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Scandinavia - 15 days, 7000 miles, 1 female rider


Roxyy
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Hi all,


Few months ago I added a post about my trip to Pyrenees and Alps, like I said I was thinking about doing another trip, and.. I did it so I thought I would share it on here as well...


First I know I will probably get comments like why do I do such a big mileage in such a short time why do I not do less miles instead and stop in places longer and enjoy the places etc well I don't feel a need to stop long especially when I'm on my own, maybe it would be different if I was with someone, I don't know. I enjoyed it anyway and if I had more time then yeah I would do it over longer period of time but I only had 2 weeks and wanted to do it anyway.


So, in summary:

1 bike - Suzuki GSX650F (current mileage: 57k, bought it 2 years and 2 months ago with 7.5k miles on the clock...)

1 female rider (me)

7000 miles

12 countries

14 days (stayed in Poland for 4 days though and only did 200 miles over these 4 days so 11 days of riding)


So here's the story..

I didn't know what day I was going to leave until last minute. It could have been Friday, at some point during the weekend or Monday. Finished work on Friday at 5pm and on the way home I decided ok, I will get home get packed and leave. So got home, got packed and left Glasgow at 7pm. Rode to Dover, got ferry about 3:20am to France and rode for the rest of the night and day through France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany and got to Poland in the evening (1200 miles, 24 hours) and stayed there for 4 days.


It was north west part of Poland where I was, so next couple days I spent heading to the east then Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. When I got to the east of Poland I noticed a problem my chain, quite a bad problem, broken chain link... But decided to take a risk and keep going, and if it gets really bad then find bike garage and get it replaced.


So then took the ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki, spent next couple days riding in Finland Savonlinna castle, Oulu, Rovaniemi, Santa Claus village, start of Arctic circle and few other places on the way. Then went to Norway and decided to go to Nordkapp, the furthest north point in Europe. From the start I wasn''t sure if I will make it to Nordkapp as it's a long way, so it was a place I really wanted to go but it was just a big 'maybe'. Anyway I made it. Met two other bikers there, they did almost the same route as me from Poland, only with a difference of few hours. They even took ferry the same day as me to Finland just couple hours later. And they were planning of doing similar route as I was planning to do next, so I spent the rest of that day and following day riding with them.


When we got to Tromso, I decided to take a bit different way. So left Tromso on my own.. About 30 miles later I noticed a biker in my mirrors getting closer so I though 'ok, let's race!' what a silly mistake!! As I accelerated a bit more, he put his blue flashing lights on.. 1.5k pounds speeding fine, was a bit painful... Worse part was that it happened at 3pm, I had to go back to Tromso and stay there for the rest of the day and half of next day and go to pay this fine the following day at 1pm... By the time I got it sorted it was 3, so wasted a lot of time which means I had to start heading back down south the quickest way, not the way I wanted.


But still the same day, I got a lot further than I thought, got to Lulea in Sweden that night so I made up a bit. So I decided to go back to Norway and make the Atlantic Road and Trollstigen. Next day early evening I stopped at the petrol station near Trondheim, there was a group of bikers. At first I wasn't going to talk to them as I didn't have much time, but they approached me and asked if i have a problem with a chain (noise was actually bad and it was getting worse). They said they have a clubhouse 5 minutes down the road and they have a spare chain and that they can replace it for me! So went with them, they replaced the chain, they didn't even want any money for it... Amazing group of guys! And the bikes that they had, mostly custom Harleys but also some cafe racers and one with the side car, was so cool! Just shows how amazing bikers community is, always help each other no matter where on the world you are.


So next day I did the Altantic Road and Trollstigen and then just started heading back towards Oslo, down South of Sweden, through the bridge to Denmark which was amazing! It was like 3 miles long and then down into tunnel. And then just back through Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France, ferry to Dover and back to Glasgow.


Well that's it. Now just need to wait till April/May when I can go for my next trip.

:D


Here's just a short video of the whole trip, will upload longer videos in next few weeks. Quality is bad at the end cause accidentally changed quality setting in my cam.. :


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqjP0UyUDy0

Edited by Roxyy
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Respect ..again :thumb: great video to , you got fined £1500 for speeding ? seems a bit harsh .

 

Cheers :wink: Yeah was harsh, but preferred that than going to jail for one month (they gave me a choice lol)

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Respect ..again :thumb: great video to , you got fined £1500 for speeding ? seems a bit harsh .

 

Cheers :wink: Yeah was harsh, but preferred that than going to jail for one month (they gave me a choice lol)

 



That's me not speeding if I go to Norway :lol: I'd of made the same choice .

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How do you manage with a just a stock seat and no pad. :shock:


Seriously, hats off to you and doing the two rides I want to do, but have chickened out of because of the sheer distances.

 

Stock seat is comfy enough for me haha. Cheers, can't wait when winter is over to do another trip.

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  • 2 weeks later...
That is epic.


Could I ask - as a single young woman travelling like this do you get a lot of hassle? I'd expect scandinavia to be OK but lots of other places less so?

 

Thanks, nah I didn't really have any hassle. Only one night I stopped at camp site late was nearly 10 when I was putting my tent up. That campsite was close to the road, there was a bus stop and a lay bay. There was one caravan parked in that lay bay and a car and one men was standing there, walked a bit towards me but not too close and started talking to me, I said I don't speak norwegian so he tried to say something in english but couldn't understand much. He stood there for another minute or two and drove away, then a while later he stopped at that lay bay again but never came towards me again, drove away and didn't come back. That creeped me out a bit and stayed more alert that night but apart from that didn't have any hassle.

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