The Top of Europe

The Tartan Eagles at the top of mainland Europe.

The Tartan Eagles have made it to the northernmost point of mainland Europe: Nordkapp, Norway.

I must say the journey to the top has been breathtaking. Beautiful, towering, snow covered mountains line the clear roads on which we have driven for the past 4 days. Fields of deep snow seem to go on for miles and miles and there have been more sightings of Reindeer. Still no old men with long beards and red suits yet however…

It appears that we have been amazingly lucky with our timing too as this part of Norway can often be cut off from adventurers by avalanches and snow storms. Our experience of Norway is completely different to this…only the jaw droppingly beautiful scenery is covered in snow whilst the roads are clear and perfect for driving long distances.

Yesterday we mentioned that Norway and speeding don’t mix too well and we can now give you an update on just how crazy Norwegian cops can get if you drive over the speed limit. Similar to the UK, Norway has different limits depending on the area but the highest limit they have is 90kph, which is only 56mph. When driving distances of up to 500 miles a day it’s pretty hard to keep to 56mph, especially when quite often there is barely anyone but you on the road for miles.

Yesterday, en route from Fauske to Tromso, the police became aware of our rally and have been keeping a watchful eye on us ever since. It appears they may have checked out our route plan from the organisers website and now have intel on where we will be. Unmarked police cars have followed numerous teams, police have been at the roadside with radars and some rallyers have been cautioned. We weren’t aware of anyone actually being done for something until we arrived at our hostel in Nordkapp this evening. We then discovered that 5 rally teams had been stopped and heavily fined on today’s northward drive. 2 teams were done for ‘dangerous driving’ and were fined £500, whilst another 3 teams were done for speeding and fined £500, £850 and £1000 respectively. Maxi has been behaving, or at least is being careful. We do not want to end the trip with these sorts of ridiculously expensive fines!

John also took advantage of the midnight sun and went sledding down a nearby mountain.  It was a really fast run, but a wee bit dangerous as you can see from the photo below.

The Plymouth Boys' Sledding Injuries