Næggelsprætt'n Rally

We decided to go once again to a rally in the North of Norway.

We have been a couple of times before to rallies in Bodø, Tromsø, Harstad and Tana.

I knew there were more meetings, but could find nothing in our holiday time.

After some googling I found the Næggelsprætt'n in Bætsfjord somewhere between the North Cape and the Russian border about 3000 km from home.

After two rallies, one in Germany and one in Sweden, we drove in the direction of Finland. There you'll find sections of 60 km or longer without asphalt, piece of cake for the R1100GS.

After an overnight stay in Inari we drove the next day to Kirkenes in Norway and stayed there for a few days.

The first day we drove to the Russian border (Boris Gleb) on the road to Nikel.

The next day we visited the border country museum where we learned all about the origin of the borders between Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

A large part of the museum is dedicated to World War II in that neighborhood. In WWII Kirkenes was a German fortress with more than 30,000 soldiers, and was bombed more than 300 times by the Russians.

The next day we drove on the E6 to Tana and from there on the RV890 along the Tana River further to the north.

The Tana River is well known for its excellent salmon fishery and is the most productive salmon river in Finland and Norway.

On the plateau (350 meters high) we had to pass some snow and ice, but most of it was melted by the exceptional warm spring. Now it was not really warm there, 3 to 4° but very beautiful. The clubhouse of the Artic riders is located right in the village, which is reminiscent of the villages in Alaska that you see on Discovery Channel. There wasn't a campsite, but we could camp in someones garden. We decided to sleep one night upstairs in the clubhouse. Down in the workshop was the garage party.

Motorcyclists from all over the area come here, the nearest rally in Norway is in about two months 500 km away in Alta. Næggelsprætt'n means split nails (from the cold). Around midnight the BBQ was hot enough for use, so there we ate a nice piece of meat ... we didn't need lighting.

The next morning it rained, but we still wanted to get back to the South, because we wanted to celebrate Midsummer next weekend in Sweden ...

When we drove back over the plateau luckily it was already dry again and we drove along the Tana River towards Karasjok ... then a little way in Finland and then back into Sweden

- Hans Veenendaal