skip to Main Content

From North Cape to Gibraltar – Part 4: To the Russian border

bjorn-russian-borderBjörn at the Russian border.

This is Part 4 of our North Cape to Gibraltar series, check out Part 1: Stockholm and Central SwedenPart 2: Kustvägen to Finland and Part 3: The journey to North Cape. Now that we’ve reached the northernmost point of our adventure, instead of flatly driving back the way we came, why not drive east instead, to see where Norway meets Russia. This would end up being the easternmost point of this adventure, as we find ourselves further East than Cairo in Egypt… I have no plans to get into Russia per se, for three reasons: I have already been there in 2013 (Check out the 20 posts in our Trans-Siberian Railway series here), I have no visa and – most importantly – Björn is not allowed to leave the European Union. But that doesn’t mean we can’t check out the border.

russian-border-mapGoogle Maps doesn’t venture as far as the Russian border in Grense Jakobselv, but we did.
bjorn-northern-norway-1

vadsoVadso

From Nordkapp we drive back south to Smørfjord then Lakselv, then follow the coast east to Kunes, Ifjord and Torhop. It doesn’t look like much distance on the map, but I spent the morning going back to Nordkapp to take sunlit pictures, and Björn made its first GPS mistake of the trip: he kept wanting me to drive all the way down south to Finland and then straight back up northeast to Tana – an additional 3 hours – so I went on the wrong route to start with. To his credit, Google Maps does the same mistake, weirdly, as the section from Isfjord to Torhop seems to be recorded as unpassable.

northern-norway-1

northern-norway-2The road to Vadso

As a result, I had to stop in Vadso, the closest town with a hotel. Pause. Yes, the closest town with a hotel. Although we are not as isolated as in the Australian desert, this part of Norway and the world is only very sparsely populated, with villages and cars painting a lonely picture in the landscape. Distances are stretched between settlements and the roads can be windy as they trace through the harshly indented coastline. It’s another rhythm altogether and now that I am used to the line-assist aid of the Volvo XC90, the feeling of driving on rails is growing on me. I feel like a train conductor combing out unchartered territory. There’s definitely a frontier feel in Vadso. An impression of calm before the storm: a quiet town with wild east streaks such as people driving dangerously (gasp!) and less-than-welcoming hotel personnel. One can definitely smell Russia in the air.

russian-border-gps-1The Russian border is the grey linerussian-border-point-1First Russian border point

The next day I retrace my steps from Vadso to hop back on the E6 to get up close and personal with the Russian border. A few km after Elvenes, I have my eyes glued to the GPS map as it seems the road I am driving on actually forms the border between Norway and Russia (see map above). The weather is grey, the clouds are low and the air wet, combining to create an eerie feeling of forbidden. Out in the real world though, there’s no sign yet that I am touching Russia with Björn’s wheels, and without GPS I wouldn’t have guessed. There’s not a single Russian car on the road. Things change where the E105 to Murmansk splits just before the official Russian border point. It’s a highly secured area and I had to take the above picture while still driving as stopping is strictly prohibited. I turn left on the 886 to Grense Jakobselv.

bjorn-hagglunds-bandvagn-2016-norway-2016

bjorn-to-grense-jakobselvBjörn on the way to Grense Jakobselv

The road suddenly gets a lot narrower and Björn’s GPS is starting to seriously stress out, gently but repeatedly suggesting a sharp u-turn. This part of Norway is another unchartered GPS area, including on Google Maps which can’t for the life of it tell that there’s actually a road – granted, sometime a dirt track – that leads to Grense Jakobselv. I persist as the skies get greyer and more menacing by the minute. To add to the tension, I start to spot a few military vehicles parked on the side of the road. As I snap a few pics including the one above, a Norwegian military squadron on quads appears out of nowhere. Have I done something wrong? It wouldn’t be the first time… (I had a similar experience in 2013 in Moscow) But no. Big waves, big smiles and big hellos as they drive off into the wilderness. I stand there astounded.

russian-border-gps-2The dirt track hugs the Russian border (grey line on the GPS) bjorn-russian-border-2Russia is literally at a stone’s throw from Björn’s window.

At one point the road curbs sharply to the left and becomes an unmaintained dirt track. The only sound is the river flowing to my right. It turns out this is the Russian border. We are now driving northbound straight to the see and the track hugs the river so close it even acts as riverbank a few times. The air is electric with tension. Whats the big deal? I hear you ask, it’s only Russia. The natural feature forming the river is totally passable: you could even walk through the river easily, so shallow it is. Except no one is allowed to cross here. Beacons and captors are lined up at regular intervals along the water and although the only sound is of the river flowing, I could swear I’m hearing the regular beeps of cameras filming.

russian-border-point-3

russian-border-point-2“The border runs in the river”

Björn my Volvo XC90 suddenly feels like one of James Bond’s high tech cars taking me to a dodgy encounter in a god forsaken location. Many signs pepper the riverbank, explicitly indicating that crossing the borderline – aka the river – is strictly prohibited by any means (land, motor or air). Not only that, but it is also prohibited to “throw items across the borderline (!), to intentionally make contact with, or act in an insulting manner towards persons on the other side of the border and to photograph Russian military personnel and equipment in an aggressive or provocative manner”… At the point of the track where the river is the narrowest, there is a roadside shelter with a bench, tarpaulin, covers, donnas and basic food supplies. It seems river crossing is in fact happening here, and the Norwegian authorities have decided to soothe the experience rather than aggressively deter it. A fascinating sight.

grense-jakobselv-1

grense-jakobselv-2

grense-jakobselv-gps-locationGrense Jakobselv

The arrival in Grense Jakobselv is as haunting and mysterious as it looks. This place is actually not fully inhabited and could very well qualify as a ghost town. No wonder Google Maps didn’t want me here! There’s no more than a handful of houses and a gaunt church towering the location. The Norwegian military squadron makes a surprise reappearance just to make the scene completely surreal. Although the entire area feels tense today, I can’t help but imagine how heavily the stink of paranoia would have suffocated this part of the world during the Cold War years. This tiny river flowing in a barren landscape used to be the material illustration of the iron curtain, the frontier between two ideologies, the gaping pit between the East and the West, for decades.

Mazda CX-5 Vadso September 2016. Picture courtesy caradvice.com.auThe Mazda CX-5 and CX-3 are the best-selling nameplate in the Vadsø district.

Exclusively to BSCB, we can also share the detail of the best-sellers in the two districts we have traversed in this Part 4 of our North Cape to Gibraltar series. The Vadsø district is Mazda territory, with the CX-5 and CX-3 brilliantly leading the sales charts so far in 2016. It’s also SUV territory with the Top 5 best-sellers belonging to this segment, and 7 out of the Top 10. The Toyota RAV4, Mitsubishi Outlander and Nissan Qashqai shine, while the national #1, the VW Golf, has to settle for a discreet #9 ranking.

Vadsø district – 1/1-18/9/16:

PosModelVadsø%Norway%NorFY15
1Mazda CX-52311.6%2,0221.7%1110
2Mazda CX-3168.0%1,7781.5%1232
3Toyota RAV4168.0%3,6833.2%47
4Mitsubishi Outlander147.0%4,5613.9%26
5Nissan Qashqai147.0%1,4461.2%1912
6VW Passat115.5%3,7113.2%38
7Nissan X-Trail105.0%7870.7%4736
8Ford Mondeo84.0%1,3861.2%2114
9VW Golf63.0%10,6649.2%11
10VW Tiguan63.0%1,7581.5%1328

Source: OFV. Norway data is 1/1-30/9/16

Nissan Pulsar Norway September 2016The Nissan Pulsar ranks 4th in the Kirkenes district.

Eastwards in the Kirkenes district which includes Grense Jakobselv, Volkswagen holds the two top spots with the Golf and Passat while Nissan vastly over-performs, placing the Qashqai, Pulsar and X-Trail inside the Top 5. Carbuyers in this part of Norway are also very keen on SUVs, with 5 out of the Top 10 best-sellers inside that segment. The Suzuki Vitara in particular is favoured here at #7 vs. #32 in the whole of Norway.

Kirkenes district – 1/1-18/9/16:

PosModelKirkenes%Norway%NorFY15
1VW Golf2419.5%10,6649.2%11
2VW Passat1512.2%3,7113.2%38
3Nissan Qashqai97.3%1,4461.2%1912
4Nissan Pulsar86.5%1260.1%12298
5Nissan X-Trail75.7%7870.7%4736
6Toyota RAV475.7%3,6833.2%47
7Suzuki Vitara64.9%1,1801.0%3229
8Toyota Auris64.9%3,5543.1%52
9Suzuki SX4/S-Cross54.1%6890.6%5141
10Toyota Prius54.1%1,5721.4%1743

Source: OFV. Norway data is 1/1-30/9/16

peugeot-expert-vestre-jakobselv

vw-transporter-kirkenes-2016Peugeot Expert and VW Transporter near Vadso.

We’ll finish on a few comments on the (rare) car landscape of the area, filled with VW Transporter and Caddy LCVs. These two models do not appear in the sales charts we publish every month, simply because we have stopped covering Light Commercial Vehicles sales for Norway. However these category sells in great numbers here, and the latest launches seem to already have resonated with buyers: I spotted a few examples of the the twins Toyota ProAce and Peugeot Expert (pictured above).

Best-selling LCVs in Norway – January-November 2016:

PosModelNov-16%2016%Pos
1VW Caddy47013.7%4,28214.0%1
2VW Transporter36210.5%3,63711.9%2
3Mercedes Vito2567.5%2,3547.7%4
4Ford Connect2316.7%1,9076.2%5
5Peugeot Partner2196.4%2,4758.1%3
6Isuzu D-Max1755.1%8412.7%8
7Toyota Hilux1715.0%7152.3%10
8Toyota ProAce1484.3%6012.0%13
9VW Amarok1153.4%6662.2%12
10Citroen Berlingo1133.3%1,1143.6%7
11Toyota Land Cruiser1103.2%7502.4%9
12Ford Ranger1103.2%6692.2%11
13Ford Transit Custom1053.1%1,1533.8%6
14Opel Vivaro722.1%5251.7%14
15Peugeot Expert631.8%4731.5%16

Now that we have hit the Russian border, it’s time to head back south. Next, for the last iteration of the Scandinavian side of this North Cape to Gibraltar series, we cross northern Finland to visit the Sami people and Santa Claus. Stay tuned!

This Post Has 2 Comments
  1. Hello Matt, in recent time I was thinking about doing a summer bicycle trip through the Finnmark region of Norway and I’d like to ask you about how the traffic on those roads is? According to openstreetmap.org and other map portals, there are barely any side roads in Finnmark so both cars and bicycles must share the main roads. The traffic seems to be really low but to be sure I have to ask. Also I would be interested in the same information about the road to Hammerfest which is probably used more heavily. Thanks.

    1. Hello Matēj,
      Many thanks for your note.
      Indeed, the roads in Finnmark must be shared by cars and bicycles, but the traffic is extremely sparse, at least on the coastal roads I took from Nordkapp to the Russian border. The traffic on the road inland from Finland to Kautokeino and Alta was heavier with trucks as it is the only main road to reach these destinations. I haven’t pushed to Hammerfest but I would assume the same applies there.
      Hope this helps!
      All the best,
      Matt

Leave a Reply

Back To Top