NORDKAPP to ROVANIEMI, Finland.

"I should be there in no time, just follow the squiggly blue line", I mumbled. 
Only 730 km, easy. 
Under normal conditions. 

In any season other than Winter it would be. 
And without hundreds of twists, turns and mountain passes. 
Oh, and without riding on an Ice Hockey rink all the way down to Alta. 
AND without being a photographer too. 

Honningsvåg, Norway. Jan 2013.

I hadn't even made it 10 km out of Nordvågen when my Kodak radar, or in my case my Nikon radar went off for the first shot of the morning, a lovely image of Honningsvåg, the warmth of the street lights were contrasting nicely with the dull blue grey snow clouds that were rolling in and about to cover everything with a layer of the fluffy white stuff that I love so much. 
It's one of the things I sometimes struggle with, do I stop and take the shot or do I keep going. Sometimes I have to force myself to stop, which I shouldn't, but I do. I mean, when a 240 km journey takes me 8+ hours I sometimes feel like I'm going to need a helluva lot more than 7 years to get through my 
7 continents in 7 years trip.

Nordkapp Tunnel, 6870 meters (4.25 miles) long.

E69 South of Honningsvåg, Norway.

Being a photographer has it's drawbacks, namely, for me at least, there's not a minute goes by when I don't see something I want to stop and take a picture of, and that can be a bit of a problem at times.
On many occasions, usually at the end or close to the end of my days ride I have forsaken a shot or a location because I just didn't have the energy or enthusiasm left to stop one more time. Or because I just had to get to where I was staying for the night before it turned into the next day.
Or because it was just too damn cold to take off my gloves and take out the camera again while my fingers froze and then the pain set in to them after a few minutes of handling a cold bodied camera in -20. They get cold and painful really quick, and even though I have heated grips, once cold they're hard to get warm again. It doesn't happen immediately. They start to get warm, then the pain comes, then goes in a minute or two then all is good.

Basically that was the scenario all the way down from Nordkapp to Alta in Norway. I was initially thinking of heading east from Nordkapp to Murmansk in Russia, but had no idea of the condition of the road road from Murmansk to Moscow, so I wanted to leave that for another leg of the trip and wait until I had a little more info about it.

So instead I headed back to Alta for a week or so before I headed south into Finland and the city of Rovaniemi, the official Home of Santa Claus. I had wanted to spend a little more time there before I left the North of Norway for this year anyway.

Alta Church, Alta Norway, built in 1858.

Alta Cemetery with a 2 second exp. 
There's an accidental spooky feel to this shot, I didn't plan it that way. It was just so dark I figured a 2 second exposure would lighten the shot up a bit, and then I saw how it turned out. I didn't alter the colors in edit either. 

There were still a few places I wanted to photograph in Alta, the new Northern Lights Cathedral being one of them.

Controversial since it's inception, the residents of Alta questioned the need for a  120 million kroner ($21 million) church, which by now has run well over budget and has been delayed by a number of construction issues.

It was a spur of the moment decision when I just pulled up inside the construction gate of the Northern Lights Cathedral one evening. 

Well, at least it seemed like it was evening it was so dark, but then I checked the time and it was only 3 in the afternoon. One of the construction workers came over to me and told me I couldn't photograph there, so I tried to explain to him that all I wanted was a few pictures for an article. So he said "well, let's go to the foreman's office and see what we can do".

Upstairs in the office I was a bit of a celeb as the foreman recognized me from an article that came out in the local newspaper, Altaposten. That smoothed out any ruffles that might have been there in the first place and off I went with a hard hat and a Day-Glo orange vest into the bowels of the yet to be opened Northern Lights Cathedral.

The original drawing and design description, from what I saw look very interesting and definitely not your average looking Cathedral. According to the architects website there is an area inside the building where visitors and churchgoers will be able to observe the Northern Lights.

The Cathedral is slated to be opened this month and I'm looking forward to seeing if the final design is near to the original. If it is it should be quite a spectacular looking building.Have to wait until December to see it though, as I won't be going up there before then.

Amazing what you find in the hills of Norway.

3 Generations of Reirsen's are in this photo.

 I said my goodbyes to Bjorn-Erik and his Mom and left Alta early the next morning. It was only a 520 km ride and under normal circumstances an easy days ride. I had a great host in Bjorn-Erik and his family during my time in Alta and had a really relaxing stay. I wanted to spend a bit more time in Alta for a number of reasons, one of them being to go Northern Light hunting. For all the time I have spent so far up here in Scandinavia I have yet to see the Northern Lights. My last shot of seeing them is going to be Rovaniemi in Finland. Any further south than Rovaniemi and I'll be too far below the Northern Light belt.

The Northern Light Belt in Scandinavia.

And a Top of the World View.

Early Morning, Route 93 South, Norway. Jan 2013.

There's not a whole lot of anything between Alta to Kautokeino, just 130 kilometers of beautiful, cold and barren landscape covered in snow. 
Right up my alley. 

South of Kautokeino, Norway, a few kilometers before the border of Finland.

This is where I saw the sun for the first time since late November, 2012.
Riding south on Route 93 toward Rovaniemi, Finland I was approaching the Norway/ Finland border and there it was, right in front of me. 
"Hello Sun. Nice to see you. Been a while".

The further south I rode, the more beautiful the vista got. The sun, in all it's radioactive glory, was bringing everything to life. I mean, I enjoyed myself in Alta and Nordkapp, but until now didn't give it much thought that I never saw the sun up there. As a photographer it's an essential ingredient, one that can't be substituted with a flash or any other type of lighting. We need the Sun. My camera needs the sun.

On the other side of that green traffic light is Finland. I bade Norway and it's people a heartfelt farewell and thank you for all the wonderful experiences I had there. 

Now it was time to make some new ones in Finland.

Coming next week on Wherethehellismurph:

Welcome to Finland.

Murph.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from ALTA, NORWAY.

T'was the Night before
Christmas....

Long nights and even longer days. 

Life in northern Scandinavia, right above the Arctic Circle. 
But yet I find myself quite content here in this extremely cold, dark but hauntingly beautiful enviornment, I really am enjoying it more than I thought I would.
I was going to ride down to Rovaniemi Finland last Thursday to go and pay a visit to Santa and see if I could get him to give a special Christmas message and wish to all the children that I have given sidecar rides to in the RideAwayCancer Sidecar.
I was all set to go. Wednesday evening as I was checking my email there was a message from Peter De Jong from the Sports Complex Bul Alta asking me would I be interested in participating in their Parade on Saturday to help raise money for a house in Tromsø Norway that is used by children with cancer. 
Peter saw a piece on TV4 that aired earlier in the week about me and RideAwayCancer and decided on the spur of the moment to write to me.
Well, how could I refuse. 

So I didn't get to see Santa this year. Hopefully I'm still around and in good health by next December as Rovaniemi is on my list of "Things To Do next Christmas". I like it up here in Northern Scandinavia in Winter and just haven't had as much time to explore and photograph as much as I would have liked to.

It helps that my 2 Wheel Drive sidecar outfit that LBS Sidecars built performs the way I had hoped it would. 
It was built with a specific purpose in mind and that was Winter travel, extreme Winter travel and so far it's been great. The Mobec 2 WD, aside from their poor welding on the output shaft, has been really indispensable on the ice and snow I've been driving on ever since I rode north of Ostersund in Sweden and was definitely worth the extra money. I don't think I would be this far north without it.

When I got snowed in in Steamboat, Colorado in January of 2011 I realized that unless I had a sidecar outfit my future travel plans would be completely weather dependent, at the mercy of whatever Mother nature decided to throw at me, and I'm just not that type of traveler. If I wanted to travel in winter and not get stuck, 3 wheels was what I needed and preferably with a 2 WD  system. And here I am today, up in Alta in Norway, 70° north. Top of the World.
I like to go where I want to go and when I want to go, regardless of the weather conditions. If it's raining I put on my rain gear. If it's cold I put on thermal gear. And if it's ice and snow, now I just put my sidecar out into 2 Wheel Drive and keep on trucking.
It's taken me almost the whole 3 years to figure out what sort of motorcyclist, and now sidecarist, I am.

The whole Winter travel scene was to me unexplored territory. I always knew I liked Winter and didn't mind traveling in it, but since I had never really had much experience of serious winter in the U.S. and what I would need to successfully travel in it, I had no idea of what to expect. Sure, I hit a snowstorm here and there in Colorado and even once in New Mexico, but it wasn't for more than a day or two and certainly not for a whole winter above the Arctic Circle. And now that me Mum is living in Boulder CO I'll be able to visit her in the Winter now with the sidecar which I wasn't able to when it was a 2 wheel motorcycle.
LBS Sidecars did a great job in building me an outfit that performs as it was designed and built for, for extreme winter travel. All the issues I’ve had so far have been problems that had nothing to do with LBS and their build, the rear shock was a Ohlins problem, the final drive output shaft was due to a bad welding job by Mobec, and the wiring was just old wiring that needed to be replaced after 3 years in the rain. But the decision to spend the extra money and extra time to install the Mobec 2 Wheel Drive system in the outfit was well worth it. I don’t think I would be this far north were it not for the 2 WD.

There's something about Winter that I've always loved. Well, Winter in a climate like this that is with plenty of snow.
I think it's my favorite season. No, scratch that. It IS my favorite season.The snow, the cold, the clean fresh air. I mean, how good does a hot cup of coffee or a hot chocolate taste on a cold and snowy winters day?. Hot chocolate just doesn't taste the same lying on a beach in Mexico.

And of course you meet the nicest people in Scandinavia on a sidecar.

But you have to watch out, otherwise they'll try to steal your bike while your back is turned or while you're taking their picture.

Inger Johansson, Stromsund, Sweden. Dec 2012.

Inger is a baker in Stromsund Sweden, and I stopped by there to have a chat and pick up a couple of her home baked carrot cakes she makes.

Delicious, thank you Inger.

The view of Alta Fjord from Bjorn Eric's.

Meanwhile here in Alta, Norway and most of Europe Christmas is celebrated on December 24th and not the 25th like in the U.S., so I have been invited to Bjorn Eric's home for Christmas dinner. 

I would like to wish everyone a

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year and extend a big thank you to all who have helped get me to this point with your continued support, generous donations and words of encouragement. 

Had I still been in Stockholm I know that there would have been a seat at the table for me at the Lundgren home ( he said hopefully) with my friend Emelie and her Mom and Dad, so my best to the Lundgrens for Christmas.

It's now only 240 km to Nordkapp for me, but not an easy 240 km either in December as the weather can turn real bad very quickly.

I'm fortunate to have met one of the members of Bunkers MC who has a house in Nordvågen, Norway and has arranged for me to stay there should I need to. That's a great peace of mind as I head up there as the road to Nordkapp can be closed regularly due to severe weather. Nothing get's through so at least I know that I have a place to seek shelter other than my Hilleberg tent should the weather get bad.

Nordvågen, Norway. 71° N.

Merry Christmas from the Top of The World,

ALTA, NORWAY.

Murph.