After being dropped off by Trygvy’s girlfriend on the morning of the 26th April , Dave set out from the Gargia Fjellstua on ski. eventually the long suffering skimarch boots he was wearing fell apart, so he had to fall back on trainers and walking on the road, all very frustrating and no prospect of replacing his boots. Late afternoon and he reached Rafsbotn, where he met a friendly Norwegian who put him up for the night, fed him and loaned him a pair of skiboots. Next day he decided to continue walking, not wanting to risk wearing strange boots when still a considerable distance to North Cape remains. It was to be a long day having started about 9am, he finally reached Skaidi some 70 kms further along the E47 main road. By now it was nearly midnight and he was pretty exhausted. Today, still being pretty tired, he decided to take a day’s rest. He plans to ski tomorrow aiming for Smorfjord. Target date for North Cape is Friday 2nd May.

on leaving Kautekeino i headed directly north, having done a map reconnaissance and found out from the locals what the best way to Alta would be, i had chosen a route which should give me snowscooter tracks to follow the whole way

i had a rendez-vous to make in Alta in two days time; with Trygve Nygard, a Norwegian who completed the Lindesnes - Nordkapp transit this time last year. his help, and advice had been invaluable during the planning phase, and en-route he has provided encouragement and mapping

unless i could get to Alta by thursday evening i would miss him, as he was about to take a group of outdoors students up into the mountains for several days. this meant that i would have to try and cover over 100 km in 48 hours.

the first day went well, having good routes to follow means that you dont have to waste any time on navigation, i didnt get my compass out all day. during the day i made regular stops to take on fluids, and maintain a constant intake of calories (thermos tea and chocolate), however due to the pill regime i am on i had to plan around the instructions i had been given for taking them; dont eat for 1 hour before or 2 hours after taking this one, dont take this one unless you have just eaten, take this one only incase of extreme pain, and whatever you do, dont cross the streams

by 6:00 pm i had covered 50 km, i stopped to get out my cookset and boil some snow. chocolate may be great but it is no substitute for hot food, and for that you need to boil water from melting snow. it took me just 30 minutes to feed myself, change my socks, powder my feet, re-fill my thermos with hot sweet tea, check the route, and be off again

by 9:00 i could feel myself tiring, i needed to find some place to rest, somewhere i could have a roof over my head, and dry out my wet socks. having checked the map i could see that i was still at least two hours away from anyplace that would suit. that being the case, if i did manage to get there, it would be nearly midnight and they may not be open. luckily i was able to get a signal on my phone, so i called my father, who went on the internet with the name of the place i was heading for, found a guesthouse there, and called to warn them that there was an Englishman due to get in late

i reached the guesthouse just before midnight, and was given a bed. but i was too tired to sleep, i had to get up and have something to eat before sleep eventually found me at around 02:00. the next morning i felt like shit. muscles and joints were aching, but i still had a long way to go. i found i was so exhausted that i had to stop and rest on my ski poles every 100 metres, my pace dropped dramatically as the day wore on, and i began to feel sick. then the weather turned bad. it wasnt the worst weather i have seen on this trip, but it was no picnic; high winds and snow reduced visibility so that once again the trail became obliterated, and the trail markers were obscured in the white out.

i was feeling seriously uncomfortable about the situation. i felt very weak, and in the inclement weather it was not possible to stop and eat something to replenish the energy levels. i carried on through the bad weather, getting slower and slower and feeling weaker than ever. at one point i keeled over sideways, and lay there on the ground for a few beats, the lack of exertion and constantly straining tortured muscles felt delicious. i relaxed my shoulders and rested my head on the snow; if i just lay here then i could probably fall asleep before the chill started to creep into fingers and toes, it would be and end to the pain, and the cold would carry me away in my sleep without me ever knowing. of course i struggled to my feet and skiied on, it was just a thought which occurred to me for a fraction of a second, but it was a disturbing insight into the last few moments of other skiiers who must have allowed that lethargy to overcome them

the next few hours were unpleasant and hard; skiing against the wind all the way. i knew that the exhaustion i was feeling would be held off if i ate something, but i was feeling sick and the prospect of food was not welcome . my chocolate would be frozen so hard that to try and eat some would be to risk breaking a tooth, and the wind was so strong that it would be impossible to put up a tent to provide shelter enough to get a cooker going to cook some proper food. i had a salami in my pack, and i stopped to eat a few chunks, but just the time it took to do this was enough to freeze my fingers to painful numbness which only relented after i put them back in my mittens and skiied on for half an hour to get the blood pumping round the extremities again.

the situation was not good, but i was so exhausted that i couldnt get excited, or feel worried about it. i just put my head down and kept on skiing. eventually the route took me down into the valley, and out of the wind, and from there it lead to the mountain lodge at Gargia. this is where i was to meet Trygve. the lodge was very comfortable and while i was waiting the chef gave me a fantastic meal of reindeer heart and a coke for free. Trygve arrived with his girlfriend who has also skiied Lindesnes - Nordkapp, and took me to his flat where i was treated to another huge meal. we talked about our experiences and compared photos, despite being so tired i had a great evening. Trygve had to leave later that evening but he has let me have the use of his flat so that i can rest here for the day, and on saturday his girlfriend is going to drive me back to Gargia so that i can continue from there, cheers guys

p.s. some folks tried to make a comment on the last entry, but i spammed them by accident and i dont know how to un-spam them, sorry guys

Dave started out from Kautokeino about 8am on the 23rd April soon reaching a well defined track signed to Alta where he carried on through the day until nearly midnight, having covered about 70kms. Much of the time he made use of skins as waxing was difficult. Accomodation was prebooked early evening with the Suolovubmi Fjellstua, so on arrival rest was first priority. He hopes to reach Alta this evening, but has again about 70 km to go .

the tooth came out this morning, its not something i would recommend as a holiday activity or a party game. the dentist was really kind though, and treated me for free - even paying for the drugs herself. i cant thank her enough

i have taken her advice and am resting for the day before going on tomorrow. the route for the next 100 km or so seems to be fairly simple, and if possible i am going to try and cover the distance to Alta in 48 hours. if i can sustain this kind of pace then i may be able to finish by the end of the month

it was 4:00 in the afternoon, i had been skiing since 7:00 in the morning, i was two days out from Kilpisjarvi, Finland, nearing the end of a 40 km stretch. by consulting the map i estimated that there were 3 km between me and a hut right on the border, situated in a bend in the river. those 3 km were the unbearable; the ground was littered with unneven hills and depressions, and thickly forested with birch. i found myself having to fight a path through the branches which scraped at my face and clutched at my pack and poles as i forced a path between them. the uneven gradient didnt help matters and the snow had become like quicksand just to make the experience just that little bit more special, it took me over an hour to cover that 3 km

from a promontory above the hut i could see the river beside which it lay. over 100m across. the snow which covered it was broken in places to reveal the fast flowing water beneath, and the chuckle of running water could be clearly heard. tomorrow morning i would have to cross it in order to get back into Norway

to fall through the ice over a fast flowing river is one of the most terrifying prospects i have ever faced. if you did manage to resurface, then you would be quickly sucked beneath the ice by the current, from there you would probably spend your last freezing minuites tearing all of your finger-nails off in a vain attempt to claw your way back up through the ice, and if you are on your own like i am then chances are that no one would ever find you again

the tiny cabin was empty, that night i sat beside the stove looking into the flames, and visualising the river i would have to cross tomorrow morning. in the daylight i had chosen the widest point to cross, where the water would be slowest and shallowest, and a route which would take me as far as possible from the points where the water broke through the ice. i thought about the best configuration for my kit, which items of clothing to wear to give me the most agility and ease of movement, and the best way to stow my kit so that my pack could provide some degree of buoyancy. every variable weighed in the balance, and chosen to reduce the chances of falling through, and the best chance of survival if i did

in the morning i re-ran through every eventuality in my head as i ate a solitary breakfast, and confirmed all the details in my mind. when i got down to the waters edge i unlooped the ski poles from my wrists and unclipped my ski bindings to begin the crossing and set off without ceremony. shuffling across with bindings unclipped was slower than i would have liked, but falling in encumbered by having skis and poles attached to the hands and feet would make death that much more certain

i could feel my heart pounding, and the sweat forming on my brow despite the temperature being ten degrees below zero, slowly the distance across decreased. then from maybe 3/4 of the way over i saw a hole in the ice in my path. on my reconnaissance from the other side i had missed a place where the running water showed through. the ice surrounding this would be weak, and unstable. i had to maneuver to change course, quickly i bent down to re-fasten my bindings and chose a new bearing to the shore. i chose a place where the bank rose steeply, less distance to go but a greater chance that there would be deep water beneath if the bank was on the outside curve of the bend in the river - my luck held and i reached the incline which meant that i was out of the danger zone. i stopped to don my sunglasses and continued into Norway without looking back

that night i reached Madam B’s after another 35-40 km stretch. i am not going to bother to describe what it was like, suffice to say it did not live up to my expectations, but there was a hot meal and a shower, and for that i was gratefull

for some time i have been developing a tooth ache, and until now it has been lost in the background clutter of all my various other ailments, (at the end of a long day there is nothing that does not hurt) slowly but sorely the pain in my mouth has been creeping up on me, and this morning i could only swallow with difficulty. i had to take painkillers just to force some breakfast down. i needed to get this sorted quick, and changed my route accordingly to head for the nearest town where luckily there is a dentist. i have now had a session, several x-rays, and tomorrow i am having a wisdom tooth removed - free of charge. the dentists were very kind in seeing me at such short notice and i hope that tomorrow will see the end of this particular headache

there must be less than a dozen days remaining between myself and Nordkapp, and im sure Norway still has some surprises left in store for me. my boots are finally beginning to fall apart now, and the sole is coming away at the edges, i am going to keep them, and see if they make it out of curiosity - besides, i doubt if i could find any replacements this far north

Dave set off early from Kilpisjarvi, having received his maps, just in time’ on the 18th April. That evening he staged at Kuonarjohka. On the 19th April, he completed his crossing of the Finnish Wedge and entered Norway, where he stayed the night in a hutte just inside Norway. Next morning, the 20 th April , he struck out for Madam Bongo’s Fjellstue, where he arrived about 5pm. Sadly it is not quite what he had hoped for, but , he has a roof over his head and food.

yesterday when i skiied across the frozen lake and into Finland the first person i met was the manager of the Kilpisjärven Retkeilykeskus, a guesthouse/restaurant, i asked him for directions to the place where my next section of maps were posted to. when he heard about my journey and why i was making it, he gave me a free lunch and invited me to stay in one of the cabins. the view from here is amazing, one of the best in Finland, the food was very good, and i am spending a rest day here after six days up in the mountains

unfortunately my maps have not arrived and i may have to press on tomorrow without them. maps for the area of Finnmark which i will be passing through are only available if specially ordered, and i dont have time to wait the week or so which it would take to order replacements, with no guarantee that they would not get lost again

i do have a large scale map but this only shows roads and major rivers, no good for navigating at all. once i re-cross the Norwegian border i will be off the map - quite literally, lost. so i will have to head east until i hit a highway which goes north, then follow that until i get to Alta. its not a prospect which i relish, but it will give me a taste of what it was like for the great explorers; Lewis and Clark, Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen, and Nansen, who crossed great swathes of uncharted territory without knowing what lay ahead, when “uncharted territory” was more than just a trite phrase

one thing which is shown on my large scale map of this area, is a curious feature which claims to show the location of “Madam Bongos Mountain Lodge”. the name sounds most unlikely, and conjures up images of a fantastical place - something like a cross between a carry on film and the Benny Hill show. stranger yet is that this place is not marked on any other large scale maps i have been able to see, and no-one i have asked has ever heard of it

perhaps Madam Bongos is like some mythical shangri la, which can only be found by those with a magic map, a place of endless frivolity and licentiousness where there are dancing girls and endless parties, presided over by the mysterious Madam Bongo - this is Lappland after all

there are tales of climbers who have returned after months in the mountains, delerious and raving about some far off mountain paradise, entirely populated by beautiful nubile girls, where there is a 24 hour buffet, and where the wine flows like water. they say on clear nights up on the high plateau, you can sometimes hear the distant sound of bongo drums

okay that last paragraph is not quite true, but there is a place marked on my map which says “Madam Bongos Mountain Lodge” so it must exist. it only looks like its a days ski off my planned route so i am understandably curious

new photos in the gallery, there have been a few glitches with the website recently, however the Folks at Mutiny Design have worked hard to correct them and things seem back to normal now. this site was created by Mutiny Design for free in support of MAG

another six days skiing and another 100 or so kilometers closer to the target (im afraid that the estimates which are being posted in my absence are a little optimistic). am now in Finland, having crossed the border earlier today by skiing across a frozen lake

the first night out from Abisko was spent in a tiny cabin on the opposite side of a lake, from the hotel where i had been so hospitably treated the night before. i was all alone and could see the lights on the far shore, which only heightened the sense of isolation

several days later in some mountains along the Norwegian border i had a particularly surreal experience. sometimes i hear noises coming from the mountains; cracks pops and squeaks, in my imagination it is these ancient craggy monoliths talking to each other. but when you hear something alone it is easy to convince yourself that it was just your imagination and ignore it. this time it was a definite thump followed by a shock wave. exactly the same as you would feel and hear from a grenade at 50 m - something i cant pretend did not happen, or explain

the event set the scene for the rest of the day. it was the worst flat light i have ever experienced. flat light is a phenomenon which prevents you from seeing anything, it is like a white darkness - the best example of what it is like is from a scene from the movie “the matrix” where two characters are standing in a totally white landscape - they can see themselves but everything else is white

that is exactly what it was like, nothing but white, no points of reference anywhere, i just had to set a compass bearing and follow it. my tracks in the snow would disappear after a couple of metres. it was totally surreal, and i felt bewildered by the lack of visual stimuli, like a form of sensory deprivation, for several hours the only thing i could see was myself. it felt like the rest of the world had ceased to be, and i had passed onto some ethereal plane where nothing else existed, it was the most utter sense of loneliness imaginable

after a while i could make out a shape in the distance, a collection of dark spots which definitely weren’t my imagination this time, i headed for them out of a need to be next to something real, but they seemed to be changing configuration, moving between each other and dancing in the murk. this time i couldnt pretend i wasnt seeing this, it was happening before me and i couldnt ignore it or escape the implication of what i was witnessing

when the spots of dark eventually materialised out of the murk into a pack of reindeer i was pretty happy, not only was i not insane, but i was not alone, other things existed. the weather improved and by the end of the day the sun had come out, i slept that night, alone in a cabin called Daertahytte

On the early morning of the 10th April ,Dave set out from Abisko, taking a short cut across the lake of Tornetrask, to Palnoviken hutte, still just inside Sweden, where he spent the night, having covered 27 kms or so..He set out, again, early on the 11th April, quickly crossing the border into Norway making  for the hutte at Innset, 35 kms on , where he found a pleasant, renovated hutte, which was comfortable and in which there were a couple of families staying. Probably good to have some company again. Over the weekend 12/13th April, the weather has been good and he has been able to make good distance visiting Gakashutte about breakfast time on the Saturday and on to Voumahutte that night and on to Dividalshytte by the Sunday night. Still good weather and snow, pleasantly warm when the sun is up ,he continued on Monday the 14th some 35ms, more, to Daetahytte that night. This morning Tues 15th, he is halfway to Paltsastugan, where he will stage the night, before aiming for Matkakailu Hotel tomorrow, over the Finnish border,hoping for the weather to remain kind to him. He will probably take a day’s rest there before crossing the Finnish Wedge and back into Norway.

im slowly creeping northwards, day by day my goal is getting closer; 68.35848 degrees north, nordkapp lies at 71.2

its been six (or seven) days since my last update. no two days of skiing are alike, although many of them are similar. however a few days ago the Norse weather gods decided to shake things up a little to remind me of my mortality, and the fragility of human life when we are at the mercy of the mountains.

i had set off in the morning intending to try and make at least 25km, the weather was bad; wind and falling snow. but not bad enough to prevent movement. my route through the mountains between Kvikkjokk and Abisko meant that i was at least three days away from civilisation in every direction, however along the route were a series of isolated mountain cabins which i could use if necessary

by mid morning the weather was deteriorating; the wind speed had increased and visibility had decreased to around 50 metres. i decided that it would be unwise to continue the route as planned and that i should seek shelter in one of the cabins. unfortunately i was now mid way between two places of safety and shelter, so i had to press on in the face of the blizzard, which was getting worse by the minute

at its height the storm had turned the valley into a seething cauldron of wind and snow, visibility was cut to a few metres, at some points you couldn’t see the ground beneath your feet, when you held a ski-stick out at arms length you could no longer see the tip. the trail was marked by a series of stakes driven into the ground at intervals, each time i found one i would have to make a guesstimate of where the next one would lie and set off in the hope that i would find it, occasionally the whiteout would lift for a fraction of a second and allow me to get my bearings for the next dash between stakes

the wind was relentless, at times i would have to hold on to the trail markers to prevent from being blown away, i feared that if i were blown over i would not be able to get back up. the force of the wind drove snow into everything; my pockets became full, snow forced its way inside my goggles to fill them up on the inside, and i had to stop every so often to stop and bang them against my ski pole to clear the accumulated spindrift. even zips and Velcro seals were penetrated, as driven by the incredible winds, snow found its way into everything

i knew that if i lost the trail markers i was done for, in such conditions it would be impossible to put up my tent, and if i had tried to consult my map it would have been instantly torn from my grasp. unless i found the cabin i would only continue stumbling blindly on until exhaustion overcame me and i succumbed to the elements. but not this day, out of the maelstrom of wind-borne snow i saw the unnaturally straight lines of a man-made structure looming out of the murk. many times before i had seen rocks with straight edges come out of the snow and falsely believed that salvation was at hand. this time the shapes materialised into the form of a latrine

i had made it to the huts at singi. amazingly, inside i found two Norwegians who were doing the same trip in the opposite direction. we spent the afternoon warming ourselves by the stove, drinking hot drinks and comparing notes on our experiences thus far. they have a website also; www.dalsia.no

the next day the storm had blown itself out and i continued in bright sunshine, albeit with some very cold winds still making things interesting. i have now reached the Tourist station at Abisko. when i arrived here to collect some maps that i had posted ahead, the pretty receptionist told me that they had been expecting me, and would i like two nights free food and accommodation - there was only one answer to that, and i am now a complimentary guest. this is one of the nicest places i have been able to stay during the course of the whole journey, although sadly i think i am too tired to make use of the many facilities, but i absolutely murdered the buffet last night and am looking forward to doing the same again tonight

today marks the 100th day of the expedition, the time i spent in the terrible storm seems to have invigorated me, and although the distance remaining will be long and hard, i now face it with a fresh sense of optimism and expectancy. i may still fail, but i do not feel anything like the sense of despondency which characterized my last post