We drove my old rickety Ford Escort from Helsinki to Troms with my adventure buddy Mika-Pekka Markkanen. Then visited Senja and Lofoten islands and drove back. The whole trip took 12 days and we drove more than 3500km. We slept our nights mostly in a wind beaten tent that was definitely not suitable for winter camping in Norway. One windy night we found shelter from an abandoned camping site and got to sleep in a cold fire hut. At least we got a shelter from the wind. There was a shower too, but we didn’t have any coins for hot water, so we had an ice cold shower.
One unforgettable night we spent in a cave, with water dripping on my face the whole night – like a Chinese torture. Afterwards, we learnt that ancient human bones and skulls from the cave have been found there. One miserable night we spent in the car, which was my travel buddy Mika-Pekka’s birthday. Later that night we decided to try to pitch the tent, which then flew away by the wind, but got stuck to some bushes, thank god. Mika-Pekka’s camera gear was inside the tent. The tent landed in a puddle and the camera gear got soaked, with luck on our side nothing broke. In about 5 minutes our car keys got stuck in the car’s back trunk. Panicking for a while and cursing the night we got ourselves together and managed to retrieve the keys. Finally, we got some sleep for a few hours in the wet tent, with the roof flapping on our faces due to some crazy winds.
Ok, that’s enough. I guess you all got the point that this was no luxury holiday in a 5-star hotel. Instead, for most of the nights, we had a 5 billion star hotel!
