The arctic circle and Reindeer!

As we departed Stockholm we knew we had some long driving days ahead; we’d made a rough plan of where we wanted to get to; It was over 900 KM away! So off we went..

Driving up through Sweden the scenery rapidly changed. The roads became clearer and we saw fewer towns.

We stopped overnight in a village called Skatan in the middle of nowhere that had provided a free motorhome stop with the cleanest toilet and shower we have ever seen, together with a wastewater disposal site and a place to fill up with fresh water. We left a small donation (luckily they took Euro as well as  Swedish Krone) . The UK has a lot to learn about how to welcome visitors! As usual we were the only UK van, but were joined by two local vans (one whose driver managed to struggle to park in an empty car park, reversing so far into the ditch he got a bit stuck!!). It’s always good to be entertained over morning coffee!

Heading off, we drove through beautiful scenery on empty roads arriving at Umeå late afternoon. We had 2 choices of free park ups here, a camping store, or Our favourite Willies! Willies it was. In fact this park up - with designated caravan and motorhome parking has loads of shops including IKEA and a Swedish liquor store (shops can only sell alcohol that is under 3% outside a Government liquor store). It was tea time, we hadn’t eaten anything more than breakfast biscuits on route, so what else was there to do! Meatballs, in IKEA, in Sweden - of course!

We were fascinated by the liquor store too. Everyone had told us how expensive alcohol was in Scandinavia, but unless you were going for specific named imported brands, it really wasn’t any more than we would pay so we stocked up. There were some very amusing local brand names too!

Our next destination was taking us to one of our milestones on route, one of those places few people drive to, and even fewer stay at. The arctic circle line!

The scenery kept changing as we travelled, as did the condition of the roads!! Sadly I didn’t get a shot of this, but believe me, Agy has been off road! Now, Google maps is very good and has guided us along our way well. Wherever we can we use major roads as we wanted to travel quickly to beat the weather. I always look at the satellite image of the route to try and spot dodgy options (we have all had them, and in a van they can be more frequent than in a car!) However, on this stretch I failed to spot the problem (eek). We turned onto a road that didn’t look great, but was beautiful - this is how it started, it’s blurry (because we were bouncing around) but believe me it got worse! 10 kilometres of craters, gravel and occasionally something resembling a road. Poor Ian was exhausted, but Agy held up well, as did our belongings!

As we left the gravel track and hit normal roads again we spotted our first reindeer! The first one I saw was away in the trees, can you see him?

but the next few were just wandering along in the road! Just next to us, as if it was perfectly normal to spot a reindeer on your journey.

A friend from my last job, Emma, had recently done a similar trip (I know, we couldn’t believe it!) and had told me that if someone comes towards you flashing their lights, it’s likely there are reindeer in the road - so slow down… now, you hear this and think, OK.. but then it happens, and they are everywhere. 

Each reindeer is owned, they are livestock, so as you will see they have a collar, and  are so relaxed with the traffic. They won’t run away, you just have to patiently wait till they decide it is time to move on… just magical! Sorry for the photo overload but it is hard to describe my joy at seeing them.

We began to see more of the traditional red houses (is that so you can see them in the snow??) and once again the landscape changed, fewer trees, more scrubland..

By evening we had reached our destination. The Arctic circle line (with a campsite next door). At 7pm, the sun was still high in the sky (in fact it didn’t get dusky till about midnight, and was broad daylight again by 2am - I’ll tell you how I know that in the next blog!).

This campsite is used all year round, mainly by local people with caravans who come for the winter sports including ice fishing on the lake. Instead of an awning, they have a shed and the caravan attaches to the shed so they can stay warm and safe. Snow poles mark out the front of the vans so they don't get bumped by cars and snowmobiles arriving. A beautiful campsite like no other.