The Wobble Boxers' Arctic Adventure
The more we researched, we realised there wasn’t much to do to prepare the caravan. The car was going to need the most work. A chance conversation with Truma about our journey, and they invited us to their cold chamber in Derbyshire. We spent the day in the caravan ‘living’ as we would in the arctic as Truma kept turning the dial down to -26c, well below the -15c, which is the standard grade 3 insulation testing which Bailey rigorously tests their caravans too. As we waited inside the caravan for the test to be completed, what better cooked to pass the time and prepare ourselves for our trip than cooking a roast dinner? Funnily, it was a first for Truma! What we learnt was that the caravan was going to be more than capable of the cold conditions on-site. We had already fitted an onboard water tank, but what else would we need to do?
Something we learnt from the cold chamber was that gas use would be higher than we had thought. As the outside gets colder, gas use goes up. We didn’t want to spend our holiday looking for places selling gas bottles in various countries, so we also fitted a diesel heater as diesel is easy to refill. A requirement in all Scandinavian countries is the use of snow tyres. Snow tyres for caravans are hard to get hold of in the U.K., but there are some suppliers around.
Another accessory we felt was a wise choice was a front towing cover. On roads that aren’t cleared of snow, which is the majority of roads excluding the motorways, the further north you go, the authorities sprinkle crushed granite onto the snow to give more traction. As much of a brilliant idea this is, we didn’t want granite being thrown up onto the caravan windows and breaking them.
Heading up through Sweden, we found snow far lower down the country than we had planned, due to a ‘snow bomb’ dropping a meter of snow in just four days! We planned to wild camp with services and car parks overnight. When the snowfall became too difficult to see the road ahead, we would pull off the motorway and find somewhere to hunker down for the night. The combination of the Truma unit and the diesel heater complemented each other nicely to warm the caravan up quickly.
Eventually, after 2000 miles through Europe, half of which were on snow-covered roads, we arrived opposite Santa Claus Village in Finland. The caravan followed our car perfectly, proving that snow tyres worked their magic, and we can see why Scandinavia insist on having them fitted! Throughout the entire trip, the caravan followed the car faultlessly, no matter how bad the ice and snow got.
By now, the temperatures were averaging -16c at night and sometimes near that during the day. For 48 hours, we had -22c but inside the caravan was a toasty +20c.
Pushing north to reach Ivalo River camping, where Bailey also stayed in 2017, the roads became treacherous with ice and snow on top. Conditions that needed studded tyres like the local car and lorry drivers had. It was now that we had decided we had found the safe limits of grip the snow tyres would give us. Any emergency stop wouldn’t have gone well, so we turned around and headed back to where we spent the night before and let the conditions improve. Here are thoughts of being too dangerous that came true. Just 5 minutes after our U-turn, a car drove into the back of the caravan. Thankfully not a high-speed collision but fast enough to bend the car’s towbar, and the caravan stood up extremely well. Having spoken to Bailey about the damage, they were happy the caravan was safe to continue our journey. On return to the U.K., we had the caravan inspected by Venture Caravans, our local dealer, and they found that the worst item affected was the rear bumper. No structural work is required! Very impressive as the Mercedes car that hit us was very bent!
Having ticked the Finnish rule book by having an accident, i.e. all emergency services arriving and police taking a statement, we were allowed to continue to Santa Claus village. What better way to cheer a daughter up than with a visit to Santa? We, adults, had the extra activity of rewiring the caravan lights after the wires were sliced in half during the impact. An easy job made hard in -4c conditions and whilst the snow was falling.
A week in Finland at a place called Best Park. These are small “sites” that are run online. The one in Rovaniemi opposite Santa Land, for example, had a 6amp hookup, WiFi, sauna and showers and loo block in a porta cabin-style building. You choose your pitch online and get given the code to the gate and loo block. No face-to-face human interaction is required.
Our thoughts soon thought about where to go next after the towbar was replaced. We had changed our mind about going further north to our planned sites, as the locals advised us that the roads got much worse. We had made it to the Arctic with a “bump” and decided south of the Arctic line was a safer place to be!
On our way up to Finland we found a very lovely site called Skelleftea Camping. We would be the only mad people on site but that’s ok by us! Skellefteå camping has possibly the best toilet block we had ever seen. Where else do you find a fully fitted kitchen with a table and chairs, a large leather sofa with a tv and a sauna with large shower rooms? And to top it off was a ski slope running down into the campsite! We decided we would head back there for Christmas. Just as magical with snow and a place to go sledging on Christmas Day with lots of other children also trying out their new sledges and skis etc. After we had cooked lunch in the caravan we joined in with the laughter and fun with the locals. A little girl’s dream come true, a white Christmas, especially as Santa had found us after we had told him we would be opposite his village!
We stayed here for a week and explored the area and also visited Lulea, a city 80 miles north where the Baltic Sea freezes and ice paths are made on the frozen sea for locals to walk, skate, and cycle on.
Our time in the winter wonderland was coming to an end but as we were days driving further south than planned, we decided to head towards Gothenburg to visit the Christmas lights and ride the water busses visiting the Archipelago islands that the tram pass also covers. For the first time in nearly 4 weeks and since we left home, we had seen temperatures above 0c. Gothenburg, a city we briefly visited a few years ago, didn’t disappoint. It’s a great city with so much to see and do. Mr Cake is a fantastic place to visit. We think the shop name says what they do and they do it very well!
After three years of planning, we didn’t get to visit the campsites we had researched to visit. Nor did we get to feed Reindeer or go on snowmobile safaris, and the northern lights were elusive! As most of our holidays go, we made it up as we went along, and it turned out to be a fantastic holiday. As we didn’t see everything we wanted to see, we need to return for a second attempt, but we now know we have the right car and the right caravan for the job!
A massive thank you to Jimmy and Katy for writing their experience caravanning to the Arctic! You can follow more adventures from The Wobble Boxers on Twitter (@WobbleBoxers), Facebook (The Wobble Boxers), and Instagram (@thewobbleboxers).
