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There is a small town in Norway not far from the Swedish border called Narvik.  The town is full of history, setting the stage for numerous WWII battles and attracts many tourists each year because of this. Its natural beauty is unreal as well, with huge peaks jetting straight out of the fjords and surrounding the town.  We spent New Years here and although at first it seemed like a quiet little town with nothing to do, suddenly around midnight thousands of locals poured into the streets setting off the finest run of amateur fireworks I have every seen.  We were told that this would be the last year for the fireworks as it was going to be outlawed because to many people had been getting hurt over the years.  It seems that the rest of the world is getting law crazy just like the United States, although I have a feeling that the locals may not adhere to this law all too well.

There is no doubt that we were ducking in fear as rogue bottle rockets and airborne spinners whizzed by our noggins, but this excitement is something that should be preserved instead of legislated against.  I guess it is just becoming the way of the world to make a law instead of learning some tolerance for one day each year.  Lawmaking aside, this is a hot spot for New Years.  Where the Narvikians lack in population, they certainly make up for in zest.  This New Years will certainly be one that I will never forget.

The day after new years we actually missed a turn on the way out of town and ended up at the Viking Hotel in Bjerkvik, a small town in the same area.  Here we met the owner of the hotel and a few of his friends.  They told us of the plans to remodel the hotel and put a huge Nazi Junker 52 airplane from WWII on the roof of the building that was recovered from the bottom of the bay.  Mark and I had a chance to go with the guys to see the plane in the process of restoring it that evening.  The two days around New Years could not have worked out better for us.  Check out the photos below.

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Link to TWBR Gallery page

For Africa that is. That’s right, we made it all the way to South Africa. We have a few more days before we arrive in Cape Town and hopefully ship the trucks to Argentina on the 6th of July, so  we are taking in some of the sights on the Garden Route. It has been a pretty hectic month and a lot has happened. Here are some of the highlights:

D.R.C

After getting deported the first time we tried to enter the DRC, we were more successful the second time with a little bit of help from our friends at the US Embassy in Brazzaville. On our way to Matadi where we hoped to finally obtain our Angola visas, we took some time to camp a little bit at the Zongo Chutes, a waterfall churning out a huge volume of water that eventually empties into the Congo River. It was quite an interesting sight and probably one of the only semi-developed tourist attractions in the entire country.

At the Chutes, we also met some people from the Netherlands who are working for Heineken in Kinshasa. We had some good conversations around the campfire about living in the DRC and life on the road and they were kind enough to let us crash at their guesthouse in Matadi while we waited for our visas. That’s right, we waited for our Angola visas at the Heineken House… enough said. After three days of waiting in Matadi, we finally had our visas in our passports and headed south to the border.

The guys from Heineken pose for a photo at Zongo Chutes, D.R.C.

View of Matadi from the Heineken House

Angola

It was hard to believe that we actually had our visas to Angola… it was almost as hard to believe that we only had five days to drive over 2,000 kilometers on roads that were reported to be pretty rough. The roads in Angola did prove to be pretty bad, but if you are planning a visit there in the next five years, the Chinese will probably have completed most of the wide scale construction projects we witnessed there. Angola was an interesting country. The people were exceptionally friendly, the natural beauty was astounding and given all of the construction going on, it was obvious that they are preparing for an explosion of tourism in the not so distant future. Someone just needs to tell them that if they want people to come to Angola, they need to chill out on the whole visa thing. It was also very interesting driving through a country that up until a few years ago, was in the midst of a brutal civil war. Signs of the war are still everywhere, from wrecked military equipment littering the side of the road, to completely destroyed buildings pockmarked with bullet holes… not to mention the thousands of landmines still hiding in the ground waiting to be found by an unlucky farmer or pedestrian. It was too bad we only had five days to experience Angola, because there is a lot more that all of us would have liked to have seen and experienced there. In the end, we made it through Angola in the time we were given, but had to log in about 60 hours behind the wheel in just under five days to do so.

Much of the Portuguese architecture did not survive the civil war

Military equipment dots the Angolan countryside

Most of the horrible roads were no match for the Thundra

But when the bridge is washed out, there is not much you can do but find another way around

Namibia

After spending four months in the developing countries of West Africa, Namibia was a welcome change. The roads were in great shape, the ATM’s worked, the official language was English and the grocery stores were stocked with a variety of items that did not cost a fortune. A lot of the change is probably due to the fact that the wildlife in Namibia attracts a healthy stream of tourists and the country has invested in infrastructure to keep that stream flowing. We were still behind schedule, but we could not miss the opportunity to see some of the amazing wildlife in Namibia, so a few days after entering the country, we headed out to Etoshia National Park to see what we could see. We saw a lot, but unfortunately missed the opportunity to see any of the big cats, but rest assured, they are there waiting for you.

No Photoshop… the shot of the day!

The Etoshia Pan is the only waterhole for miles so animals are everywhere

This bull elephant felt we were a little too close to his family and charged the Sequoia

Wildebeests share the pan with Zebra

It was amazing how close you could get to the animals in the park

Months ago many of you watched the video that we put together about our time in the Sahara in the Banc d’Arguin National Park.  Here are the photos.

Photos On Flickr

See the video

A trip to the North of Scandinavia is not complete without a trip to the Ice Hotel.  Although expensive to stay, a walk around the village is free and a tour is not too expensive either.  It is an amazing and truly unusual place.  With hundreds of sculptures and a giant hotel that can house hundreds of visitors each night…a truly impressive feat that is built over and over again each winter.

Artists from all over the world come each year to show off their skills by creating individual themes for each room.  The process of building the hotel takes months and has become a mecca for tourists around the world.  So enjoy the photos although 6 months overdue:)

www.icehotel.com

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Of the many options with the expensive prices of gas in Europe, we opted for the route towards North Cape starting on a ferry from Germany to Denmark, followed by a series of bridges to get to Sweden.  The dash up to the Ice Hotel led us across the Arctic Circle and introduced all of us to the eerie feeling of Polar Night, the time of year when the sun never makes it above the horizon when you are so far North.  The light and the feeling you get up here is nothing like I have ever experienced before.  The twilight and color of the sky give you energy and make you depressed at the same time.

It seems like a dark and lonely trip, but even up until now, it is one of my favorite points on the whole expedition, this trip North.  So enjoy the photos.