Safe Return Doubtful

Day 46 – to Repparford It was a farewell to north coast this morning. I very much hope I’ll be back. I’m getting to that age now where it’s not going to be practically possible, funds aside, to get back to everywhere I had once intended, but this is a…

Day 45 – at Lebesby Back in the early planning stages of this journey I estimated 7,000 miles for the round-trip. Today I reached the extremity of this course after 3,560 miles, so I wasn’t that far out. Prior to that, we walked the Lebesby trail, which can be started…

Day 44 – to Lebesby The first trip I did in the Crafter was just a day after the Scottish lockdown was lifted in April last year. I ended up on a section of the North Coast 500. The route was launched as a pan encouragement to tourists, but the…

Day 43 – to Martenses Cultural Museum Ekkerøy doesn’t have a long history as small town, back only to the 1920s when the community was a fishing one. Previously it had only been used as a winter anchorage for boats. Today there is none. Driftwood was an industry for a…

Day 41 – to Vadsø, Varanger National Park, Norway 11 am. It’s 4C outside, with a gentle drizzle, but 19C in van. I’ve a second coffee, laid up in the favourite chair reading Monbiot’s Regenesis *. Could be that late Jamesons while watching The Red Headed League had enhanced my…

Day 40 – to Utsjoki Village Some rain this morning and a north wind making it a fresh start. But the heating in the van only needs 5 minutes or so to take effect, and pretty soon I was back into my current book with coffee. It’s a rare long…

Day 39 – at Inari Inari town sits on the western edge of the vast Inari Lake, the third largest lake in Finland. It’s level is regulated by the Kaitakoski hydroelectric station in Russia, as the main river that feeds it, the Paatsjoki, is entirely in Russia, the absolute eastern…

Day 37 – at Lemmenjoki (National Park) The two main hiking adventures in the Park start at the car park I am in. One of them is the Gold Trail. There was some minor gold prospecting here in the 1870s, the Ivalo Gold Rush. At the time Finland was part…