2011-11-02 -- 08: Australia - Perth to Kalbarri National Park

After 26 hours travelling we arrived in the early evening to Perth. We had booked a hotel room for two nights in the central part of the city to get a chance to see Perth and the sailing centre Freemantle before we continued north. Both Perth and Freemantle were very positive experiences and we could easily spent more time there.

With our rented brand new Nissan X-trail 4WD we followed the coast north, and travelled through very exclusive areas with beautiful houses that looked like castles. After a couple of hours driving, there was a dramatic changes of scenery - no houses, and bush landscape as long as you could see. We spent a couple of hours walking and driving in Pinnacle Desert, which is part of Nambung National Park.

Beautiful place! Link to information regarding Pinnacles Desert: Pinnacles Desert

We continued our journey north, and headed for Kalbarri. Kalbarri have a lot to offer - wonderful beaches, a fantastic parrot park, and a beautiful National Park. We enjoyed it all!

The parrots in Rainbow Jungle Park are amazing - and it is equally amazing to be informed that these fantastic birds in some areas are considered pest, as they steal the crop from fruit farms.

Kalbarri Parks flowers are just stunning. Most of them grow on bushes.

There are plenty of more pictures if you click this link:  Australia And NZ Part1

Our next adventure - Australia and New Zealand

Tomorrow we leave Sweden and fly to the west coast of Australia. We will spend almost 2 weeks driving from Perth in the south, to Port Hedlan in the north.
From Port Hedland we fly to New Zealand and will spend almost 3 weeks exploring both the south and the north island. In New Zealand we have rented a nice RV, and Anne´s oldest daughter Pernilla will join us for the first half of the NZ trip.
After New Zealand we will fly to Sydney and spend almost 2 weeks on the east coast of Australia.

2011-08-21 -- 2011-09-07: Finland and back home

We crossed the border to Finland - "The country of thousand lakes" - and headed for Inari. There were several places selling Sami craft-work, and at one of them we met a nice Sami man that gave us some advice were to camp for the night. It was a lovely place at the shore of Rahajärvi (Moneylake) with a lot of reindeer and very peaceful.

At a hill close to our camp we found the blueberries and the first ripe  lingon-berries for the season.

After a couple of nights we continued towards Ivalo to get some supplies, gasoline and fill water, before we head south through the amazing landscape with rivers and lakes everywhere. Finland is really beautiful!!!

At Rovaniemi we once again pass the Arctic Circle - this time from the north.

As everyone knows, Rovaniemi is the home of Santa Claus, and there is a huge village with shops built on the Christmas theme.

In Rovaniemi we had one of few nights in a commercial camping, just next to Kemi River and walking distance to city. Finland is very well known for two things - Sauna and Tango. During the time in Rovaniemi we experienced both. The camping had a wonderful sauna that we rented by the hour, and just a couple of hundred meters from the camping there was a restaurant with live tango music. We were amazed to see the mix of people on the dance floor. The most active couple was 80+, and the youngest around 25. All of them were there to dance!

When we travel we like to visit local markets. In Finland indoor markets are very common.

This one is in Oulo and offered fantastic seafood among other things.

Next stop was Kannus, where Anne´s roots on her mother side are from. In the area of Kannus we found amazing amounts of mushroom - Boletus edulis (Karl Johan svamp in Swedish, Steinpilz in German, Penny bun i English). We spent hours cleaning and cooking what we harvested.

We continue our trips towards Tampere to meet some of Anne´s relatives. It was nice to meet uncle Erkki and his wife Kajsa, as well as cousin Elina and her boyfriend Teppo. With some hints from the family we managed to find the place were Anne spent every summer when she was young. It was a place in the middle of the forest, so we had to do some walking as we didn´t dare to drive our big vehicle on the narrow and bumpy road.

Helsinki is our last stop in Finland. We had made reservation for the ferry to Stockholm in advance, but had 2 days for sightseeing in the beautiful capitol of Finland. One of the days we visited the old fortress Sveaborg, situated on an island just outside Helsinki. It was very interesting to visit this beautiful well preserved historic site.

Just next to where we parked for the nights in Helsinki, car fanatics gathered in the evening. Really cool to see all those amazing cars!

We spent a couple of days driving from Stockholm to our home in south of Sweden. We tried to avoid the larger roads and enjoyed the trip. 

We are very pleased with our 7 week long trip through Sweden, Norway and Finland. Scandinavia is fantastic!

For us it was the perfect choice to use a RV for the trip. It has given us so much freedom, and so many wonderful moments around a camp-fire just next to a lake or a river.


















Some more pictures: Nordic Trip Part 5

2011-08-18 -- 21: Senja Island, Alta River and Nordkapp.

We left Lofoten in the morning by ferry to Senja Island. The weather was beautiful and the ride was really enjoyable, sitting on deck in the sun.

We drove right across the Senja Island, but made a stop at the Senja Troll. It was a fun stop, even if the target group for this place probably is for a bit younger people.

We continued our trip towards Alta, and one of the most famous salmon rivers in the world. It is a beautiful drive with snow dressed mountains and blue fjords. The trees are starting to change colours - autumn is starting in the north.

We regularly meet reindeer on the roads, so we drive carefully and enjoy the scenery.

After walking around the city of Alta, we looked for a place to stay for the night near the river. We were really lucky and parked just a couple of meters from the river, with a fantastic view with fishermen and jumping salmon only meters away.

More than once it was tempting to get the fishing gear out of the car and try our luck, but we had no license and are law obedient Swedish people.  We are so far north now, so we only have an hour or two of darkness in the night.

We had decided to go as far north as possible, so Nordkapp was our next target. To get there we had to pass through a long and  rather expensive tunnel.

Nordkapp was different and very beautiful, but we continued our trip towards Finland after a brief stop at the most northern point.












Some more pictures from this part of the trip: NordicTripPart4

2011-08-14 -- 18: Lofoten in our hearts

We arrived to Lofoten by ferry from Bodö. The weather reports had predicted that it could be a bit rough on the sea, but we had a wonderful crossing with calm water and sun. We arrived at the most westerly part of Lofoten, in the small town of Moskenes.

As dried fish is a very important part of Lofoten culture and business, we decided to visit a museum that specialised in that area.

It was an interesting visit, and also the way to serve cookies was a bit different.

The car has been working very well for us so far, but here we had some problems with the drainage. Mats made a temporary repair.

It was very easy to find good places to spend the night. Every night we spent close to the water with amazing views.

You find sheep everywhere on Lofoten islands, so you drive very carefully.

The last day at Lofoten we went for a whale safari. A well organised trip with very good information.

We were soooo lucky and had the warmest day so far this summer, sun and no wind.

On top of that, there were a lot of whales. We saw 8! All of them sperm whales.
Wikipedia info about sperm whale: Wikipedia_Sperm_whale.
It was a fantastic experience to see these huge (up to 20 meters) animals catching air and dive back to hunt for giant squid and fish.

The day after the whale safari we left Lofoten as we arrived - by ferry. The ferry from Andenes to the island of Senja was enjoyable, as we once more had wonderful weather. We really loved Lofoten with its friendly people and fantastic nature - a place to come back to, and spend more time!










Some more pictures from Lofoten: NordicTripPart3

2011-08-05 -- 13: Nordic trip part 2, Höga Kusten to Bodö, Norway.

After saying goodbye to our young ones in Gävle, we continued to Höga Kusten (High Coast). We passed the famous Höga Kusten bridge, which is kind of a port to this beautiful area when you drive from the south.

To avoid traffic and enjoy the drive fully, we selected smaller roads. After many days of beautiful weather, it is now and then rainy, but the drive is still very scenic.

Höga kusten ends at Umeå, and here we took a left turn and started driving E12 or Blå Vägen (Blue Road) as it is called. The road follows the river Ume älv, and is really beautiful. The fishing in the area is suppose to be very good, so we tried our luck a couple of times without any luck. We are a little bit more lucky when it comes to picking blueberries.

More or less every night we spent next to a river in the wilderness.

We had a overnight stop in Tärnaby - the village that produced top skiers like Ingemar Stenmark, Anja Persson and Stig Strand. From Tärnaby we headed towards the border to Norway. Our first destination in Norway is Svartisen - a glacier north of Mo i Rana. We used the road signs and ended up in a camping just next to a lake with a fantastic view to the glacier. There was a small ferry that offered transportation to the other side of the lake, but we decided to let our GPS (Gertrud) find the roads to Svartisen glacier. Our GPS didn´t make it, and Svartisen is still an illusion for us.

We stopped at the Arctic Circle monument for a short brake, before we continued towards Bodö and the ferry to Lofoten.
 











Some more pictures: NordicTripPart2

2011-07-30 -- 08-04: Nordic trip part 1, Stockholm.

We have since a couple of months planned a trip in northern Sweden, northern Norway and Finland from north to south. Our plan is not very fixed, and we might change route when we go along

For that purpose we rented a RV (mobile home) for six weeks. The RV is a well maintained Fiat Swift 10+ years old with plenty of space for us two. It actually has the ability to sleep 6. Most of the first week we are very happy to have Anne´s newly wed daughter Mikaela and her husband Johan on board, so the extra space comes in handy.

We all looked forward to see Stockholm, and we were blessed with fantastic weather all the time. Our base was a camping on the island Långholmen, just 20 minutes walk from the beautiful Old Town of Stockholm. As soon as we arrived we put on the walking shoes and headed for the Old Town to meet our friend Joakim and have a couple of beers, and maybe something good to eat. Joakim know Norway rather well, and had a lot of good advice. We decided to include Lofoten in our route.

The second day in Stockholm was planned  for a full day on  Djurgården. Gröna Lund was the main attraction, but we also managed to visit Aquaria and spend time in the Old Town and the Royal castle before we walked back to Långholmen.

Barbeque on the beach of Långholmen - can it be better?

The next day we walked the beautiful Norr Mälarestrand to get to city. We visited Hötorget with its vegetable stands, passed Sergels torg and spend some time at the Pride festival in Kungsträdgården. The main attraction for the afternoon was a steam boat trip to Waxholm, with stops along the way. We had the fortune to meet a couple that new a lot about the area, and pointed out all the interesting places we passed, making the trip even more enjoyable. We had a wonderful meal on the boat going back to Stockholm.

Johan had decided to do ONE thing while he was in Stockholm, and that was to eat the most spicy hot dog in the world. As Johan is a very intelligent man, we had some difficulties to understand how he could choose to do something sooooo stupid. We decided to keep him company and support him anyway. The picture speaks for itself - please note that it was mandatory to use plastic gloves!

"The after picture".











Some more pictures from Stockholm: NordicTripPart1