North To The Pole by Derek Dewey-Leader
5 July 2022
North to the pole
The Arctic has long held a fascination for my wife Pat and I . Only a small portion of Iceland is within the arctic circle but trips there fired our imagination.
But we wanted to see Norway differently and that is how we came to set off on a motorcycle camping trip to go as far North in Norway as we could. I hitched my trusty 1950 600cc Norton single cylinder motorcycle to a vintage Watsonian sidecar, with hardly any springing , put all our luggage in the dicky seat and off we went riding through Denmark and visiting several ancient Viking sites to catch a ferry across to Kristiansand in Norway.
There were many subsequent ferrires to catch across fjords. Hghlight of the tour was travelling through mountain tunnels up to the Hardanger Plateau using six volt electric , the exhaust pipe glowing red , and barely able to make out detail against oncoming car headlamps. What a relief it was to arrive at the Hardanger fjord, pitch a tent and have a swim with the water nowhere near as cold as expected.
The photography was endless with Tromso one of the best places to picture the Northern lights and home to the cathedral of the Arctic where we heard for the first time a choir singing the music of the Sami reindeer herder people.
It was an arduous journey and we did not make the North Cape with Pat suffering in the sidecar and the camping taking its toll on two people well into their seventies.
So we came home and decided to have another go at the Arctic – this time by using a ferry that called at some of the most wonderful fjords , the spectacular North Cape and small townships all the way up to Kirkenes. up to the far North. Russian spy trawlers equipped with multiples of electronic devices were evident in some ports.
Conditions were freezing with ice on the ferry deck several inches thick but an open air hot pool if you were brave enough . I failed to get all the northern lights pictures I wanted as some of the time we were on the deck of the moving ferry when we saw the best displays and I did not push the ISO high enough to avoid star trails.
I decided a road journey with someone else driving was the best way to get as far as we wanted – Murmansk in Russia. The border post hosts one of the coldest outdoor toilets I have ever encountered and I could not resist a photograph. The roadside scenery is stunning with icicles hanging from trees and rocks ….but if you go just be prepared for the cold.
Derek Dewey-Leader