Journey into the midnight sun: my solo road trip to the top of Norway

It was midnight in June beside Lake Inari, the sky powder pink and dark grey and the lake motionless. I sat beside my campervan, mesmerised by a moonbeam-coloured moth and the pallid panorama, reluctant to sleep and missing none of the wild freedom of being entirely alone.

I had left my husband and adult children in England for an eight-week solo camping trip through Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway, aiming to reach Nordkapp and Knivskjellodden for midsummer. Earlier that day in Rovaniemi I’d sat beside a man in a Father Christmas costume who warned, half in jest, “If you’re driving north, be careful of the reindeer.” He was right: reindeer slipped through forests and grazed at the coast in Finland, Sweden and Norway.

With no accommodation booked I relied on Allemansretten, the right to stop off-grid overnight on uncultivated land, parking beside fjords, mountain passes and lakes and leaving no trace.

Norway, Nordkapp

midnight sun, solo travel, campervan, nordkapp, knivskjellodden, midsummer, allemansretten, reindeer, rovaniemi, lake inari