h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We left Oslo and drove thru Lillehammer, and went for a ride on the bobsled run. The ride only last a minute, but is insanely fun :D speeds of around 110 kph, with around 3-4 Gs round the corners - very cool.

The rest of the day was spent driving north west through the most amazing scenery - incredibly steep mountain with sheer rock faces and snow lingering on the tops, heaps of waterfalls cascading down the rock, and clear bubbling streams running along the valley floors We stayed at a camping ground in the middle of one of these valleys, and it was just beautiful. The next day we drove thru the 'Trolls Road' pass - a crazy switchback road winding up the mountain past another beautiful waterfall. We went on a cruise in the Geiranger fjord (no pining parrots in sight - more amazing scenery. I'm going to stop talking about it now cos otherwise I'll just rave on forever!

We travelled up to a little place called Mo I Rana, close to the arctic circle, and a camping ground next to a river. It was a hot afternoon so a few of us went swimming. It was ...uh... invigorating... You could also say f*****g freezing. But fun - very refreshing, and the warm sun when we got out was really nice. That nice we had reindeer for dinner - cooked up really well with lots of mushrooms, it was delicious

The next day we went up to the Svartisen Glacier - really beautiful, and I could have spent hours clambering up the rocks alongside The next few days involved a lot of driving, crossing the arctic circle, stopping to look at some world heritage listed rock carvings (2.5 - 6 thousand years old). We headed up to Nordkapp one evening - too late oin the year to see the midnight sun, but it was a beautiful sunset (at 11.30pm!). We also went swimming again, basically to say we'd done it, and it was unbelievably cold - painful as soon as you were in the water... So I dunked in briefly and then wernt straight to the hot shower!

After that we headed south again, across into Finland, staying at some lovely camp grounds, and then the group split in Helsinki - most went to Russia, some back to Copenhagen, and I stayed another night then head for Estonia.

The tour was fantastic - the people were great and the scenery spectacular