SWEDEN OFFROAD TOUR 1998

Adventure to the Midnight Sun

Text by Thomas Lieverscheidt

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As in most European countries nowadays, offroad or correctly cross-country driving is illegal in Sweden. Unlike Britain, where greenlaning -i.e. driving on loose surfaced public roads - is still very popular, even motoring on existing forest tracks or dirt roads is a strict no-no.
The Sweden Offroad Tour came up with what might be the perfect solution. Every modern nation has a certain number of areas that are more or less developed for offroading - military ranges. Peter Öjerskog managed to convince the army dudes, that fourwheelers are hardly capable of destroying areas that are worked by tanks every other week or month.

This year, SOT used 11 army ranges, spread out over the entire country.
Starting way down south near Simrishamn and ending in the far north in Kiruna (approx 68° north), around150km/90 mls north of the Arctic Circle, the participants would travel about 2500km/1600mls through some of the most beautiful corners of Sweden.
Every morning between 9-10 am, the registration for the days drive took place on site.
The fee for each offroad day was 300 Swedish kronor, ( $40 US ) . Driving itself usually started with an orientation drive around the outer perimeters. From then till 3 pm it was free driving. At 3 pm all vehicles would get together for a safari drive criss-crossing the site. A lottery where participants could win Jeep-merchandise or a 6-pack of Quaker State motor-oil rounded up the day.

Go on and off the tour whenever you want

The interesting part about SOT is the fact that you don't have to take part in every driving day, but are free to come and go whenever wanted. About 10 teams actually drove the entire trip, some entered or left at halfstage. Most people joined in for a day or two, when the tour was near their homes. Daily numbers ranged from 25 vehicles up to 60, when the Swedish IH club dropped in at Skövde on July 9th.
Jeep Sweden is the main sponsor for this event and was represented by Sven Erik Rundberg. Jeep payed 50% of the daily fee for everyone driving a Jeep. The oldest Jeep was a 1943 Willys MB owned by Christian Lugn of Stockholm, the newest was a 360-powered '98 Grand Cherokee. Other than that, vehicles from Lada Niva up to a Starcraft Suburban were present.
Naturally most teams came from Scandinavia ( Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland) with 12 teams from Germany as well as a Dutchman taking part.
The event received wide coverage by reporters from local newspapers, regional TV and journos from Sweden and Germany writing for various international offroad magazines, including yours truly.
Being German myself I supported the organisation in the daily routine of prerunning, sealing off the sites and translating the briefings for the german speaking participants.

A 1993 Toyota Landcruiser to trust

My own truck is a 1993 Toyota Landcruiser 75-series Troopcarrier, converted to a camper and equipped it with an australian TJM suspension and a dutch-made B. I. T. snorkel. A performance header from Oz gives the engine some extra boost, while a Garmin GPS II plus and a CB-Radio eases navigation.
The offroad areas offered mixed terrains, with and mud in Middlesweden and dense forests in the north. Heavy rain throughout Europe added additional challenges with deep mudholes, slippery rocks and lots of of mosquitos in the north active 24 hours a day. Luckily, Sweden also offers a number of Mozzie-repellents that actually work!
Up to Falun in Middlesweden there was a driving site every day. Normally, after driving ended at 5 pm, the participants would drive alone or in groups to the next area which was somewhere between 80 to 150 km (50 to 90 mls) away and took only an easy 2-3 hours of travel.
After Falun, the next stop Östersund was about 420 km further up north. With a little detour to cross Swedens highest pass, it was 580 km to cover. So an travelday was added in between.
On that day I joined up with Michael and Bea Partschefeld from Leipzig, Germany. Torrential rain on some sections left us wondering whether a boat wouldn't be more appropiate form of transportation. While the weather showed itself from it's worst side (the Brits call it SUMMER) we were always lucky that during the offroad days it stayed generally dry. In '97 by the way Sweden had it's best summer for the last 100 years and not a single drop of rain in July.

Beautiful midnight sun - and rain...

The motto of SOT ă Adventure to The Midnight Sun - came true on July 15th. On the last  travelday from Luleå to Kiruna, the Arctic Circle (66° 33ĂN) was finally crossed. Even though it didn't got dark at night once Östersund was passed, the midnight sun can only be seen north of the Arctic Circle. On that day I was joined again by Bea and Micha. Peter Öjerskog did the old touristguide thing and showed us some of the highlights along the road. We didn't miss the opportunity to stop at the Arctic Circle for some photos and also visited a museum with the replica of a 6000 year old house. The excavation site of the original house had been closed because the accessroad was unpassable after the rain. A drive up Dundret mountain near Gällivare offered a spectacular outlook over the Norrland area.
Kiruna is the home of LKAB - one of the worldĂs largest iron-ore mines. The evening Kiruna was reached, some of us drove up a tall slag heap near town, to take a glimpse at the midnight sun. The next day, Sunday 19th was the end of  SOT. A dinner in a restaurant,with a ceremony to award everyone who made it to Kiruna with a diploma, marked the end of the 1998 Sweden Offroad Tour.
Traditionally, after the ceremony , the group would drive up the above mentioned slag heap to enjoy the midnight sun. Unfortunately it had started to rain again around 5 pm - so much for that. Lucky that we saw the sun the night before! A number of our new friends took off for their return trip right after dinner - remember it won't get dark until you drive south some 800 km.
Monday morning and it was time to say farewell to Peter Öjerskog and Sven Erik Rundberg.

Northernmost point accesseible by car

My journey wasnĂt over yet as I had plans to drive up to the Northcape, the worlds northernmost point accessible by car , on N 71° 10Ă 21ĂĂ. Accompanied by Bea and Micha, the 180 km to Narvik took us 3 hours, including some sightseeing and photoshooting.
Narvik welcomed us with sun and 27° C (80 F). After a quick tour through the city, I headed north, while Bea and Micha went south to visit some relatives. The final 800 km it would be just me and my Troopie. Following the coastline, I reached the Northcape the next day, Tuesday  July 21st - covered in thick fog . It wasnĂt the regular landfog, that dissolves after a few hours, but solid seafog that lasted until Wednesday morning. Wednesday was beautiful with a blue sky and the temperature around 16°C (60 F). An icecold wind came directly from the northpole, but it kept the clouds away. So this evening the midnight sun was perfectly visible when it hardly touched the horizon. It was a very special moment for me and for the other tourists from all over the world coming up here.
Thursday morning came and at 10 am I bid farewell to this rugged piece of rock sticking out of the arctic sea. I remembered the words of the Italian priest Francesco Negri who arrived here in winter 1664. "Here I am at the Northcape- at the uttermost limits of Finnmark. With God's help I will make it back to Denmark and my homecountry and I can say in all the world that my thirst for knowledge is now fullfilled".

Norwegian coastline rugged as can be

Well, I go along with that - except for the last part. On my way back I followed the E6 route, visiting cities like Trondheim, Oslo and Gothenburg before reaching Helsingborg in Sweden and my ferry to Denmark and finally Germany.
4 weeks after I left I was back home, having travelled 8000km/5000mls. Was it worth it? Certainly! Scandinavia offers breathtaking landscapes. While Sweden has endless forests, the norwegian coastline is as rugged as can be.
I met a large number of interesting people from all over Europe, made some new friends and deepened existing friendships. I travelled 12.000 km through Russia by 4x4 back in 1992, visited the U.S. westcoast 3 times between 1993 and 1995 to cover offroad races and in 1997 me and a friend spend 6 weeks in the australian Outback travelling from Darwin in the Northern Territory along the Gulf of Carpentaria up Cape York and down to Brisbane in Queensland.
I've often been asked which trip was the best . The answer is - it's always the next one to come.

My personal thanks go out to a few folks:

Maarten Verschure from All American Imports / TJM Europe in Kaatsheuvel, Holland, for providing the suspension system, the snorkel and the performance header.

Uli Gawlick from Extrem Motorsport in Wuppertal, Germany, for mounting all that stuff to my Troopie.

Peter Öjerskog from Sweden for organising a great event and inviting me to it.

The 1999 Sweden Offroad Tour will take place from July 3rd - 18th 1999 . There will be 14 driving days, with three new sites included! For more information contact the organizer

See you on the trail!