Gwilym's Adventure Blog

Back Home after a painless ferry crossing. It was taken over by 200+ bikers with The Chopper Club on their way back from a meet in Germany Only 250 miles needed today but after an epic 5500 miles (even google maps can't show it all on one plan and doesn't account for some of the extra roads I did - this just shows the shortest possible route) I am back home, tired but happy. Going to Nordkapp via motorbike has been one of my goals for some time and it did not disappoint. Of course, being on the M25 at 8am was a bad as expected with a lot of filtering and sitting in queues. I have ridden through England, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden. I have experienced cold (4 degrees), horizontal rain, gales (50mph + crosswinds on bridges) and heat (28/29 degrees). I have spent over 110 hrs on the bike, used 12 ferries, over 200km of tunnels and spent 13 nights in a tent. Roads were a mix of motorway, A r...

OK, I will be honest, I have no idea where I went today. Last night after I had blogged I was joined in the campsite by a German couple who were also on tour and we had a good chat about our respective routes With plenty of time to get from Kokkola to Turku for my ferry, I used the "curvy roads" function of my GPS and I was generally heading south. I have made a map on google maps from the places I remember but I certainly wasn't on any big roads. Most of them had 3 or 4 numbers but it took around 8 hrs and covered about 450km. I went to a place called Nokia just because it was only a small detour and I remember the 5210 fondly (that is a phone not a road number). Anyway, a quick visit to a bike shop to get a couple or circlips that either I had lost or never had. Awesome, as they didn't charge me anything and then it was onto Turku to wait for the ferry. Great to meet a couple on a Tiger 955i at the ferry ports. I had one of these so...

I heard a rumour it was warm and sunny in the south of Finland so today, I just jumped on the E8 and made progress. The rumours were true. About 15 degrees, wandering around the campsite in a T-shirt and was too hot on the bike. Thermals will be packed away now then. Only about 340km done today to get me to Kokkola which seems to be pronounced just like the drink and down some straight roads and even dual carriage way at times so no pic cam pics. Some great stop offs on route though. However, Finland, you have a few inconsistencies. For every roadwork sign there were a set of roadworks so that would be 100% success. For every Moose sign, there was none so that is 0%. Come on, get your act together. Mine you coffee for 1 Euro made a nice change. Once on the campsite, I met a great group of Finish bikers who had ridden their motorbikes to Kokkola to hire push bikes and cycle round the city. Only 1, Sammy spoke English but that was enough for some in...

Reindeer and Roadworks were the them for today. 550km done today. 100 odd km in Norway and then another 450 km in Finland. Don't worry, I haven't got pictures of roadwork's! As soon as I was over the border, the speed limit went upto 100kph which helped cover some ground. A lot more trees than Norway but fewer nice stopping places. Loads of Reindeer about today and although the Moose signs were about, I didn't see a single one. I spent most of the day cruising through Lapland and didn't see Santa either so he must have been in a factory making some toys. I got somewhat confused as to the difference between google maps and what my GPS was saying about travelling time but this was easily sorted as once I was over the border, none of my clocks matched and I realised there was a 1 hr time difference. Once this was changed on my bike everything match up again. I am no longer in the Arctic Circle as I am here in Tornio but it is still ch...