Bucketlist ScanBaltic

Time for an update on the next big trip and i’ll start with a screenshot of the raw version in Garmin Basecamp and below i explain the “plan” and what the colours mean.

The colours: Lilac is the route as i think it will be (approximately), green is what i want but probably cannot do and red are TET tracks.

Initially the route was starting from home and all the way to Hirsthals, Denmark to take the ferry to Kristiansand, Norway.
A 925km trip on mostly highway done in one day to safe as much time as possible on places i have not been yet or can do in a (long) weekend but end of October a news article crossed my screen.
In April 2022 there would be a direct connection between the Netherlands and Norway for the first time since 7 years so i immediately went online and find out more about it and in particular to which harbour in Norway they will sail.
Guess what? It turned out to be Kristiansand!
Checking further learned me it is a night ferry with perfect sail times and an early bird discount so after a double check at work that the planned time still is okay i booked a spot for Sporherre and me.

My vacation starts on a Friday and the ferry will set sail at 15:00h on a Saturday and dock at 9:00h the next day and this will give me the day i needed to include the Lofoten islands which i left out because it would be too tight with the risk to cut my trip short at the first setback.
The real start was always in Kristiansand but before this it would start in the afternoon with most likely an overnight in Kristiansand as it might be already too late to start the first leg.

As you can see the line From Kristiansand to the North cape is a single colour, no crazy stuff just great views i expect and fun roads to ride but mostly asphalt with probably some gravel here and there.
Down from the North Cape along the Swedish border (where you see the E75 sign) will be offroad and then back to small roads with now and then some offroad bits and there i will cross the TET track.
About 1,5 day further i will enter the TET, you can see some red missing because it went lilac on top of it.
After a full day on the TET i really want to get on the green line to St Petersburg but since March 2020 you cannot get a E-visa because of Covid, i have to see if i can get a normal visa and if that will work with my lack of planning.
For an E-visa i need to have my hotel sorted at the moment i cross the border and that is easily done the day before but for a normal visa i think i have to give that information in advance but i can be a day later or even a day sooner so that is something i have to figure out soon.

If that fails then i will continue the TET for another 2 days with a few cut off’s due to my time limit.
Instead of overlanding with a day sightseeing in St Petersburg i have to take the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn.
The TET in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are to far of to fit the time limit but i will do some offroading and catch a few bits of the TET and then i get to the same problem as St Petersburg because there is another piece of Russia a want to visit… Kaliningrad, also green.
Back-up is go around to Gdansk but just like St Petersburg i hope a normal visa will work.
From Gdansk i continue to Berlin and from Berlin is the plan to take the highway back home but when i have not been delayed too much i still can improvise and spread it over 2 days and skip the highway anyway.

That’s what i can tell you about that progress.
1 – 3 April i go back to Witteveen to take the third offroad course with adventureshield.nl, now the advanced.
This training is on a Saturday so i took the Friday off to make a nice ride to the north and booked a room in the hotel where the trainings always start for 2 nights.
This time i can have a beer when we get back because i don’t have to go home or to a campsite and after breakfast on Sunday i can take easy ride back south.
I’ll try to get some better footage this time but i will definitely tell you about what i did when i get back.