Sprache wechseln
After two years of preparation, we left the French Alps on April 18th, 2022, to start our “Next Meridian Expedition.” We, Mathilde and Nick, both 28 years old, left everything behind to travel the world in our 2012 Land Rover Defender 110 TD4 nicknamed Albatross. We moved full-time into our vehicle for a three-year journey through seven continents and 88 countries.
DESTINATION SCANDINAVIA
The first leg of our trip took us to Scandinavia. While part of Europe, Scandinavia gives the impression it is further away: wilder and rougher, with a distinctive soul—home of the Vikings.
Scandinavia was our warm-up loop, so to speak, before shipping across the Atlantic. The region is safe, potable water everywhere, no visa needed, beautiful tracks and other outdoor pursuits. Wild camping is legally protected by an ancient concept called “Freedom to Roam,” “Right to Public Access,” or simply “everyman’s right.” In short, the overlander’s 101 for a stress-free and fulfilling journey.
We would drive 7,000 km north through Denmark, Sweden, and Norway to the North Cape, the northernmost point of the European continent. The return leg covered another 3,000 km through Finland.
At the outset of our journey, our minds were filled with images that led us to believe we could generalise the four countries as one, “we are going to Scandinavia.” But soon enough we discovered we were wrong. There is a Scandinavia for every overlander.
DENMARK, A BEACH-LOVER’S DREAM
It was early spring, and the weather was glorious all over Europe. Upon arrival in Denmark, what struck us most were the endless beaches and dunes stretching as far as the eye could see. A glance at the map is a simple reminder that Denmark has a coastline of 7,314 km. That equates to over 1.2 metres of coast per inhabitant.
After sharing the driving throughtout the night, from the French Alps to Denmar, Nick won the last shift at sunrise. Mathilde was pleasantly surprised to wake up and open the car door onto the ocean. Two feet and four wheels in the sand, blue waves moving gently against the beach under the sun already high up in the sky. What an amazing first glimpse of Denmark.
Our favourite Danish coastlines include Ebeltoft, the Ringkøbing Fjord, and Skagen, Denmark’s northernmost point. Here you can stand between three clashing seas: the North Sea, the Kattegat and the Baltic Sea.
You can even drive onto some of the beaches—a rapidly disappearing privilege in Europe. One must be careful though. Stories of travellers and their vehicles stranded in soft sand with an incoming tide are abundant. Reluctant to repeat the same fate, we carefully checked the tides in advance.
In Denmark, checking the tides quickly becomes a habit. One evening we carried on driving late into night, with the aim to sleep on the island of Mandø. Access to the island is limited to when the tide is at ebb, because the road is otherwise flooded.
A quick check online confirmed that low tide was scheduled for 1:00 a.m. At 11:30 p.m. passage should technically be possible, or so we thought…we hoped…
When we arrived at the start of the gravel causeway leading to the island, a giant sign depicting a car bogged down in the sand, displayed a warning message: “DANGEROUS ROAD, ONLY CROSS IF YOU ARE VERY FAMILIAR WITH THE TIDES.”
We looked at each other, perfectly aware that we didn’t qualify as “very familiar with the tides.” Feeling far too confident (typical millennials) after our google search, we steered Albatross onto the bumpy seabed through the pitch-black night.
We couldn’t see a thing beyond the range of the car’s driving lamps. We had no idea what the road was supposed to look like, or how far out the sea was. It would be an understatement to say we were relieved when we made it to the other side. Without a clue where we were, we parked the car praying we wouldn’t fall victim to the incoming tide.
The next day, we woke up surrounded by sea with only a narrow gravel track fading into the water, as if a bridge had been swept away. Several kilometres away, we could see the fields on the mainland. No wonder the place is so dependent on the tides, when you consider how flat Denmark is.
Back ashore, we found the highest point of Denmark: at 171 metres, in a field, behind a barn. Staying along the coast in Denmark is never a bad idea.
There is an app, Shelter, which lists countrywide kayaking facilities providing shelter for people travelling at sea and camping on the shores. Nothing fancy, but maybe a toilet, a fire pit, and a covered outdoor area by the coast. There is only one rule: If people arrive with kayaks, they have priority—to dry off and get some rest. That was fine by us, it seemed only fair.
At Ebeltoft we ran into a man who was walking his dog and intrigued by our car. Originally from the UK, he had settled in Denmark. We asked him if we were allowed to stay where we were for the night. He explained that if we stayed only one night nobody would mind, a rule that applied to most of Denmark.
SWEDEN, LAND OF FORESTS AND FERRIES
From Denmark to Sweden, just like in olden times, boats are still the best way to cross. You can literally go anywhere in the Nordic countries, all the way up to Iceland, by ferry. No wonder the Danes went (nearly) everywhere at some point in history. We boarded a ferry from Frederikshavn, in the northeast of Denmark, to Goteborg, the second biggest Swedish town.
In Sweden, we started exploring the archipelagoes. There is a free-of-charge yellow road ferry service running between dozens of small islands and the mainland. This exists so that the locals can travel to and fro every day throughout the year. Islands in the archipelago west of Gothenburg varied greatly in size. From Öckerö, with its supermarket and an ice hockey training center, to Hyppeln, with 150 residents and an around-the-island walking trail (taking 30 minutes to complete).
One local journalist and bird-watching enthusiast approached us as we were waiting for the ferry. He explained he had moved from the northern part of the country to the west coast archipelago a few years previously. He’d lived on several islands but eventually settled on Hyppeln. He said, “it was the most relaxed island with the best vibe.” As he told us about his odyssey, it felt like he was describing different countries and not different islands. Some religious, some with traditional fishing, some quite festive.
We continued our journey along the coast. The winds increased, and we suffered increasingly from the cold air in our faces and bouncing off our pop-up roof at all day and all night. Cooking outdoors was tedious. Everything had to be tied down. A strong gust of wind caused us to crash our drone during a ferry crossing. It was time to change settings and look for shelter inland.
We left the rugged coastline in favour of dense woods, cozily protecting us from the constant offshore winds. It was a fortunate stroke of serendipity when a fellow Defender owner invited us to stop by.
Rikard’s little paradise was a traditional, one hundred year old Swedish house overlooking a crop of forest on a lake. Alongside the house, stood a barn. Vintage Swedish motorcycles on the upper level, a fully equipped workshop with a garage for his Defender beneath. The adjacent space housed about 50 sheep from a traditional Swedish breed. A delicious mix of sounds, smells, and passions.
We arrived about an hour after the last lambs of the season were born and got to admire the beautiful cuddly newborns taking their first steps. The energy oozing from this place was infectious. Later we enjoyed a fascinating dinner of elk stew from the neighbour’s recent hunt.
As with so many fortuitous encounters along the way, he offered us a hot shower and the use of his laundry machine. The traveller’s grail, fresh clothes and warm water are a huge gift on the road! We spent the night talking about the country, the culture, the traditions, and of course, travel.
When we left Rikard’s farm, winds were still pummelling the coast, so we continued inland. In Sweden, we remembered that the wise traveller should adapt their route according to the weather. Protected by the dense trees, we camped on lakeshores.
Just like in Denmark, we were the only ones on the road. But unlike Denmark, we found many off-road trails, mostly logging roads spreading through the forests which allowed us to reach destinations without having to stick to the main highways. At a tiny border crossing on the long border between Sweden and Norway, we finally entered the legendary fjord lands.
NORWAY, THE COUNTRY OF NO REST
We quickly understood Norway was going to be the country for us and possibly the most fulfilling destination of this loop through Scandinavia.
With Oslo in the rearview mirror, the road started winding through the mountains. There is no rest in this country. The roads rise and fall to the rhythm of the valleys. Someone told us, “in Norway, the roads were built following the cows.” On the southwestern coast, the land of the famous Norwegian fjords begins. Imagine huge mountains falling abruptly into grey, cold, and narrow sea channels—we are talking 600- to 900-metre high cliffs. There is little space left for men in this extreme topography. The roads are magnificent; the hikes are breathtaking.
Lysefjorden is the first of the grandiose Norwegian fjords we explored, and Preikestolen, is a mystical rock platform suspended 600 metres above Lysefjorden—one of several Norwegian landscapes often used as a movie set, recently, for example, in Mission: Impossible—Fallout. There are three types of visitors: those that take a picture from a safe distance, those that stand on the edge and have their picture taken, and those who run and base jump from it. Each gets their dose of adrenaline in their own way.
Northward we persevered; at these latitudes, the spring weather is like the flip of a coin. One continuously travels between spring at the bottom of the valleys, embellished by blossoming apple trees, and winter in mountain passes covered under three-metre-high snow walls surrounded by frozen lakes. The further north we drove, the colder it became.
In the summer, tourists and mosquitoes take over, and it can get overwhelming both for the visitors and the locals. Visiting Norway during the early spring, we had the opportunity to see these breathtaking landscapes in a more intimate way and find wild camping sites even in the most touristy regions. The downside is that snow renders some roads impassable, and you need to hike to reach some of the most famous viewpoints. On hindsight, we do not regret travelling so early in the season and would probably do it again.
Passing latitude 66°, we officially entered the Arctic Circle surrounded by snow and small birch trees scattered across the plains. We saw our first reindeer on the road licking leftover salt on the slushy tarmac. It was now mid-May, and our impression was that we had reached the true north. There was no more night; every morning we woke up at 2:00 a.m. —in broad daylight.
In Bodø, we hopped on a ferry sailing to the extreme western point of the Lofoten Islands—imagine alpine peaks dropped on sand beaches. It’s a must if you come to Norway. Especially for its grandiose hikes above the cold Arctic waters. Whereas many told us it was as far north as was worth going, Lofoten’s northern sister islands, Vestragren and Senja, offer great beauty and a wilder set of amazing landscapes that you only share with a few local fishermen.
Eventually, summer switched on at the North Cape. After five weeks, hundreds of tunnels, and 7,000 km on the road, we arrived at the northernmost point of the European continent in brilliant sunshine and a moderate 15°C. In just a few days, the icy roads and the cold fog described to us by travellers coming from the north were replaced by a bright blue sky and warm, 24-hour-long sunshine.
In front of us, a clear horizon opened from the edge of the cliffs standing 300 metres above the Arctic Ocean. The cold wind from the sea reminded us that it never gets much warmer around here. It was time for us to take the road back south.
FINLAND, BREATHE DEEP AND DEFLATE YOUR TYRES
We crossed from Norway into the northernmost parts of Finland. And just like magic, the sinuous Norwegian roads gave way to endless dead-straight sections of pavement disappearing far away into the horizon. We had entered Finnish Lapland.
When we asked Finnish friends for recommendations on must-see places or must-do activities, we quickly figured out that this leg of the journey would be very different to Norway. Instead of a list of well-defined points of interest, hikes, and sights, we received vague and cryptic messages along the lines of: “Well…Lakeland is where everyone goes for the weekend, it is very beautiful. In winter, you can go skiing in Levi. If you have a kayak, you might enjoy paddling on the lakes. Oh, and you should do sauna! That is part of the culture here. You will see, nature is simply gorgeous in Finland.”
Not quite what we had expected (neither was it winter, nor did we have a kayak), but somehow we understood what they meant when we set foot in the country. The key word here is “simplicity.”
There is no ostentatious nature in Finland, no dramatic fjords, no breathtaking mountains. At the risk of sounding attenuating, let me try to describe Finland: It is flat and densely covered with forests and lakes. Goodbye steep hikes and mountain views. Hello true wilderness. You do not simply visit Finland, you live it.
Reindeers at every crossroads, off-road tracks in all directions, lakes and even more lakes (180,000 lakes are officially registered), and endless archipelagos. Finland is simply authentic. But this simplicity says it all: giant areas of pure wilderness offering any respectful traveller a unique freedom to roam and enjoy nature—by car, on foot, or by kayak.
Upon crossing the border, we asked ourselves: How do we make the most of this unique environment? We deflated our tyres and decided to cross Finland only using off-road tracks. In just two hours, we had mapped the tracks which would take us south.
Magnificent dirt trails, rubble, dust, mud, and, of course, river crossings. By the end of the first day, Albatross, our Defender, had lost its immaculate white colour. For the rest of the journey, we kept at a one-metre minimum distance from our car to avoid being covered in mud ourselves. We would open doors and touch equipment like an elegant English lady drinking tea, with the tips of our fingers.
For almost ten days we saw absolutely no one. Roaming through the maze of logging roads and not a single soul on the horizon. Spending nearly half of the time in “no man’s land” along the Russian border looking for bears, probably contributed to the solitude.
If it hadn’t been for a border patrol, we would not have interacted with anyone. The officers had spotted us on cameras installed along the border and were wondering who would possibly want to toil through the forests in this area instead of taking the paved highways. They checked our documents and made sure we understood we couldn’t pass the yellow poles marking the buffer zone with Russia.
In the end, we saw neither bears nor fellow-travellers on the tracks. But we did find our second-best wild camping spot of the entire Scandinavia trip here in Finland. In the southeast, we explored wild lonely lakesides, just for us. Sometimes, we came across abandoned boats which we would borrow for a picnic, making sure to grab a cup to drain any water seeping in and some improvised wooden poles to punt the boat like a gondola.
Further south in Finnish Lakeland, we located tons of free public camping areas with tables, docks, fireplaces, and saunas with wood reserves for people to use. Again, not another soul. All this luxury was exclusively for us. It reflects well on why one should “simply” enjoy nature in Finland. This country taught us to slow down, to appreciate simpler landscapes in a simpler manner. Finland is a 4×4 paradise for nature lovers.
SCANDINAVIA, THE BOTTOM LINE
Let’s conclude with the most common question we received about travel in Scandinavia: “Isn’t it expensive?” Yes, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland are expensive, Norway is even more expensive. Eventually, fuel price increases due to COVID-19 (diesel finally reaching €2.40/litre) were what made this trip the most expensive for us so far. We found a website ranking country’s average fuel prices. At the time, top of the list was Norway, and among the top five were Sweden, Finland, and Denmark.
As for the rest, it always comes down to how you travel. We love to go on hikes, camp wild wherever possible, avoid toll roads whenever possible, and cook outdoors or in Albatross. That helps us save a lot of money and does not make the trip less pleasant.
In short, go to Denmark for the coastlines, to Sweden for its rocky archipelagoes and forest tracks, to Norway for the most amazing mountainous and fjord landscapes, and to Finland for the off-roading and unique wild campsites.
Is there a common denominator for all four? Without doubt. Firstly, the beauty of preserved nature and generally less populated areas, and secondly, the security. We believe there is no other area in the whole wide world where you can leave your fully equipped and loaded overland vehicle, keys in the ignition switch, in the parking lot of a supermarket in town. We met Norwegians who were doing just that while, at the same time, also leaving the door to their house open when nobody was home.
The era when Vikings invaded the European coastline is long gone. This is the safest we have ever felt while travelling.
Scandinavia holds something in store for every Overlander … set your sites and enjoy the ride.
