Snowmobiles, suomi saunas and santa

After watching the local rednecks (think Deliverance with fishing rods and waders) smoking fish at 4am we eventually hit the road late morning after watching crazy finnish fellas race snowmobiles across a river, apparently the snowmobiles float if you drive them at over 70mph. We didn't partake in what appears to be the national passtime of swilling beer at 10am much to the disappointment of the this time friendly local guys.

We made a detour north to Santas house in Lapland to find busloads of american tourists. We obviously took the obligatory 'standing on the line of the arctic circle' pictures. Met an Italian guy and his wife who were travelling south from Nordkapp where the weather was -3 degrees, unfortunately he had been stranded for three days as the final drive on his 1200GS adventure had failed, its not surprising when you saw the amount of luggage he was carrying, not sure it will stand up to a warranty claim. We have been lucky with the weather, it has been raining for two weeks solid at 66.6 degrees north up until yesterday.

This afternoon we turned south to head for the Russian frontier, we are going to attempt to cross about 200km north east of Imatra into Russia. We may get refused entry there and have to cross elsewhere but we have been informed its much quieter, apparently the line to get across at the main border crossing from finland can be up to 20km long.

The afternoon was spent in what has become standard practice of dodging reindeer and anticipating finnish drivers actions as none of their cars seem to have indicators. We have been struggling to read the signposts on some of the minor roads off the highway as they tend to have been shot to shit by locals with high velocity hunting rifles. Road conditions have been a mixed bag of good tarmac and dirt tracks covered in gravel with on the GS is fine but Wills bike has been skittish. Frost heave is evident on lots of roads which means there are huge cracks along the centre of them.

We are currently around 300 miles from the Russian border being eaten by cat sized mosquitoes. No camping tonight but a log cabin in the middle of a forest with just a calming buzzzzzzzzz of bugs.

Its now offically not a motorcycle touring holiday but an adventure.

Cheers
Mike

PS. We couldn't find any reindeer to cook but plan to get some tomorrow.
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Strawberries

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Top Finnish Guy

Sammi, the giver of good advice, beer and Ibruprofen!
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A warm welcome in Northern Finland!

Well where do I start? Mike met sammi from finland last night, a top guy who advised on the best routes to take through finland and also gave contact details if we got into trouble! Thanks sammi!

Today has been an experience, we ploughed on through sweden this morning which was like a compendium on adventure motorcycling. First the road ran out and turned to rubble - scary! None of us crashed though. A very friendly swedish woman made us cheese and ham sandwiches and coffee in the middle of a forest in the middle of nowhere which calmed our nerves a little. Then it was elk on the road, then reindeer dodging, which at 80mph is a little nerve racking. Then it was all three together.

We had lunch on the pavement the town in Sweden where they send all the ugly people. The only shining light was anna the strawberry seller who is paid 20 dollars an hours to stand at a stall. We think she has a sideline selling drugs though.

We made it to the arctic circle but after nearly 2000 miles of successful rendez vous, mike ended up at a different arctic circle to will and myself - with us in sweden and him in finland.

We stumbled upon what appeared to be a fabulous campsite in northern finland but after an hour it became apparent that all was not well! Full of locals that are gathered to race their snow mobiles over the river(!) tomorrow (we should point out at this juncture that the river is NOT frozen which makes things even more interested).. A very drunk fin with a kyrgistany drunken wife told us that we weren't welcome and gesticulated with his middle finger us and told us in his best english to 'F*ck off' one by one. He also accused mike of stealing a boat and questioned whether his heritage was wholly caucasion.

Needless to say we didn't. 1 because we drank too many beers to ride our bikes and 2 because I want to see them sink their snowmobiles in the morning. We are sleeping with one eye open tonight with the bikes right outside the door. Welcome to the east boys!!!

We hope to meet more fins like sammi and less of the axe weilding homicidal maniacs we got tangled up with tonight!

Cheers

Simon

Ps. We have all gone to bed with the opening bars Duelling Banjo's going through our minds.

Pps. Mozzies the size of small children.

Ppps. We are all going a little nuts because its been broad daylight for the last six days, can make you a little crazy!
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We made it!

We are now at the Arctic Circle, unfortunately I am in Finland and Simon and Will are in Sweden! Little breakdown in communication. I am in the right place obviously!
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No Santa

But lots of trees, lakes and mozzies!
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Norway Round - 400 miles today and into sweden.

Due to popular demand we are going to give our posts a little more literary finesse, so here goes:

A very long day today, 14 hours in the saddle, but through some spectacular scenery - the Jothmein national park.

Norway is expensive - 9 quid for two cups of coffee and 2 pounds for a bread roll!

Dissappointed that the border crossing was unmanned, not even a sign. Met a little lost Chinese man with a suitcase in the middle of nowhere - couldn't give him a lift though!

Also dissapointed that we haven seen a moose crossing the road, even though there are lots of signs advertising them!

We had a survival situation this eveing when we couldn't find anywhere to stay. We're getting by now with a couple glasses of jamesons on the sofa in our two bedrommed house watching lord of the rings on tv. Still had to eat emergency food though. Reminder to everyone that if you go to a ski resort, do it in the winter!

Oh and Dean, thanks for the whiskey, we cashed your food vouchers in on the ferry, also thanks for the hotel room in washington

Bikes are going well touch wood. Lots of mossies now. Its cold.

Shortest route home is 2698km, we have ridden over 1000 miles so far. Its midnight now and broad daylight, picture to prove it!

Pushing north tomorrow for the artic circle the following day!

Cheers Simon, Mike and Will

Day 4 - Priekestolen to Gol - 416km - Snowblind Tunnel Vision

15 pound breakfast bap, mosquito central, ferry boats and fjords, twisty tunnels, waterfalls, snowfields, diesel spills, simon driving on the wrong side of the road again. Frozen lakes great bends. Jamesons and coke in the (almost) midnight sun.

50k west of Geilo

Snowtastic!

Afternoon Ramble!

Taken from Pulpit Rock, a plateau above Lysefjordn 640m straight drop to the fiord below, no barriers! 8km walk up hill to get here and unfortunately 8km walk to get back down!
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Day 2 - 15 miles - washington to Ferry to North Sea - Dancing Days (throwing shapes on the way to Norway)

Angel of the North, Searching for relief on Westgate Road, Bacon and egg on the street, harsh words changing a light bulb, to the ferry, met an old norwegian guy on a bmw r60 - one careful owner for 40 years! Strapping bikes down on the ferry. Cider on the aft deck, fill you boots buffet, the worst band at the disco and people with no shame on the dancefloor. Cooked myself in the sauna trying to keep up with the Norwegians - mike diagnosed 3rd degree burns. Mike suggest will buys rollerskates cos he rides with both feet down. Mike's pep talk - "don't fall off and don't be a c#*t", we'll try but not promising
Cheers Simon

Roadside Repairs

Roadside repairs by Laurel and Hardy in the wilds of Newcastle-upon-Tyne!
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Day 1 - Driving North - 330 Miles Clevedon to Washington via North York Moors

Left home, wet and windy, mike loves his new tyres, Simon hit an exhaust in the road, Will overtook something, had a cuppa at gavs, amazing skies up north, went for a ramble in the woods (in search of the pub).

Have you got any Hose?

I went to Clevedon Auto Spares this morning cos I knew the owner
'Ronnie' is a very good bloke and a biker to boot. I was primarily
after a set of spare bulbs for the GS. Whilst I was there I thought I
would get some piping so we could siphon fuel between the bikes if
necessary. 'Have you got any Hose?' I said. As I said it we both
relaised what was going on and any fans of the two Ronnies would have
too. Turns out he even has the same coat!!!

We also do Fourkandles

Then he pointed to the wall above the door! I couldn't stop laughing for hours! I couldn't think of any use for them though!

Packed

But now need to make some space!
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One week to go...

Well quite a lot has happened in the last month or so in the run up
to the trip:

1. Will's bike was blown over in a windy field in Snowdonia which
smashed his offside pannier to smithereens. Luckily he was able to
find some second hand ones from a bloke in London. A result, but at
mucho expense.

2. Censored

3. I realised that my Russian visa had completely the wrong dates on
it, 2 working days before I had to go to Paris with work. Luckily
'Real Russua' the agency in London were straight on top of it and
managed to turn in around so I could pick my passport up from them 2
hours before I had to get the Eurostar.

4. I had my bike serviced by the Mike at Cardiff Motorrad - the bloke
that built Ewan and Charley's bikes for the Long way Round - nice. I
spent 5 hours with him and he made sure I understood how to fix some
common problems that might occur on the road. It was a good.
Unfortunately though, the bike has to go back in 'cos Mike found
that the drive shaft oil seal was leaking - due to me overfilling the
bevel box it with Hypoid gear oil - doh! A mistake that took two
seconds to do, was 5mm more than it should have been, but will cost
£110 to fix. Oh well better than the transmission blowing up in Russia!

5. Dean has bailed!

Anyway I expect that the next blog will be when we have hit the road
- 2pm next Sunday - after Mike son Gus's football tournament.

Cheers

Simon

One week to go!

In exactly one weeks time we will be hitting the road, travelling from Bristol to Newcastle to catch the ferry to Stavanger in Norway.
Four became three this week as unfortunately Dean had to pull out of the trip due to work commitments, obviously we will miss his natural wit and charm but more importantly his ability to fix anything with a penknife and a piece of chewing gum.
From my point of view I am pretty much all set to go, my bike goes in tomorrow for a health check and a new set of Continental Road Attacks. I finish work on Wednesday which will give me a couple of days to gather together all the things I have accumulated for the trip, discard half of them because I will never use them, pack the other half and find there is not enough space and have to discard half of the half that was left, which means I will be left with what I started with!
I have had plenty of time on my bike in the last month, working in Yorkshire has given me the opportunity to ride up there regularly and I had a foray into Germany last week aswell, I have had several 500-600 mile days aswell so I think I am pretty well conditioned for some mileage disposal.
All the paperwork is sorted, we eventually all got our Russian Visas with the right dates on, Will has managed to find us accommodation in St Petersburg and Kaliningrad which means we will have beds to sleep in for at least three nights other than that we will be adopting an emergent strategy or winging it!
Mike
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Some Photos from Egypt

Nothing to do with teekondBALTICA but some cool pics from Egypt....