12 June Rynkynranta to Raahe 135.4 miles
I arrived in Raahe late afternoon. First impression it was a quiet little town, it was very pretty. After a quick driver around I decided I would stay and find a campsite.
It was a lovely site. Very green, tall trees and right by the sea too. The two girls were so friendly and helpful.
It started to rain so I quickly set up camp and made dinner.
As it was a Saturday evening I didn’t realy want to sit in my tent all night, so I headed into the town for a look. I found a lovely bar car called …….. , the barman was so friendly wanting to know everything about me and the expedition. It was a real pleasure talking to him, he introduced everyone in the bar to me which lead to a fantastic night with a lot of the locals showing me around telling me about themselves. So a big thank you to everyone in Raahe.
13th June Raahe to Vaasa 203 miles
It was a pleasant drive down the coast to Vaasa with so much beauty with tall trees lining each side if the road. I parked in the middle of the city to get wi-fi . I found a place that looked like it was on a small island on the other side of the city. Ahh camping by the water again. As I needed to get some work on the computer done the girl on reception was kind enough to let me do it there and plug my laptop in as their wifi was down. She was loverly as I spent most of the evening there. Her name was …… so we just catted wile we worked. She offered to show me around the city the next day which I gratefully accepted.
14th June Vaasa to Rauma
I met ….. around ten o clock in the morning as she was in doing paper work. We walked into the city, only a 10-15 minuet walk. It was quite warm and sunny. It was great being shown the city and what buildings were what. Early afternoon ……. Had to go and I was still making my mind up whether to stay another night….. well the weather soon made that decision for me as it clouded over and started to rain. I packed everything away and got on the road. As it was early afternoon when I left I didn’t do a long drive and ended up in Rauma.
Well it was another pleasant campsite by the water. It was nice as I was actually spending a night alone. So it gave me a chance to think about things. As I am now quite used to being on the road I still have no idea what to expect in the future As I’m rarely alone.
15th June Rauma to Truku 108.8 miles
16th June Truku to Helsinki 131.7 miles
17th to 20th June Helsinki
This is the longest I have stayed in one spot, Not a bad thing though as I really wanted to see the city. I have been unable to get a boat till Sunday as I was booked for a car and not the height of a 4x4. two of the bikers are heading south as well so will be tacking the same boat to Tallinn .
12 June Rynkynranta to Raahe 135.4 miles
I arrived in Raahe late afternoon. First impression it was a quiet little town, it was very pretty. After a quick driver around I decided I would stay and find a campsite.
It was a lovely site. Very green, tall trees and right by the sea too. The two girls were so friendly and helpful.
It started to rain so I quickly set up camp and made dinner.
As it was a Saturday evening I didn’t realy want to sit in my tent all night, so I headed into the town for a look. I found a lovely bar car called …….. , the barman was so friendly wanting to know everything about me and the expedition. It was a real pleasure talking to him, he introduced everyone in the bar to me which lead to a fantastic night with a lot of the locals showing me around telling me about themselves. So a big thank you to everyone in Raahe.
13th June Raahe to Vaasa 203 miles
It was a pleasant drive down the coast to Vaasa with so much beauty with tall trees lining each side if the road. I parked in the middle of the city to get wi-fi . I found a place that looked like it was on a small island on the other side of the city. Ahh camping by the water again. As I needed to get some work on the computer done the girl on reception was kind enough to let me do it there and plug my laptop in as their wifi was down. She was loverly as I spent most of the evening there. Her name was …… so we just catted wile we worked. She offered to show me around the city the next day which I gratefully accepted.
14th June Vaasa to Rauma
I met ….. around ten o clock in the morning as she was in doing paper work. We walked into the city, only a 10-15 minuet walk. It was quite warm and sunny. It was great being shown the city and what buildings were what. Early afternoon ……. Had to go and I was still making my mind up whether to stay another night….. well the weather soon made that decision for me as it clouded over and started to rain. I packed everything away and got on the road. As it was early afternoon when I left I didn’t do a long drive and ended up in Rauma.
Well it was another pleasant campsite by the water. It was nice as I was actually spending a night alone. So it gave me a chance to think about things. As I am now quite used to being on the road I still have no idea what to expect in the future As I’m rarely alone.
15th June Rauma to Truku 108.8 miles
16th June Truku to Helsinki 131.7 miles
17th to 20th June Helsinki
This is the longest I have stayed in one spot, Not a bad thing though as I really wanted to see the city. I have been unable to get a boat till Sunday as I was booked for a car and not the height of a 4x4. two of the bikers are heading south as well so will be tacking the same boat to Tallinn .
20th June Helsinki ( Finland ) to Tallinn ( Estonia )
21st June Tallinn
22nd June Tallinn to
24th June ( Estonia ) to Riga ( Latvia ) 203.6 miles
25th June Riga
I managed to do over 100miles without going any were. I drove into Riga as I was staying in one of the suburbs I got in contact with a local guy who did classic car restorations in the middle of know where, so I managed to get the light switch fixed
26th June Riga ( Latvia ) to Kaunas ( Lithuania ) 215.7 miles
27th June Kaunas to Trakai 56.1 miles
After staying on what looked like a glorified car park I headed out on the road. I wanted to see a 14-15 century castle that had been restored. Wile on the road I couldn’t believe it another Defender 110, we pulled into a lay bye were I found out it was a family of fore heading to Australia . The family was Andrew, Anne, Jessica and AJ. As they were heading to the castle as well we thought it would be better to meet there and really see what they were doing. It was only a further 20 mins . We found a campsite quite near so after stopping it was great having a proper talk with fellow travellers in how they had been getting on and what there route was ect The camp was so beautiful and found out there was a boat from the camp to the island.
28th June Trakai
29th June Trakai ( Lithuania ) to Minsk ( Belarus ) 140ish miles
30th June Minsk to Brest
There was nothing interesting about the road from Minsk to Brest it was straight and very boring. But it was nice to meet some people along the way.
1st July Brest ( Belarus ) to Keiv (Ukrain)
It was morning and time to leave as I overstepped thanks to my phone. After a quick bite for breakfast I got everything together paid and left the 1970s hotel and not the most friendly if I say so. I picked up the Defender from the secure parking and headed out of the city towards the border. It was a quiet border into Ukrain but still managed to cause a stir with all the border control with the land rover they even signed it. They were all great ad very interested.
Well hear I am in Ukrain. The most noticeable factor is the road condition, there not great and with a few hundred miles to go before I get to Keiv I knew it was going to be an interesting drive. It turned out to be very interesting with people selling things in the middle of nowhere.
2nd July Keiv to
After a good nights sleep I decided to track down the land rover dealer in Keiv, I had two addresses one of which was close so drove over to the garage which turned out to be the Jaguar part of the franchise. They showed me the way to go, the land rover de4aler was just outside the centre of the city. They were very interested in me and the expedition. They have been kind enough to give the Defender a once over and a service as I’m due to hit Russia in a few days. The company is BMU British Motors Ukrain. As I sit hear in the dealer I cant believe the noise as I look out the window the rain is coming down like nothing else!!!
