[srini1785]

Great. Reminded me of the TopGear episode with JC and JM on their toyota and Hammond on the Husky sledge. Sorry did not watch the entire episode.

BTW was it the geographical north or the magnetic north pole?.

[sam264_2000]

WOW!!! What a travelogue Jeroen! That must have been one heck of a trip and experience!! Hats off to you and your mates for this amazing adventure! Planning such a trip must have been fun.

This travelogue makes me really miss my Boston/NY days. I have very fond memories of driving my Acura 3.2TL up north NY, MA, NH, VT, DC, MD and PA during winters. Of course, it is nowhere close to what you guys did. This is absolute bucket list stuff!!

[aayusht]

@Jeroen: This is just Gold!

I have been to Amsterdam in the month of October and loved the city but not so much the cold since I had to wear 2 sweaters and a jacket. Can't imagine what you must have endured for this trip. I have no qualms accepting that I will never be able (or even want) to do this kind of trip.

Hats off to you

Look forward to reading more such travelogues (Agreed that this is one of a kind)

Originally Posted by Jeroen

GETTING TO OSLO:

All of us lived in different parts of the Netherlands. So we had decided to meet up in the centre near Utrecht at one of the petrol pumps on the Motorway.

I was going to drive to Peter who lived in Amsterdam, park my car and leave it in front of his house and jump into his Spider. Of course, this being winter we were not expecting great weather. What we had not counted on was one of the most severe winter day in the Netherlands for decades! Just our luck. I had difficulties just making it to Amsterdam where Peter lived. We had not even started our North Pole adventure and we were already running behind schedule.

There was massive snow fall, which is rare for the Netherlands. Subsequently all traffic is severely impacted, endless queues, accidents, roads being closed down etc. I honestly think we were the very last car leaving Amsterdam that day. Traffic in and out of Amsterdam got completely bogged down.

[warrioraks]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I remember at one of these fuel stops I walked into the shop to pay; The guy behind the counter looked me up and down and said: What on earth are you guys doing? So I told him the whole story. He looked at me and said: Why? I explained again, and again his reply was: “but Why?” So we just thanked him and moved on.

This conversation reminds of a few trips where I was asked the same question and I had to quit explaining after some initial effort. In hindsight, those trips have been one of the fondest memories. Nothing at this scale though!

Regarding the entire journey and the way you have covered it here, I do not have words to describe how much I enjoyed reading it. Many thanks for sharing.

[Jeroen]

Many thanks to all comments and thanks. Much appreciated

Originally Posted by roy_libran

1. The trip was undertaken in January, yet you wrote that you were able to drive from around 8 to 5 in daylight? I would assume it to be dark almost continuously - or not?

To get dark all day you need to go up even further than we did. see below

Originally Posted by roy_libran

2. How near the Geographic North Pole were you able to go up to in Winter? Was it even possible back then to drive up to the actual pole? I know that since past few years it doesn't freeze over entirely any more.

We never got as far as the actual north pole, geographic or magnetic. We passed the arctic circle and drove about 350 km north of that before returning.

Originally Posted by roy_libran

3. Can you find some time to add a route map for the trip?

I don’t have the map or route book anymore, but I have checked with my fellow expedition members. Lets see what they come up with.

Originally Posted by roy_libran

4. Where are these cars now? Do they live?

Both Peter and Bart still have their Spider. And still drive them regularly. Ed, unfortunately, passed away some years ago. Way to young.

Peter and I have been driving and fiddling with cars for as long as we have known each other, which is close to thirty years now. I have written about a few of our endeavours across Europe as well:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...es-eiffel.html (Touring the Ardennes and Eiffel)

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...d-trip-uk.html (Two guys, two Alfa Romeo Spiders, several ferries - A road trip in UK)

I still see Bart on a regular basis too. Last year I organised a little tour for some of our Spider friends, starting from our home. You can read about it here:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/diy-d...ml#post4823439

Both Bart and Peter and their Spiders feature regularly in this thread too. Every year a small group of Spideristi heads for France. Spider friends of ours have started a Bed & Breakfast. Everybody and all Spiders featured in the above link will come along. This year our annual France adventure is scheduled for late June. a bit later in the year as usual. Partly of Covid, and partly because we all want to attend a massive classic car event at a nearby venue. Follow my “fiddling” thread to get updates.

Originally Posted by selfdrive

Does your friend still have the cars?

See above. I don’t know what happened to Ed’s car. It’s likely to be somewhere in the Netherlands with another owner.

Originally Posted by vishwasvr

Also just curious, when you say never open or close the roof when wet, why is that?

The idea is that opening and closing a canvas roof will wear it out more quickly. As I mentioned, we will always drive top down, no matter what the weather is like. My wife thinks its crazy but she will humour me, when she comes along. As long as you maintain speed, the rain, snow of sleet, will simply blow over the window and you stay dry, sort of. So the trick in staying dry in an open rag top is to put your foot down. If you are getting wet, you are simply not going fast enough!

The problem starts when you need to slow down, or worse stop, e.g. because of a traffic light. We have an umbrella that is the exact shape of our little cockpit. So when I hit the brake, my wife will wip out the umbrella. Once the light goes green I go “balls to the wall” and she will need to quickly stow the umbrella, or it will start acting as a brake chute.

Even so, we and the Spider had got pretty much soaked on several occasions. Just let it dry out and all will be well.

Originally Posted by Abbas

Absolutely fantastic Wednesday morning read. Crazy would be an understatement. Are there organised tours these days who can take us up to north pole?

Not sure. But you can drive all the way up to the North Cape in Norway by yourself no problem. We never made it to the North Cape, but I know quite a few people who did. Albeit in the summer and apparently it is a very nice drive. Similar to ours, you will be passing some small villages great distances apart. But there will be petrol stations, cafe and restaurants and some small hotels along the way. If anything, apparently these days it might even get a bit busy during summer. Although cold is not a problem during the summer months, (it won’t get very warm either, just pleasant), your biggest challenge is likely to be bugs. Bring plenty of bug-spray!!


As far as I know, the North cape is as far north as you can drive. Anything more north than that will be akin to the Topgear North Pole expedition

Originally Posted by srini1785

Great. Reminded me of the TopGear episode with JC and JM on their toyota and Hammond on the Husky sledge. Sorry did not watch the entire episode.

BTW was it the geographical north or the magnetic north pole?.

See above, unless you mount an expedition like Clarksson, May and Hammond there is no way you can reach the geographical or magnetic north pole by car. But you can get pretty far up north and you can get pretty cold doing so!

Jeroen

[keroo1099]

Take a bow Sir, a brilliant adventure narrated beautifully. Taking a Spider to the North Pole is mad and heart warming at the same time.

Cheers.

[JoshMachine]

There are travelogues that you like to read. There are travelogues that you like to be part of. But there are travelogues that you want to be remembered for!

Jeroen - salute your spirit of adventure

Like others have requested, please put up a Google Maps route (if somebody were to trace back the route that you actually took in 2006)

[maverick.munish]

This is exciting, brave, a little too much to fathom and yet worth every penny.
Straight out of any Hollywood movie set.

Well done and thanks for sharing.

[turbowhistle]

These are the travelogues which make Team-BHP worthwhile and sets it apart from others, what a fantastic read Jeroen and salute to you, Peter and the Alfa!!

[cpabhijit]

Wow, brilliant travelogue Jeroen! Written in such an uncomplicated style that it makes for a riveting read. Things unfold rather quickly!

I'd driven around Norway in October a few years back. It was snowing quite a bit then. Went North till Tromso. But not in an open top!!! We set out at night chasing the Aurora and the coldest we encountered was -10deg.

[RoadAtlas]

It was a wonderful travelogue. Added one more item to my bucket list.

I have a question. What advantage do spiked tyres have over snow chains? Is it preferable for long rides as snow chains cause damage to the tyre and the road?

[RedRaider]

You may have driven upto Tromso which is about 350 kms. North of the Arctic Circle.

This would correlate nicely with the 5500 kms. that you drove in total.

Or maybe upto Narvik. How many ferry crossings did you do in Norway ?

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by RoadAtlas

What advantage do spiked tyres have over snow chains? Is it preferable for long rides as snow chains cause damage to the tyre and the road?

Spikes give you much, much better traction at all conditions at any speed. Chains are always a hassle and come with maximum speed and are simply not as effective.

Originally Posted by RedRaider

You may have driven upto Tromso which is about 350 kms. North of the Arctic Circle.

This would correlate nicely with the 5500 kms. that you drove in total.

Or maybe upto Narvik. How many ferry crossings did you do in Norway ?

We were a couple of hundred kilometers north of Mo I Rana, before returning south, I don’t think we got as far north as Tromso. We probably got as far as Narvik and headed east into Norway and then south again

We did not do any ferry crossings in Norway. On the way up we took the Puttgarden ferry. Actually that takes you from Germany into Denmark i recall now. We drove across this magnificent bridge from Copenhagen to Malmo where we entered Sweden.

As I mentioned, I had to fly from Oslo back home due to work. Peter and Bart went the same way back. But Ed and a few others took a ferry from Oslo to Denmark or Germany, can’t remember. They just did not want to do the motorway journey across Sweden again.

Jeroen

[AtheK]

Wow this is borderline a trip of lifetime. Hats off to you and your mate to be game to pull this off, and a special mention to the organizers too.

Loved every minute of reading it and those photos are pure gold, glad you were able to recover them.

[unknownartist01]

Crazy would be an understatement! Travelogues like these fuels the wanderlust and would lead many of us on such quests through the roads less travelled.

Inspiration at its best!