Windy500 - The Arctic Circle

We stopped a few times to have refreshments and I found a local cake that I like.  It’s like a cold pancake rolled up into a cigar shape with cream in it – and they are keeping me sustained on the long drives!

Eventually we got to the Arctic Circle centre about 5pm and met up with four other teams; the last two teams heading our way were a couple of hours behind.

The centre itself is very tourist-oriented but I did not expect anything else.  We all bought stickers, postcards and the like from the shop then went outside for some pictures.

As expected it was very cold and the other teams were talking about wild camping or heading even further North to find somewhere to stay.  I had looked online before we set off but I could not find anywhere in the vicinity, so my team (007) elected to head south.  At this point we had been on the road for almost 10 hours but we had passed loads of hotels and campsites on the way up so we were very confident.

After about an hour heading south we passed team Olly and Team Trigger still heading north.

After two hours we arrived at Mos¸en where there were loads of hotels but they were all full!  So we carried on South stopping at every camp-site that had bungalows in.

At every stop the story was the same they were all full!  At 22:45 we stopped at the last camp-site where the reception was still open and we had the same answer, no rooms at the inn!   It turned out there was a massive mid summer footballing tournament on in one direction and a moto cross event the other, oh bother.   We decided to drive for a little longer then catch some sleep in the car before continuing south.

The driving was easy as it was still light and the roads were wonderfull and empty so I was having a blast!

At midnight we stopped for a toilet break and I took a “midnight solstice” photo.  After another 30 mins we stopped for a proper rest / snooze.

Waking at 3 am we carried on South. Now that we were much further south than expected I negotiated heading out to the coast near Kristiansund to drive the “Atlantic Coast road”.

– John –