SteveS
Member Since: 05 Oct 2010
Location: Devon & Berkshire
Posts: 388
 
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| Nordkapp 2012 - Experiences 1, Route, Conditions and Roads | |
As many of you may have followed on the Devon4x4 blog we have returned from our Nordkapp adventure with lots of experiences to share. I thought it would be useful to put together a number of short articles and post here of what worked and what didn’t, conditions encountered, and some intell. Hopefully you will find it useful if you plan to travel that way in the depths of winter, or indeed anywhere else similar. In return for the difficulties we were rewarded with fantastic sun rise/sun sets, Northern Lights, good hospitality and wonderful “Narnia” scenery. There were 3 TDCi in our group and a TD5 90.
Route and Conditions Encountered
Essentially our route north was through Norway following the coastline (you don’t have much choice). The temperatures encountered here are affected by the sea temperature and the Jet Stream which still has a small affect here that allows some northern harbours to remain open during Winter. Compare this to the return leg that we took down through a bit of Finland and Sweden hugging the Baltic which was largely ice-bound. The Temperatures on the northern leg varied enormously depending by essentially how far you were from the “warming” effect of the sea – a few miles made a lot of difference. You need to prepare for -20C or thereabouts.
If however you plan to travel across the central spine through Finland and Sweden then we encountered -41C – a very different proposition both personally and mechanically – more of that later.
Driving and Roads
The Scandinavians are pretty slick on keeping the main roads clear of snow but leave behind a film of compact snow, black ice and drifting powder. You will need to change your driving style accordingly, particularly if as we did you have fitted MT or AT M+S rated tyres but not made of a winter compound or studded. Visitors are allowed to ‘get away’ with not having proper winter tyres. However, the locals have these fitted and armed with them they can easily do twice your pace and have substantially less stopping distance. The roads are not salted as it is ineffective at these temperatures. You should plan to do 2000 miles of driving on variable grip (no grip to almost no grip) road and have a space to the car in front measured in hundreds of metres. However, the main roads are super smooth and corners are banked which means that speeds of 30 to 40 mph can reasonably be achieved (occasionally 50) – consider however stopping distances and intrusions to your road-space – e.g. Scandinavians and reindeer. Be prepared to be overtaken by everything – even 40+ tonners.
Expect also that large oncoming vehicles will be dragging behind them 100m worth of snow blindness as their truck sucks all the loose stuff in its wake.
After a while you will become accustomed to sharing the grippiest tramlines with other road users (1 line in use across both carriageways) and making use of grippy ice and snow at the road edges to assist with braking. Mostly braking is done via engine and gearbox so be prepared to change down quickly at the first sign of a declination or tricky bend – if your entry speed turns out to be too fast you’re unlikely to be able to use your brakes to slow: think a long way ahead.
One other unexpected hazard is the complete lack of brakes one morning – I suspect they had become iced up in the overnight snow storm – the wheels did not lock on ice – they just had no brakes. Soon overcome with a little left foot braking whilst going along (the ECU eventually detects this and backs off the power so you need to re-apply). A TD5 suffered the same problem – check your brakes.
I shall put up more posts shortly covering other aspects of my journey
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21st Feb 2012 8:06pm |
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