Northcape this summer
 

Hi all,

I have just bought a new bike and now planning my summer trip. I have bought a brand new BMW 1150 GSA Special Edition. It really is great and I've only put 70 miles on the clock since New Years day.

Me and my wife will be sailing from Newcastle to Kristiansand and then riding up to Northcape. I have read many stories of others doing the same trip. I know there are several different routes I can take but I am un-decided which to take yet. I will enjoy planning this but if you have a favourite then let me know.

I had originally planned to go mid July but my boss has told me that I cannot!! I am now looking at late June or August! We only have 2 weeks.

When will be the best time with regards to the weather?

Thanks all.

P.S. I'm going to get my bike dirty again tomorrow! Apparently, GS's are supposed to get dirty, although I was slightly nervous about it today.

I do remember that I loved the road number 17, especially all the ferries you have to take!! Norway is a beautiful country, and the road number 17 is one of the top 10 roads for me!

Can't give you any advice for your other questions, sorry :-) have a nice trip!

If you have only two weeks then go North through Sweden, which should get you to the cape in two days. Then dawdle down the coast where possible. Avoid the E6 where poss. Don't miss Vesteralen and Lofoten Islands. There are whale and wildlife watching tours. Do a search on the Lofoten ferries, because the long one in the South will be often full in summer. Book ahead on the net.

Definitely go in June. This has already been discussed here. August is a bit late, although with the weather it's pot luck, as always.

Two weeks its possible from Kristiansand to nordkapp but you will never be out of the saddle and miss a lot of what Norway has to offer. The road up through Sweden is quick but tedious and to me will make the trip hellish for your passenger.If I was you get the Nordcapp bit out of your head and do it another time maybe - and go to Norway travel up the coast road to Lofoten and back. The route from Kristiansand is great to the north then maybe come back crossing east in the fjords towards Oslo and Telemark - I think this would be much more interesting than the haul upto the far north more so if you are travelling later in the year.Go to Nordkapp and Kirkness another time and make plenty time to do it - I learnt this the hard way and now go back to Norway each year and see the bits I missed in the years before.

[This message has been edited by adventure950 (edited 08 January 2006).]

[This message has been edited by adventure950 (edited 08 January 2006).]

Hi,
I rode up to the north cape two times with a bandit 1200.
I think the best period is end of june because of the long days.
The better road is The famous E 17 between Steinkjer and Bodo. There are I remember 7 ferries and you cross artic circle on the boat.
In the south of Normay you can ride from Kristiansand to Bergen and visit presteskolen and then from Bergen to Trondheim ridind along very beautiful fjords You have to visit Geranger fjord and then the road between Geiranger and ANdalsnes is wonderful.
Two weeks is a little bit short time trip but you will have very long days (midnight sun)and camping is really easy .
Scandinavia is really wonderful for biking travel because of calm and I visisted also sweden and finland.
Next summer we will visit finland and baltic countries and way back to France through Poland, Slovakia, Tchekia and Germany.
How is your new GS?
I am looking for the same bike but the normal model.
You can ask me others questions if you want.
Have a nice day.


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I'd like to ask anyone about the ferry from Newcastle, UK to Norway.

I read somewhere that the price is 500 pounds?

That sounds a bit steep.

£500 hundred pounds is a bit steep. You can travel from Newcastle to Kristiansand from around £350, which includes 2 people, a bike and cabin accomodation.

I forget the name of the ferry company but if you do a search on Google for 'ferries to Norway' you should find a listing for 'direct ferries.com'

Sailing to Bergan is more expensive though.

Christophe, my bike is ace! I had the normal 1150gs before the Adv model. The standard bike is better on the motorway with the extra long 6th gear. For everything else the Adv suits me perfect.

Cheers
Dean.

We went to Norway last summer in August and it was a bit too late. The camping is good value and so are the little huts you get in the campsites. Bergen is a nice finishing point and you can arrive and leave from different ports on the ferry.

Definately get a cabin on the ferry and book for dinner other wise you will miss ou.

Lovely place nice people and lots of bendy roads and expensive fuel.

Enjoy

Charles

the ferries to norway are DFDS (kristiansand) and fjordline go to Bergen, stopping off twice further south before reaching bergen both sail from Newcastle (north shields) and prices are usually cheaper with DFDS both take about 24 hrs and costs range between £180 and £350ish you can normally get a decent deal by being flexible on sail dates etc.

I haven't checked, but I think you can get cheaper fares still by hopping off Fjordline in Stavanger in stead of Bergen. Besides, Stavanger is as good a starting place as any. Hey - Adventure950 - maybe I'll see you around! Look for a black 990!

Welcome to Norway. Stay in the right lane...

Indu, your are right its cheaper to jump ship before bergen, this year I am getting off at Haugesund and travelling up sorfjord and staying around Eidfjord for a few days then moving North towards Balestrand/skei for a few more days take some time around the Fjord areas instead of rushing around to far I will be there from the end of june for about 8 days so if your about in the area keep your eyes peeled I ride an 2003 950 its silver/orange Rallye raid colours. If I see you about we can stop for a coffee and chat.

Adventure950: I'll be back from Sicily around mid June. I've promised to take my wife on an excursion in and out the Fjords of the West as a "thank you honey for letting me go to Sicily all by myself on my brand new 990"-tour so she can try out her new, old R80GS. If we run into each other: Coffee and chat indeed! Let me know if I can help you in any way before or when you have arrived - even though I understand you're quite familiar with our slice of land up here.

Don't miss Geirange fiord, Trollstigveien, Lofoten Islands and maybe the world's longes tunel the Laerdales Tunnel (24,5 km)!
The entrance fee for Nordcape for 1 bike and 2 pass. is about 50 euro!

If you know German here: http://mitglied.lycos.de/kruemel13/ you can find a lot of informations and costs from Skandi (the page is my German friend's page who we met on Finland and travelled together at september 2005)

Szabi

[This message has been edited by santhasz (edited 02 February 2006).]

You ought to purchase the following book, it has all the info you will ever need:

NORWAY'S ARCTIC HIGHWAY
Mo i Rana to Kirkenes
(The road to the top of Europe)

Author: John Douglas
Publisher: Trailblazer
ISBN: 1-873756-73-9

A word of thought:
Norway doesn't look that big, but even though for instance USA is 27 times larger, and also has coast o thress sides of the country, Norway still has a longer coast line, and that even though it only has a coast running up one side of the country! So where am I going with this? Well, all the steep mountains and long fjords makes for long and bendy roads. In adition to make roads longer, driving speeds also become much slower. There are virtually no large highways in this country!

As for the route, I find that there is only a point travelling to Norkapp if you go through Norway. The reason is that even though Sweden and Norway is in the same vicinity, the Norwegian topography is vastly different. While Sweden will bore you to death, Norway will offer some of the most spectacular scenery you will ever see!

Sweeden is only used as a transport route, to get fast from A to B. It is useful to go one of the ways.

There is another option, but an expensive one. To travel by Hurtigruten, a coastal "Express" cruise liner that will allow you to bring your vehicle. The cruise was rated by Lonely Planet as the best boat voyage in the world! You can find out more here: http://www.hurtigruten.no/index.asp

As for the direction to travel, I don't think it really matters. As for the time, late June or early August (summer is really short around here), but preferably early June... and remember to purchase some mosquito repellant. They have som really good stuff here called Jakko Myggmelk. It can be found in all drug stores and many sporting stores and is applied with a roll on deodorant (in thin strips evenly spaced out, i.e. two or thre strips up the arms and legs, a strip around ankles, wrists and neck, and your forehead and temples, and the mosquitos up north will not bother you).

Oh yeah, those night shades they give you on the airplane, bring them!

Thanks all.

Good tips there Wheelie.

We are definately going towards the end of June. There is a ferry on the 24th, which i'm tempted for.

Keep the tips coming and I will be sure to give an update after the trip.

Thanks.

Ooops, I meant preferably late Juneor Early August, but it is not like the differnece will be that great.

Weelie, could you just clarify me something?

We're going from Oslo to Nordkapp in late June, and we're not sure whether we should head west from Oslo to the coast (Bergen/Floro) and go all the way up or head straight to Trodheim and go north. Are the fjords in the north as nice as the ones in the south?Because the southwest seems to be a very touristy place, therefore more expensive...

We have a week to get to the Nordkapp, but can be a bit flexible if needed!

Cheers
Fernando

The fjords on the west coast are the most spectacular. The fjords down south, like in Oslo are not much of anything.

Bergen is a really nice Hanseatic city worth seeing if you have the time. The time to get you from Oslo to either Trondheim or Bergen is about the same. But, your trip will become one or two days longer if you decide to go to Bergen first as it will take you probably another 10-12 hours of driving to get you from Bergen to Trondheim. I still believe it is worth the trip though as you will be able to see some spectacular moutains between Oslo and Bergen, and you will also be able to see more spectacular fjords. The mountain regions of the Jotunheimen, Rondane and Dovrefjell (Dovre)has spurred numerous tales of Trolls, the stories of Peer Gynt, etc. Stopping to do some hiking at for instance Besseggen is worth while(a bit touristy, but spectacular never the less, unless you are affraid of heights). Sogn og Fjordande and a boat trip on the Geiranger fjord is likely one of the most common itineraries... you will love arriving and leaving by motorcycle, but maqke sure your brakes are in order as the hills are long, sttep and bendy.

I took my American friend Marek to some of these places...

Picture of Besseggen:
http://www.photoseek.com/81NOR-15-07...RidgeLakes.jpg The picture doesn't really bring justice to the place. The colour of the glacier water on one side is bright turqoise while the other is dark blue, and there are some really steep cliffs. Park your bike, take a ferry to the end of the mountain and hike over the ridge back to your ride. The hike will take you about 6 hours.

My friend Marek hiking accross Besseggen http://www.gjolberg.com/norge_2002_fotor/Stup6.JPG

http://www.gjolberg.com/photogallery...1050/Stup3.JPG

Picture of Bergen http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/d/...en%20hansa.jpg

The Geiranger fjord: http://www.exe.sk/faunima/images/Geiranger.jpg

My american friend Marek at the same place http://www.gjolberg.com/photogallery.../Geiranger.JPG


Trollstigen, a famous bendy road. http://www.fuechselei.de/Reisen/Scan...rollstigen.jpg

My american friend Marek at the same place http://www.gjolberg.com/norge_2002_f...rollstigen.JPG

I can highly recommend putting in a couple of days extra to experience some of these excursions... and don't worry, you will be safe. I double dare you to take a dip in the glacier water... it is refreshing. You pay top dollars for bottled water of this type in NY, etc, as the water is melted water from glaciers that are as old as dinosaurs.

Once again, I highly reccomend the book I noted earlier. Another great tip in assessing the value of visiting some place is to use the picture function in google to find pictures of the place.

I'll check up on this thread from time to time, so feel free to post more questions to me.


[This message has been edited by Wheelie (edited 06 February 2006).]

http://www.uib.no/People/stud1391/V%.../Geiranger.jpg

Also a picture of the Geiranger fjord. There are guided tourist boats several times a day

You might as well have a look at our trip - 6 weeks up the west coast, 3 days down Sweden... and I might add - ZERO research, just found a boat that took us to Bergen from England, and rode north.

On the left menu, "Our trip", Norway...

Grant

For ferry tickets give Motorsport travel a ring they have never been betten Newcastle Kristiansand cost me about £330 and that was for the best cabin above the waterline, this year bought my ticket Newcastle- Amstadam £187
Motorsport Travel 01759 301010

Fcasado dont miss the the northern FJORDS if you are landing at Kristiansand head north towards the Fjords Route 9 and miss out the drudge of a road that goes to OSLO R18 up the coast. This means you can miss out on the road from OSLO to Trondheim R6 which is really a waste of your time in Norway - it does have some lovely views but also a lot of boring sections. R9 , R134, R13 will get you up to Hardangerfjord in a day from there go towards Vik, Gerainger - trollstiggen and onto Trondheim then on North from there. The main route E6 arctic highway has some miserable bits and you will miss out but its the only way to get north in a week. Bye the way Nordkinn (kinnarodden north of gamik at the end of R888) is really the most northerly point in mainland europe also it is free ! - no road to the northern point you have to walk Nice after such a long ride - I really think to stick to main roads is to miss so much but if that is what you have to do !!!. If your investing time and money on this trip try to make a little more time you will not regret the extra time you have set aside. Whatever you do have a great trip and enjoy Norway ( PS very heavily policed for speeding etc between MOI RANA and Narvik)

Thanks for that Adventure950!

We're probably landing in Oslo from Denmark, and will make the way up from there. It's still quite unclear for me whether we should head to the west coast or not. You touch an important issue about our trip, the time, we definitely don't have much more than 10 days to get to the Nordkapp! Is it worth paying to get into the park (or whatever they've got up there) in the Nordkapp?

Appreciate all the help chaps!

Fernando

p.s. - Ohhh yeah, we'll definitely watch out for the speed limits, being on a budget wouldn't be very nice a £ 300 quid fine!

The North Cape is a bit "been there, done that". The weather is usually quite crappy and the price for entering the plateau is rather steep. FWIW I'd suggest you use your precious days by going from Oslo to Bergen (plenty of nice roads to choose from) then by coast northbound towards the Lofoten Islands.

Got to agree with INDU to be honest I never went onto Nordkapp - just to commercial and expensive - For me I went to Nordkinn but to be honest if you have only 10 days I would suggest going up the coast only as far as Lofoten as you are getting all the best of Norway in the time you have Its a hell of a haul upto nordkapp for what it is and the weather up the top can be pretty damp and foggy then you see nothing anyway. Whatever floats your boat really! For me the Fjords and Lofoten are great. If you want to go further North go another time and make time and take in Northern Finland and the SAMI towns and Villages. But in the timescale you have follow INDU's advice
Oh! by the way if you have not booked your ferry I think you will find there is a ferry Denmark to Kristiansand as I met quite a few Danish lads at the port waiting for the return ferry to Denmark. But also the back roads from Oslo over Telemark and towards western fjords are really nice.

[This message has been edited by adventure950 (edited 27 February 2006).]

Thanks for the advices guys!

We have to go up north (in Norway) anyway, because we're heading south through Finland and that will probably be another 4 days.

Just the general idea of the trip:

We're going from England into France; then Germany (Black forest); go into Denmark spend a week there; Norway ;Finaland;Baltic States; Poland; Slovakia; Hungary; Romania; Bulgaria; Serbia; Bosnia; Croatia; Italy etc etc

We'll be 4 months on the road doing the whole european continent, that's why we have a little short time. However we can stay longer in Norway if we think that it's worth.

We haven't booked the Denmark-Norway ferry yet?Do we have to do it well in advance? We're leaving England on the 12th of June, and probably taking the ferry from Denmark to Norway on the 25th of June.

Cheers
Fernando

I'd book well in advance - at least 30 days, if not more. But if you don't catch the ferry you could always ride around. Copenhagen - Oslo is some 7 hrs by road.

Do you go through Sweden then?We haven't thought about it, and actually might be better because the ferry is quite expensive I think and we don't know exactly when we'd be taking it. We were quoted something around € 250.00 for the ferry!

I've just played the route on Viamichelin.com and it came out to be 600 Km (Copenhagem to Oslo)...The best thing is that we can spend a night in Goteburg (about 300Km from Den), so I think we'll leave the ferry option then!

Thanks a lot for that Indu!

Fernando

Fcasdo seems to me your doing your tour the wrong way round would it not be better to go Newcastle to Norway -Finland _ ferry to Estonia - Baltic states - Poland - Germany - slovak countries - romania - bulgaria etc back towards italy - austria - swiss - france UK. It would seem then you would save a fortune on repeating countries have less ferry journies and also you would get the better climate while in the north and the cooler climate when down south sept/oct. Just a thought.

But then we'd miss Denmark, also we'll do just the south of France on the second leg of the journey, then Spain and Portugal.

Yep had not thought of it like that - hope you have a great journey Brad.

My pleasure. However, if seeing Denmark is your prime concern, I'd go up to Hirtshals and take the 4 hours crossing with Color Line from Hirtshals to Kristiansand, Norway. 2 pax plus bike is some 60-70 GBP, I think. Easy reservation, no need to sleep over, and a nice break in the driving. You could also do some tax free shopping on board (Norway is non-EU, remember).

Check out this site:

http://www.colorline.com/servlets/page?section=4000

Have fun!

Hope you didn't get me wrong! I really appreciate every single input here, and have all these long threads on the HD! We'll try to avoid ferries when possible because they're usually quite steep!

Indu - Thanks again!

Will have a proper look on website...