Safe Return Doubtful

I’d been back in the UK just over three weeks on the Monday that just passed and have found my mind wandering to the next journey, or ‘course’ as I prefer to call it. The term ‘Course’ dates back to my days leading trips of youngsters, and was the term I corrected them to use if any one of them called it a holiday. What they had chosen to do certainly wasn’t a holiday.

The period of hiatus on returning seems to get less and less each time. I’ve tried to ward it off with short courses to the Western Lakes and to Galloway, but it’s been there in the back of my mind throughout, just forcing its way to the front this week. My mission was to live more widely, and to seek out wild places, the Western Lakes is hardly wild..

Hence, I’ve spent the week researching. My original plan was to head along the south-western Norwegian coast, their North Sea coast, across the Baltic Sea into Finland, and then south into the Baltic countries, Poland and eventually, Romania. Not long into my probing and I discovered that due to the poor state of the Norwegian economy, the government has taken the step of trialing a scheme whereby about 60 ferry routes to the more remote islands, mainly further north than North Sea, will be free for a year. These far flung places have really struggled in the years since the pandemic, shedding residential population quickly, as well as receiving less visitors because of the cost involved of getting there.

My draft plan has been shaped by this.

My intention now is to head all the way up the Atlantic coast, along a route that, despite several visits to Norway before, I have never taken – previously avoiding them because of the cost of the ferries. I came down the coast from Tromso by bike in 2016, but the mainland coast, without travelling to any of the archipelagos nestling outside the fjords. I also came down the country in the autumn of 2022, in the van, but inland, through the mountains and National Parks.

I’m about four drafts into my research now, after about 20 hours of study, and it projects taking about 40 ferries. There’s a lot of hours still to do, but these February Cumbrian afternoons are good for that.

I have never, and hopefully will never, lose my enthusiasm for whichever course comes next. Like when a small boy, I still countdown the days until departure. As I get older though, it does become more clear the environments which I prefer; Scandinavia, more specifically the far north.

Many can be put off by Norway by high prices, but the exchange rate is favourable at present, but also, travelling by van it is possible to carry a large amount of supplies. I carried quite a bit two years ago, and plan to cram in even more this time.

After Norway, my route would then head south through Finland, the Baltic countries, Poland, Hungary, and into Romania (out of Schengen..).

My date of departure is dependent on hip surgery, for which I still wait for a date. I’m hoping to hear something in the next couple of weeks, but there have been considerable delays, and possibly more lie ahead. If that is the case, I’ll try and get a date for my return. But hopefully, I can get it done in late March / early April, which would be a month later than I was told back in September.

This last week I have also had the van fully serviced, and had two new tyres put on. It has some more work (internal) to be done to it at the start of April.

Otherwise, the weather in Shap has continued in its wet, mild and windy trend, with the odd decent half day.

I am thinking of heading up towards Kielder next week, and will decide during the exciting weekend of sport ahead, Six Nations, Ranchi Test and Wigan – Penrith.