From Norway to Kola Peninsula, Russia

[Berglid]

Here im starting on my travel story from my last trip. I need some days to complete it.

Kola Peninsula, Russia.

This year I got the offer to join in on a trip to Kola Peninsula. I called my cousin Thomas and told him. He was stoked. We could not refuse this offer. It could take years before we got a chance to travel to Russia again. So of course we would participate in this trip.

Teaser
[video=vimeo;74194502]http://vimeo.com/74194502[/video]

Kola Peninsula, Short Movie 1 of 3.
[video=vimeo;78995330]http://vimeo.com/78995330[/video]

Kola Peninsula, Short Movie 2 of 3.
[video=vimeo;81114572]http://vimeo.com/81114572[/video]

Kola Peninsula, Short Movie 3 of 3.
[video=vimeo;81534718]http://vimeo.com/81534718[/video]

But, Russia? What could we expect? After a look on the internet. We found out that this remote wilderness had some of the most beautiful nature I have ever seen. But also it had its downsides. There was leaking nuckler power plants, poverty and crime. Would we dare this with my expensive Arctic Truck?


The planning started. We stressed a lot. What did we need? Luckily for us we were traveling together with five other cars. In Russia we also had a guide that arranged most of the papers we needed. The only thing we had to take care of was the car and the equipment we needed. That was the easy task. Since I am an Arctic Nature Guide, and have lived in Svalbard and other remote areas I had a lot of equipment. We just fixed the car, loaded it and we were ready. At least almost. We needed visas. One week before we left we got our passports back with the visas. Pjuuh.



Well the car is not the smallest one. Usually I use it on Iceland. There I drive it on 44" tires.

Wohoo the car is ready and upgraded for this trip! ARB airlockers front and rear, airkompressors, 42" goodyear wrangler tires, marlin crawler gearbox++++

The info we needed to send to get visas along with our passports.

Now we just need to pack my car. What to bring?


The last days at work I were so happy and ready to travel I could almost not wait! Thursday after work, I got back home, jumped in the car and meet up with Thomas. We put the last things into the car and went for the border. Unfortunately it was rather late when we left home. So we didn't reach our destination for this day.

Leaving from the small Toyota dealer in the town called Stryn in Norway. Next destination, Sweden!

 

[Berglid]

We ended up doing a short overnight camping litterly speaking on the road, slept for 4 hours and then started again. That morning none of us wanted to get up. But we had to meet up with the others.

After some hours driving, and of course crossing the border from Norway to Sweden. We had a short stop on a gas station to buy some hot dogs. They were not as good as the Norwegian ones. . I called Kjell and they told us they were ahead of us. We would meet up later at lunch times. After 3 hours driving. We meet the rest of the group. Only Jon and his brother was missing here. But they would catch up during the evening. In this gruup we had two 60 series landcruisers and three 120 series landcruiser


After eating lunch we decided to continue on. We had a long way to go. Just after driving for 20 minutes I saw a sports outlet and I turned right. The others didn’t see it. So we bought some new clothing and hit the road again. Unfortunately one hour behind the others. We also stopped and went to a grocery shop, filled our Engel fridge and our car.

When I got back to the parking lot I saw that the car was leaking oil. I knew I had a small leak from the front diff. But this was from the marlin gear box. We checked the oil and refilled it and it was good to go. Now it was time to reach the others. !

It got really late before we did catch up with the rest of the group, so I didnt take any pictures before the morning the next day.

This was our second camp since we left Norway. Fore some reason the group always wanted to camp close to water. So we just turned of the highway, trough the forest and down to the water


We had a great time our first evening with the campfire. The beer was cold and the stories were good. I’m not sure who had the best lies. But now it was time to hit the road. We wanted to get into Russia a.s.a.p. But first, we needed to refill our cars. It's not easy when everyone have different size fuel capacity. The smallest tank I guess was 80liters, and the biggest one was 300liters. So we had a rule that everyone filled at the same time, and at least so we could travel 300km before filling again.


Crossing the border from Sweden to Finland was no problem; you almost could not see when you had crossed into the other country. Good for us. This day was a just a long transportation day, just to get as close to the Russian border as possible. We had planned to cross the border from Finland to Russia at the border crossing in Salla. Therefore we needed to find a camp close to Salla. Not as easy as we thought.


We found a camping site, but there was no one there. So we drove into the forest and looked around for some lakes. But every road lead down to some Finish luxury cabin, and there were a lot of people around. We ended up camping in a sand “place”. Whats the word im looking for?

I love my Overland roof top tent. This is the smallest one. I wanted this one so I could get it on my African outback roof rack, and there is still place behind the tent for 4 jerry cans.

 

[96Delica]

Looks amazing!! Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[Lantern58]

I remember driving nearby St Petersburg a few years ago and seeing a signpost reading "Murmansk 1500 KM" and thinking that I would like to turn right and head in that direction instead of continuing on to Estonia and eventually the UK. It's sort of the Timbuktu of that part of the world. Looking forward to the write up on your trip.

 

[Berglid]

Im glad you like it. I have around 200 pictures that will be uploaded into this tread. But I only have time to take a little bit at the time.

What is for dinner? Thomas is making Salomon for dinner. Notice our stove. We bought the Primus Oden stove for this trip. But it’s not hot enough. Maybe we got a bad one? On our way back home after the trip we bought another one, called Atle.The picture is a little bit blurry but it’s because it’s taken with my ipone5 and edited in instagram.


The campfire is something we looked forward to everyday. Sitting down with a cold beer and telling stories, discussing the next day or making fun of each other. Sitting there we just remembered that we needed part two of our car papers. But we didn’t bring it. ****. What would happen tomorrow? We were not the only one without. We were told we needed both parts to get into Russia. I did not sleep well that night.


The next morning we packed our cars and went for the Finish-Russia border. First we went came to the finish border control. This was easy. We just showed our passports. Then we drove 300meters and we meet the Russian border. There were locked gates, armored guards and they told us to park the cars and go inside. I was not allowed to take any pictures here. Then they would take my camera. But I managed to take some unseen.





When we came inside we had to fill out a lot of papers. It took around one hour to get through. Luckily they didn’t need to see part two of the car documents. We needed car paper nr one, green card, passport with visa and we filled out some papers inside. Then they checked the cars for bombs, drugs, gasoline, weapons and other things. They didn’t bother to open the roof top tent to check what was inside. We just said “tent”.


Here I have just passed the security check. We are just waiting for the rest of the group. Everyone in the group made it through the security check. The guards was studying Jon’s car a lot since he had a big machete lying on top of his baggage. He just looked them in the eyes and said “for the bears” and the guards replied “good luck” and they let him through.


After the security check we were in a demilitarized zone. No one was allowed to live here. And we were under surveillance. The only place we were allowed to stop was at a small gas station just after the border. From there it was around 10km to the next military border which was a big closed gate and fences. An armored guard checked our papers and then let us trough, one car at the time. I did not get any pictures here but I think it is in the short movie since the GoPro was running.


We followed the dusty roads for many miles. It was really hard to see the road sometimes because of the dust cloud from the car in front of us. When we stopped I also turned the air intake on the snorkel around.


Just a few of us filled gas at the station so we planned to find a new gas station. First we paid for the amount of fuel we wanted to tank, then we tanked. We actually ended up emptying the whole gas station for diesel. The last car didn’t even get filled all the way up. Funny, how would this go on the rest of the trip? Where they always this low on fuel?

 

[Berglid]

This day we were going to spend the night in a motel. Just so we could get our passports stamped. If not we would never had gotten the visas. When we arrived in Kandalaksha there was a big Russian wedding, the party last for three days. So there were a lot of drunken Russians, clapping their hands and chairing when we arrived. They talked to us in Russian and we replied in Norwegian.


After a while the Russians walked over to my car, starting to pose together with my car and taking pictures.


Our Motel for the evening. We were promised a nice three dishes dinner. But it ended up not being so nice..


The mini bar at our rooms was empty! I think the Russians had drunk it themselves. So we got in our cars and drove to the supermarket and stocked up on some beer and food. Now it’s a bar!


The next morning we woke up and had a bad hangover. I checked my phone and saw I had uploaded this photo. I have no clue where it came from. Maybe a picture from a wall, or something?


After getting up and eating breakfast we waited for the guide. What car would he be driving? I was expecting a well-used land cruiser 100 on mud terrain tires. So the disappointment was big when he arrived.


The guides name was Frank. He was from Netherlands and was a really happy and positive guide. So this was going to be super. He started to show us the route for the day. And then we traveled all together.


The roads in Russia were narrow. We met this local, and he had to drive of the road and park so we could pass. I was the last car and he was mad, shouting, and swearing. I don’t think he was used to meet people driving here.

 

[Freezer]

Looks like an awesome trip! Thanks for the write-up. Looking forward to read the rest of it.

 

[Berglid]

After he had passed we could finally continue. It was some water in the roads sometimes.


The houses in Russia were not the newest ones I have seen..


It was time to find a place to eat lunch. Frank found a nice place close to a lake.


Asbjørn took his food and chair and went down to the lake to enjoy some time alone, after many days of traveling.


In the old days in Russia, the government had people driving around in the forests picking up garbage. But not anymore. The Russians still think people are picking up garbage. Therefore you can find a lot of garbage around in Russia.


Mostly we just used my Ipad for navigation and music in the car. Here it is mounted on a ram mount. The holder for the Ipad is from brodit I think. The biggest problem was to find a good navigation program. We used GPS KIT HD. The problem was that it needed internet communication. So we used Spotify and downloaded lists before we left. And the map we downloaded the sections we were going to travel in.

 

[roverrocks]

Seriously great stuff. Thanks for posting. A window on a world I will never get to. Love the photos and the trucks.

 

[Arktikos]

Seriously great stuff. Thanks for posting. A window on a world I will never get to. Love the photos and the trucks.

Yes, same here.

 

[Berglid]

Thx!! more will follow!

 

[Berglid]

After working 85 hours last week I finally got some time to update here.

After our lunch we went to a beautiful place, the river Umba. The people living here don’t have a lot of money. I guess they live of the nature, maybe some of them have a job, maybe not.


Frank told us, that on the other side of this bridge there was a military camp. If we crossed alone without the guide, the military would just escort us back to the right side of the river. But if we crossed together with our guide, then the military would put us in jail. Because the guide is supposed to know that we are not allowed to travel there. And to do so, would be a provocation.


Well we turned around and headed into the bush again. The goal today was to reach the White Sea. As we got further into the forest the roads got really narrow. I had the largest car so I got to push all the trees.


I am always curious what people bring in their cars. Here is inside the guide’s Land Rover. He had removed all the insulation in the walls. So it was a bit loud to drive.


Here is inside Carl`s Land Cruiser 120.


The whole day Frank had been telling us about the best drinking water in Russia. It was clear, and it came up in a hole in the ground. He recommended us to fill all our water bottles here.


Asbjørn had just emptied his car, locking for parts to connect the Webasto heater to his roof top tent. He was a little bit cold during the nights.


Just put up the roof top tent. Time to make some dinner.


I nice place to camp, right next to the White Sea.


Everyone is tired after the party last night. Too much social fun and beer drinking. We went early to bed this time.

 

[Berglid]

The next day, we lined our cars up at the beach for a group photo.


A little bit tired this day. Me to the right and Thomas to the left. I love these tires. They are fantastic.


Well, we headed into the forest for a while, and then we got back out on the beach. We had to follow the beach since there were no roads to the next village.


The guys where having a nice time


Some small rivers had to be crossed also. Mix between salt water and freshwater I guess. Good for the cars?




Finally we got to the end of the beach, and there was a road we could follow.


I have no idea what the name of this small town was. But it sure was nice.



In this town I also meet a Russian “Arctic Truck” I guess this one floats.

 

[Berglid]

Big winch.. hehe


They didn’t have water in their houses, so they used this well.


And this must be the local car repair shop.

 

[Berglid]

After the small town we had to cross a river. On the other side there was a small hill. The others was studying the route lot, so I just drove over the river and up the hill. No problem for the arctic. It climbed up without any problems. Jon almost made it all the way up, but we ended up winching him the last bit.


Asbjørn had a different tactic. He is like Jeremy Clarkson. Full speed!


After a while everyone was up. Some took a easier path around. Now the small roads through the forest started.


Suddenly everyone stopped. I was always driving last because I had a good radio to communicate with the front car. But this time they didn’t say anything. So we had to get out and have a look. Finally we got some obstacles in our road. This part had been washed away during the spring floods.