. My rain gear leaked and I got thoroughly wet. Luckily after Kajaani the sun showed itself and dried our gear. Little south of Kajaani we met other two club members as they were on their mission to take photos of hundred churches in eastern and northern Finland. At the point the count was around 80 and they still had more than 500km home. Nice hobby - riding from church to church and take photos.
Sixth day of riding long distances without any day off begun to feel a little hard. Also the nearly constant rain took its price. We bought water repellent for the visors and cleaned our gear in the evening but mainly we focused on eating and sleeping.
The last day's ride through Savo was plain boredom. Road constructions and traffic made the ride time consuming and slow. As the roads were very familiar there wasn't much to see. But hey... We made it safe back home.
What were the highlights of the trip? Definitely the sceneries in Norway and northern Lapland. The harshness and emptyness that surrounded us. Not a single person or vehicle in sight for long times. Of course it was great to see North Cape - the northernmost point of continental Europe. And the Alta's old postal road, which gave us some great adventure.
What would I do in a different way? Riding 7 days of long distances in a row was a little too much. It would have been better to have a day off the bike in the middle.
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