You’re hired! Norwagon VW Caravelle

1. Northern Norway on a shoestring

A top-secret surprise

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to book a holiday for someone else and not tell them where you were taking them? Well that’s exactly what I did for my husband Simon’s 50th birthday! The trip involved the Arctic Circle, a lot of pasta and a campervan…

Neither Simon nor I are big fans of the heat. Most of my, and all of his, favourite places to visit are chilly ones. He particularly loves Iceland but, despite having driven a Landrover Discovery across the interior and ridden a bike around some of the coast of this challenging country, he still hadn’t explored the Arctic Circle.

Determined to see Nordkapp

I had never heard of Nordkapp in Northern Norway before Simon suggested it as a road trip. But, despite it definitely being on his to-do list, he had dismissed it as a holiday destination because of the time it would take to drive there. There’s nothing like a husband dismissing an idea to make a wife want to demonstrate that it’s possible so I set out to save up for and organise a secret road trip to Nordkapp – the most northerly point in mainland Europe. well, the furthest north that you can drive, anyway.

Nordkapp really is the end of the road; any further in any direction other than the way you’ve just driven and you’ll drop over impressive cliffs into either the Norwegian or the Barents Sea. It sits at just over 71° north and is well inside the Arctic Circle (66° north). If you could drive further north, you would only have 1,306 miles to go before you reached the North Pole, but you’d be able to visit the Svalbard polar bears en-route! If you wanted to drive from London to Nordkapp, Google suggests that you could do it in 42 hours, but that wouldn’t be taking into account the sea crossings, the tunnels and the stops to enjoy the scenery of eight very different countries. For us, it also completely ignored the issue of a wife who was too nervous to drive on European roads!

Trip planning

Not to be deterred, my next step was to investigate alternative road trip possibilities. I wanted to keep Nordkapp as the main destination but also explore some other areas of Northern Norway. I eventually decided on flights to Tromsø (in the north of Norway) and the hire of a budget campervan, all of which I booked online. At this point, we were still at our ‘sleeping in the back of trucks’, before owning our own campervan stage, so I knew there was a fair chance that even a budget campervan would be more comfortable and probably warmer than the back of our Toyota Hi-Lux Surf!

Hiring the campervan

With very little campervan knowledge (this situation is improving), I booked the van through Norwagon, whom I chose because they offered a competitive budget price, and a flat rate with no additional insurance, drivers or mileage extras. They also had campers with really fun graffiti-style paint! Luckily for Simon, although the van was by no means new (a 1991 Volkswagen Caravelle), it went forward and backwards when required to do so and didn’t upset too much his sense of how a vehicle should drive…

Pedro at Norwagon had assured me via email that we wouldn’t have any problems with the roads in May, and he was right. Although the snow was still piled high at the sides, the Norwegians were just swapping to summer tyres and all of our routes were clear.

2. The trouble with secrets

Doing all the work...

Secret holidays are all very well, but that side of things did mean that I had to do all of the packing for both of us. Simon knew we were going away but had no idea where, so it was up to me to remember camping equipment, suitable clothing, electronic devices, guidebooks, maps etc.

I realised another disadvantage of secrets two days later when I saw the look on his face upon being told that we were about to pick up a hired campervan! A new vehicle, the wrong side of the road and a clever under-city tunnel system with its own roundabouts were a combination that would make any driver think twice. As it turned out, he was more than up to the job and we’d soon left Tromsø to head north (well, actually, south then east then north – Norwegian roads are like that) on the E8 and E6.

3. Camping Norwegian style

Right to roam...

The right to roam is traditional in Norway and includes the facility (as long as you leave no trace and follow a few sensible guidelines) to camp on the roadside or in car parks free of charge.

My original plan had been to find a campsite every three nights to allow for showers and washing but, as it turned out, we enjoyed the freedom to travel and then stop wherever we found ourselves so much that we didn’t visit a single campsite for our nine nights on the road.

Our first stop – a layby between Olderdalen and Storslett – was maybe not that salubrious but the long drop facilities were only 100 metres down the road, the piles of rubble gave us some privacy, and the morning fjord views were definitely worth throwing open the back door for!

Get a good map

I had ordered a 1:400,000 road map before we set off and this was useful for roads, ferries and official campsites but didn’t give enough information to help us find wild camping spots. We did, however, discover a couple of online maps showing recommended locations and, although the remaining spring snow meant we couldn’t access all of them, we used a mixture of these and roadside car parks. All of our night locations had stunning ice, fjord or mountain views (often all three) as well as access to long drop toilets (although sometimes the drop wasn’t quite as long as I would have liked!) and we weren’t disappointed with any of them.

As Nordkapp was our main reason for visiting Northern Norway, we were in a hurry to get there and arrived in time for night three of our nine-night wild camping adventure. At the Nordkapp visitor centre we had to pay an entrance fee of about £50 but could then use the facilities, which included flushing toilets and a café, for 24 hours. That said, these facilities closed overnight, during which time a huge pile of snow offered very little in the way of either shelter (that Arctic wind is cold) or privacy!

Nordkapp

Nordkapp highlights for us included watching the midnight sun from our bivvy bags (we managed three hours before we retreated to the relative warmth of the van), taking approximately a thousand photos of the Nordkapp globe… and the moment when Simon drove the camper up to the wrong side of the ticket box and got briefly stuck in the ice!

Whale Island

Another highlight of the trip was visiting Kvaløya, which means ‘Whale Island.’ Although we didn’t actually see any whales, we did appreciate the fact that this island, despite being just across a bridge from Tromsø, offered a real taste of Norwegian isolation. Down a narrow road and away from most housing, a long beach presented lots of exploration opportunities with facilities for a campfire. Memories include shell collecting, an early morning snow wash and Simon’s al fresco morning exercises.

Norway in miniature

We also visited the island of Senja, which has its own Norwegian Scenic Route, and deservedly so. A land of white-sanded beaches, crystal clear waters and plunging rock faces, it is indeed Norway in miniature. We found a camp spot here that was so special, we stayed here on two occasions. It was right next to a tiny cove of sparkling water and glistening white sand. I swam, we cooked tea on the beach and we both stayed awake until the early hours, watching the midnight sun paint trails across the sky.

For me, the most magical moment of the whole trip came at this camp. I awoke from a doze to find a pair of white Arctic hares playing in front of the campervan. You really can’t pay for experiences like that.

4. Who needs a shower, anyway?

Personal hygiene

On our last night, we chose our final camp spot based on its proximity to Tromsø airport. But, although it had a few mountain views, it wasn’t a great beauty spot and it didn’t have any bathroom facilities. And so we departed Norway with the satisfaction of knowing that we’d survived without a shower for a whole ten days! Whether our fellow flight passengers appreciated this hygiene fact or not is an entirely different matter, which brings me on to me next point – personal hygiene...

Even the most avid of campers needs a wash from time to time and Simon opted to do this in a most sensible manner, melting snow to make washing water and staying within the warmth of the van. I, however, took a more challenging approach to personal hygiene and developed two washing methods. The first was to dip in the fjords. I’m an outdoor swimmer and swim throughout the winter in the UK. But the Norwegian fjords operate at far lower water temperatures and trying to rinse eco-shampoo out of my hair was a painful experience!

Instead, my preferred sanitisation method (mainly because its absurdity made me laugh) was a snow wash, during which handfuls of shower gel-anointed snow were rubbed in places where anyone in their right mind would not want to be frozen!

Believe me, both of these methods of staying clean during our trip were as good a wake-up tool as any morning shower!

5. Food for thought

Norway is expensive

Everyone knows that food in Norway is expensive but, until you’ve actually visited and done the restaurant currency conversions, it’s difficult to grasp just how expensive.

Having a campervan, however, allowed us to do our own catering and, after a couple of supermarket foraging expeditions, we soon discovered that fish cakes (fiskekakker) and meatballs (kjottboller) with pasta or noodles were our best bet for abating hunger. Alcohol was also expensive so we limited ourselves to a shared can of local beer a night – chilled in the roadside snow, of course.

But we did strike lucky when, after the May 17th national celebrations for Constitution Day, we found some very cheap and very creamy cakes in the supermarket fridge. We ate ours in the car park, washed down with very strong coffee, and we really enjoyed the combined sugar and caffeine rush after days of savoury only food!

6. And some final thoughts…

Norway is big

When I look back at the map now, I’m astounded by how little of Norway we actually visited. As in any country with winding mountain roads, driving speeds are slower than you might expect. The great thing about having a campervan, though, is that you can stop at any time to take pictures, make a cup of tea or play in the snow. We did all of these things in abundance and, therefore, decided not to take too much notice of the distance that we weren’t covering.

Nightime sunshine

The other thing that stood out to us was the daylight hours. Although I knew we would be experiencing the midnight sun, the reality of sleeping (or trying to sleep) in full daylight, was unexpected. I was really glad that I’d packed eye masks at the last minute because they did afford us at least some darkness each night. The campervan had curtains but we didn’t use them, as our campsite views were all far too good to shut out. Most nights we dozed off to the sight of the sun bobbing along the horizon and took far too long over our loo visits because there was so much to look at on the way back.

Overall, I was quite pleased with my secret packing, too – with the exception of head torches. I hadn’t really thought that one through… for head torches to be useful you need darkness, and there certainly wasn’t any of that!

Our favourite trip to date

Simon and I are agreed that our campervan trip around Northern Norway was our favourite road trip to date. The scenery was stunning, the freedom to travel and camp was a revelation and we loved campervan life so much that, when we got home, we saved up for one of our own. We’ve never looked back.

Campervan Hire Details

The campervan:

We hired a 1991 VW Caravelle van.

• Engine: 2.4 diesel engine
• Gearbox: 5-speed manual gearbox
• Drive: Front wheel drive
• Travel seats: 2
• Berths: 2 (basic double bed)

What's included

This was a very basic conversion with plenty of storage and a double bed with one side longer than the other, which suited us fine. We also had a sink (although we were asked not to use the tap in case the pipes froze!) and a portable single-burner stove, which also suited us because we cooked outside most of the time.

Costs

• Flights £380 (Stansted to Tromso via Oslo)
• Campervan hire £850
• Ferries £140
• Fuel £200
• Food £200
• Tourist attractions £100
• Total £2,250

About Norwagon

The low point of this trip was giving our campervan back to Pedro at the end of the trip!

Hire costs: £850 (in 2018) for nine nights from Norwagon

Website: norwagon.com/en

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