NORTHERN LIGHT

The Lofoten are a group of islands off the northwest coast of Norway, a sort of Norwegian Outer Hebrides, and my dad wanted to go back there to recreate a previous trip. Good idea, but going that far north we might as well carry on to Nordkapp. After a few more beers we decided, what the hell, we’d keep going into Russia. Dad and I were both on Africa Twins, and we reckoned this trip into the far north would total 5000 miles and take 23 days. We booked the ferry to Ijmuiden (you can’t sail direct to Norway any more) bagged our Russian visas and headed off. Other than that there was no proper plan – no accommodation booked, no route planned, but we did have tents.

We also had mobile phones, and with mobile charges recently dropped in the EU I was able to phone home while we were