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In the 1970s
I worked for several months as a 'driver/leader' with one of the pioneering
camping tour operators, Minitrek Expeditions, driving a 15-passenger Ford
Transit minibus on four-week tours of Scandinavia, going above the Arctic
Circle to the northernmost point of Europe at Nordkapp, in Norway. Minitrek
operated Land Rover tours to more remote places like North Africa and the
Transits were used for more civilised tours through Europe of two to four
weeks duratiion. All the tours were cheap and self-catered meaning
minimal effort on the part of the tour operator other than providing a vehicle
with driver and pretty basic tents and cooking equipment. Seemed like hard
work to me with the best seat in the house. |
A
lakeside school at Utsjoki in northern Finland. Notice the grass
growing on the roof of the building at the left, grass on
rooves is a common sight in northern Scandinavia. |
Magical t raditional
wooden pagoda-like stave churches at Oslo, Norway, and Uppsala,
Sweden, contrasting with the graceful elegant lines of a modern
church at Copenhagen, Denmark. |
A
street in the old quarter of Stockholm, Sweden, a building detail
from Trondheim, Norway, and a detail of a timber farm building at
the Folk Museum, Oslo, Norway. |
Lapp
children in traditional costume not worn for the tourists, and
the midnight sun not setting at Vestertana, Norway. |
The
Minitrek Expeditions Ford Transit in a fjord in northern Norway.
I led two expeditions of happy campers on four-week trips around
Scandinavia in 1972. |
Tranquility
of a fjord at Vestertana, above the Arctic Circle in northern
Norway, Happy punters around the campfire at this idyllic
spot well off the beaten track. More below. |
A tea
stop somewhere in northern Sweden. The passengers stretch
their legs and take a breather from the mobile squalor. All those
people squeezed in a hot can with no air conditioning during
a heat wave! |
Passenger Lynda Whalley
holding up the flag on the Arctic Circle, Another campfire on
the second visit to Vestertana, high above the Arctic Circle
in northern Norway. A magic spot for a couple of days of abundant
fishing and tranquil watching of the Midnight Sun. Friendly
locals. |
The goal achieved ... Nordkapp or North Cape
at the top of Norway, Passenger Lynda Whalley gazes northward
from the northernmost point of western mainland Europe. at the
top of Norway. I went to the western-most point of Europe in
Portugal in 1966. Several visits to Gibraltar, from sea and land
probably mean I've been to the southern-most point as well. Probably
won't make the western border. |
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