Ferry INteresting

See what I did there? Told you there were plenty more bad puns.

Anyways, the past few weeks I've been straining my head on the route of this Summer. And this is it!

As you might notice, save a small ferry connection from Germany to Denmark, it's a mainland route. I wanted to save myself the scheduling hassles (and added on-the-road stress) a ferry brings, as wells as the luggage space of 2-3 kilograms worth of ratchet straps which probably turn out to be not necessary once I can use them.

This does mean I've got an interesting trip ahead of me. It's planned to be a bit shorter than the original route to Greece was (7000 kms give or take) but I won't take as many resting days as I did this Summer. The direction is in a clockwise direction, entering Germany, then Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, when another venture into Sweden brings me into Sapmi, an area more commonly known as Lappland. Ultimate destination is the city of Gällivare - a Sapmi city in the Artic Circle. And to me, that's when things start to get really interesting.

As you are probably aware I like having countries on my route that I know nothing about or make me feel slightly apprehensive... and after navigating Finland, I reckon Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ánd Poland do just the trick. They just make my inner 9-year-old go all 'Wooow!'

The addition of Russia in particular makes the anticipation even greater. There's the visa which is added to the checklist, as well as the character of the whole thing. It almost feels like Albania all over again!

And yes, navigation will once again be with the trusty ol' map and compass. Wouldn't have it any other way. 10 countries, 7000km... and whether it'll take me 3 or 4 weeks, I don't really mind. For once I want to take a more leisurely approach, not planning any stops ahead and just taking it as it comes. I know roughly where to go every day, and that's all I really need to know.

Work on the Beast is slowly progressing - the past few days I took the front apart to have a look at the front lighting assembly, as my low beam had been showing some issues.

Good thing I did - whilst doing so, I came to find out the mounting screws of the front cowl were of the same worthless metal that made me drill out a few other screws over the past year. It made taking the thing apart a nightmare, but I'd rather be doing it now than at the side of some Lithuanian B-road. Replaced the screws with some proper plutonium-grade steel ones, and all was well.

The site's menu to the right has a few new additions by the way - one is a slightly altered version of the multimiling rulebook I posted before going to Greece, and the other is a page on Péus outlining the plans for the coming trips. I thought it'd be nice to take it out of the limelight, and make it a more prominent feature of the things to come. Have a look-see.

For now, that'd be all!