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To Nordkapp and beyond….!
- Jul 18
- 11 min read
I’ve started so I’ll Finnish….
By Jon Newey - retired Architect, Blood Bike rider, Adventure traveller - with Tigger - Triumph Tiger 800 XRX
Bikers of a certain vintage will probably remember Ogri, a cartoon character biker drawn by Paul Semple, who appeared in the back pages of Bike magazine for many years. I remember one particular episode where Ogri and his hapless friend Malcolm both decide to go for a Sunday afternoon ride. Malcolm ends up just going round the block and arriving a few minutes later at his usual café. But Ogri somehow ends up toasting marshmallows over a fire outside an igloo with some new Innuit friends. Of course, we all wanted to be Ogri, but secretly we all knew we were Malcolm!
Chanelling my inner 'Ogri' I have arrived in Bodo, northern Norway, In the centre of town I find an Indian restaurant and eat chicken mango curry for dinner. It makes a change from Norway's usual offering of pizza, burger or Mexican. The hotel Zefyr is very comfortable. Breakfast is the usual all-you-can eat buffet. Outside the entrance in the morning sunshine I meet Angelo, an Italian biker from Milan. He’s already been to Nordkapp. He took the fast route up by riding though Sweden. Now he’s taking the slow route south down the coast of Norway. He tells me that Nordkapp is a long way away (I’ve heard that before) and he mentions a few great places to ride and to stay.
Out of Bodo Tigger and I follow a road along the north side of Bodo's fjord. It wriggles its way back to join the E6. From there we have a straightforward route northward into Narvik. The E6 continues to be a fabulous road to ride, but to add extra novelty-value we turn off for a loop around the 827. What a great decision! The road takes us into the town of Drag and onto the Fannefjord ferry. ‘Board the ferry in Drag’ says Garmin. I feel underdressed….
The ferry is ready and waiting as we arrive. Tigger is directed through to the front of the queue as usual. The crossing to Kjopsvik takes about 40 minutes. The weather is warm and still and the views over the water to the neighbouring mountains and islands are stunning. From Kjopsvik the road twists and turns its way back to rejoin the E6. I stop for coffee and again for lunch. By mid-afternoon we’ve arrived at the Grand Hotel in Narvik. It doesn’t feel like it but we’ve been on the road for seven hours.
I booked this place a few days ago intending to have one night of comfort after a run of low-budget stop-overs. I hadn’t been expecting the free upgrade that I got in Bodo, so now it feels a bit decadent to have two smart hotels in a row. To compensate I give the hotel’s pricey restaurant a miss and buy myself some ready-to-eat food in the supermarket. Tigger is parked at the front of the hotel in an area where it says ‘Parking Forbidden’, but apparently that’s where all the bikers are expected park. Works for me!
Next morning we’re on the road at 09:00. It is Sunday so nowhere is open and nothing’s moving on the roads. I don’t have far to go to my next over-night stop, but I want to explore a bit today. Narvik is at the easternmost end of the Lofoten archipelago. Lofoten is one of the must-see areas of Norway so I plan to ride a short way in before doubling back to my next stop in Finnesnes. From Narvik the E10 runs down the length of the archipelago all the way to Moskenes from where you can get a ferry back to Bodo if you want to. Tigger and I ride for an hour down the E10 before turning off to visit the port town of Harstad. I have a message on my phone from Ingrid who I met in Trondheim to tell me that she took the ferry from Bodo to Lofoten and she is riding the opposite way along the E10 today. I keep an eye out for her but I don’t see her anywhere. In Harstad everything is closed except one café where I get a coffee and an ice-cream. It is very quiet and very peaceful.
From Harstad there’s a ferry to take us over to a village called Sorollnes. There’s a 45 minute wait, and then the crossing takes an hour. The sun’s shining and lots of people want to chat. First I chat to Sten, a Norwegian who lives locally. He says he has a Harley back home. He works with refugees, helping to settle asylum-seekers in the far north, an initiative intended to reduce the pressure on Oslo. Then I meet Pax. Pax is a one-year-old border collie. Pax has an owner, Anni, who is taking Pax across the bay for a long walk in the hills.
Then I meet Sloran, a Dutch guy on holiday with his wife and daughters. He’s on the phone to his son who is taking part in a scrap car rally from Amsterdam to Budapest. The son and a pal bought a thirty-year-old Citroen BX for €500. They are currently broken down somewhere in the south of France. Sloran is trying to do tech-support over the phone. I owned a Citroen BX back in the 80’s. An eccentric car at the best of times, and not an easy car to fix! I was always told that before doing any maintenance I should drink a whole bottle of Beaujolais, because then my brain would work the same way as the guys who built it. I don't think Sloran found my advice terribly helpful....
As usual the views from the ferry are incredible. From Sorollnes the road is narrow, single-track with passing places. It is lumpy, bumpy and haunted by sheep. It hugs the steep side of the fjord. Great fun. There’s a 5km gravel section to tackle too. There are bridges of all shapes and sizes and even a couple of under-sea tunnels. Eventually we arrive at Finnesnes.
My hosts tonight are Todo and his wife Jannike. They’re proper hardcore bikers. There’s a Harley trike and an 1800cc Indian Roadmaster parked in the garage (anything smaller is just a moped says Todo). Todo tells me that although he and Jannike have been together for more than ten years they only got married a month ago. They decided to get married in Bulgaria on a yacht in the Black Sea....like you do. They have biker friends there, so it was the full Harely/Indian biker wedding. Todo tells me that he decided to ride there and back on the Roadmaster. He only arrived back home two days ago. Wow. That’s some distance! We’re two days north of the Arctic circle here. The Black Sea is at least 3,000 miles away. On the way he passed through several of the places that I’ve been to with Tigger (Alexandroupolis in Greece, Ljubljana in Slovenia, the Grossglockner Pass in Austria) so we spend a happy evening swapping stories.
After breakfast the next morning Todo and Jannike have other things to do so I’m left to my own devices. I have free reign in Todo’s amply equipped
garage, so Tigger gets a good going over and he even gets a wash. Then following Todo’s advice we take a spin round the nearby island of Senja. It’s Norway’s second
biggest island, apparently. It takes nearly four hours to do a lap. The sun is shining and it is very warm The scenery (including trolls and mystic maidens in ponds) is amazing. Back at Todo’s house there’s barbequed sausage for dinner, more tall tales and eventually I fall into bed.
Next on my agenda is the town of Alta. When I mention it to Todo he says ‘Ah, I know people there’. While I’m getting Tigger packed Todo contacts some friends and before I know it I’ve got a free bed for the night in Alta Motorcycle Club’s bunkhouse. The ride over to Alta is a gentle thrum along the E6. It takes six hours, though, so I’m tired by the time I arrive. The Clubhouse is hidden down a track in the woods a couple of miles outside the town. When I arrive there’s no-one else about. It feels a bit spooky. Before long, though, a couple of the club members arrive to show me round. There’s a low-tech bunkhouse for me to sleep in, toilets and showers with plenty of hot water, a cosy bar, a pool table and....a dance floor. Best of all, though, there’s a fully equipped workshop for fettling with motorbikes. Inside the workshop there are half a dozen Harleys in various states of repair. What a fascinating place! Apparently this is the northernmost motorcycle club in the world. They only have a dozen or so members, but they‘ve been going for 45 years, own their own clubhouse and pay for all the upkeep themselves.
We play pool for a couple of hours (I don’t win), eat, drink, and then I make my way to my bunkhouse bed.
The next day dawns. Or to be exact, it doesn’t ‘dawn’ because here above the Arctic Circle we have full day-time sunlight 24/7. Anyhow, Tuesday becomes Wednesday at some point in what might loosely be described at the night. I’m up early, even earlier than usual, because today is Nordkapp day. The turning point of the tour is upon us! I quickly eat some breakfast, get Tigger packed and we’re on the road by 07:00. From Alta to Olderfjord takes a couple of hours. At Olderfjord we turn off the E6 onto the E69 and start the pilgrimage north to the Northernmost carpark in Europe.
Nordkapp is a bit of an enigma. It is an island, so it isn’t actually the northernmost point of mainland Europe. And it isn’t the northernmost point anyway because you can hike half a day further north on foot. So.....the world's northernmost carpark is the way I see it. However you look at it, Tigger won't be going any further north than that. Even the Dalton and Dempster Highways in Alaska and Canada don't get as close to the north pole as Nordkapp's car park.....
To begin with the E69 is warm and sunny with hardly a breath of wind. But that doesn’t last for long. As we work our way up the 150km route the weather deteriorates. A naggy side-wind picks up and a cold fog closes over the road. By the time we enter the 8km long under-sea tunnel that connects Nordkapp island to the mainland I’m glad for the shelter the tunnel provides. Eventually we reach Nordkapp itself. As usual with such things it feels like an anticlimax. There’s the car park. There’s a fee to pay. There’s a gift shop. There are probably some amazing views but there’s fog and wind and it’s too cold to hang about.
Having snapped the obligatory photo I quickly get Tigger turned around and we head off before it gets any worse! But the importance of the occasion is not lost on me: We’re going south now, because there’s no more ‘north’ for us to do. It’s been a long ride for us to get here. Norway is not a small country. According to Todo it is the same distance from Oslo to Nordkapp as it is from Oslo to Rome. It's no small achievement!
We quickly cover the 150km back to Olderfjord. It is significantly warner here! I’m planning to camp here for the night but the campsite receptionist shows me one of their nice sea-view cabins and I can’t resist. I reason that I had a bonus cost-free night yesterday, and I’ve cooked my own dinner for most of the past week
so tonight I’m taking the cabin and I’m getting a proper dinner in a proper restaurant. Afterall, it’s my last day in Norway. I’ll be in Finland tomorrow.
Wake. Breakfast. Pack. On the road. The E6 continues to amaze me as we swoop in and out of inlets and fjords going east along Norway’s north coast. If we keep following the E6 we’ll soon end up at Norway’s border with Russia. That's best avoided I think. We turn off and head south towards the border with Finland. By mid-morning we’re approaching a bridge over a river. On the other side of the bridge we enter Finland. There’s an un-manned border post and nothing else to see so we pause for the obligatory photo and press on. This is country number 8 of this year's tour.
I’ve been told that the roads in this part of Finland are a bit boring. Long, flat, straight and surrounded by unbroken uniform forest. Seems like a harsh assessment. Also, it’s perfectly true. The road goes on and on. Eventually we turn onto Finland’s main north-south highway, the ‘4’. It’s the same. Trees. Straight tarmac. I stop to eat some lunch but the flies make that impossible. The midgies here have a 10-foot wingspan and can carry away a whole moose. To get some respite I park Tigger on a bridge in the middle of a wide river. It’s the only place the flies can’t get to me!
We pass through Inari and continue on to Ivalo. There’s a riverside campsite here. They have space for my tent, they have coffee in reception, they even have beer on tap. Can’t grumble. There’s also a kitchen where I can cook my own dinner. Just about perfect.
Next morning we’re heading south to the town of Rovaneimi. The ‘4’ road goes there, in a straight line, between unbroken forests. I’m in autopilot mode when I suddenly realise that Garmin is telling me the next fuel stop is 130km away. Heck! I only have 90km of range in the tank. Did I pass a fuel station a few Km back? I think I did but I can’t be sure. I turn round and then have to stop because there’s a reindeer sauntering slowly in front of me. Move over Rudolph! I retrace my route and sure enough there’s a fuel station just ten minutes back up the road. Phew. I fill up. This is Finland, so the system is different. There’s no pay-at-the-pump here. It’s more like the UK where you fill up first and then pay in the shop. It’s in Euros too. No more need for me to use Kroner, and I can pay with my Revolut card for a change. Excellent.
Back on the road there are more trees, more reindeer and more flies. The sky is clear cobalt blue and the sunshine is hot on my face. Heading south means that the low sun is in my eyes all day. I stop at a roadside café for coffee. Suddenly a swarm of Swedish bikers appears in the car park. They’re all on a guided ride from Stockholm to Nordkapp. I tell them that Nordkapp was very cold and very windy when I was there. They look at the cloudless sky in disbelief. ‘Wear something warm’ I tell them.
A couple of hours of riding the ‘4’ later (trees, reindeer, arrow-straight tarmac) I decide to turn off on a detour, heading into the Pyha national park. I’m hoping Garmin can find me some roads that are a bit more inspiring. No such luck. We get offered narrower, bumpier tarmac, but the roads are still straight, flat and have unbroken forest on both sides. There are some sections where the tarmac has been replaced with hard-packed gravel, which livens up the day a little, but not by much.
Towards the end of the afternoon we reach the Arctic Circle....again. It seems a long time ago that we crossed it going north in Norway. Now we’re re-crossing it going south in Finland. So tonight I’ll get a few minutes of dusk while I’m sleeping instead of full-on daytime sunshine all night! Riding on into Rovaneimi I realise it’s the first town of any size I’ve been to since Trondheim. I’ve booked a simple hotel for the night. It is easy to find. The room is neat and tidy. There’s a dinner buffet tonight, breakfast buffet in the morning and I’m encouraged to try the sauna…. It’s almost obligatory in Finland. Clothing is optional*. Surely it would be rude not to try it?
*(For the sake of decorum there’s a strict rota of different times of day for men and women, although that’s not always the case in Finnish saunas.....!)
Tigger miles in 2023 = 8,024
Tigger miles in 2024 = 6,259
Tigger miles in 2025 so far = 6,487 (=10,380 km)
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