Day 4 – 25-02-2025

Full of anticipation for ice drifting, we planned an early start. But then came a shocking message: Team #93 had an accident. Their car was upside down in a snow ditch, and they urgently needed help.

Blue car overturned on snowy roadside with open doors and snow-covered parts. Baltic Sea Circle

Fortunately, we were only 15 minutes away and immediately called them to check if they were okay – we also set off right away. Luckily, both were uninjured but, of course, quite shocked. Several teams came to help, and together we managed to get the car back on its wheels and free it. Our “McGyver for cars” got the car back in shape, and Team #93 was back in the race. Nothing is impossible in this Race as long as we all help each other!

In fact, several teams had technical problems, ranging from oil changes to broken springs, from self-repairs to those that had to be fixed in garages.

Two sticker-covered cars with roof gear parked on icy ground near a building with three people attending to them.
Two older vehicles covered with various stickers and gear on their roofs are parked on an icy surface near a building. One person is working on changing a tire on the silver vehicle, another is securing items on the red vehicle’s roof, and a third person, holding folded clothes or blankets, stands nearby. Snow covers the surrounding area.

After checking out of the hotel, we finally wanted to go ice drifting on the lake, albeit two hours later than planned, but well, you can’t plan everything 😉 and safety goes first! The ice drifting was amazing and a great opportunity to really test our Land Rover with spikes. We used our drone to take cool shots.

In the coffee tent, there were cinnamon rolls, coffee, and cola. Around noon, we continued north, with a stop in Storuman for a lunch break with shrimp sandwiches and “Mega Topp” (like cream puff but sweeter and firmer). Here we also made a detailed tour plan – we decided against Bodø because a team member (Pooh 😉) is not very seaworthy and instead wanted to head towards Bognes, where the crossing would only take an hour instead of four.

A motel near the ferry was booked by phone, as we would arrive after opening hours and needed to clarify that briefly. Then we bought Surströmming for the day’s challenge, which was to ride 100 km can open in the car… but we decided, quite selflessly, to give up on those points and leave the can closed out of consideration for our sister team McWell, who will need the car in May 😉

The drive through Lapland is breathtaking, and the closer we got to Norway, the better the weather and roads became.

At 6:45 PM, we reached the Arctic Circle, where we stopped for photos and searched for the globe in the dark to get the explicit Arctic Circle point. Another team from Flensburg/Schleswig was resting there and was about to grill. We continued driving in the dark over the pass and then arrived at our cabin in Tysfjord at 10:45 PM. After 11 hours of driving, 2 hours of roadside assistance, and 2 hours of ice drifting, we covered 714 kilometers that day. Tomorrow we continue to the Lofoten.

One response to “From Vilhelmina to Bognes”

  1. […] One of the coolest “geography moments” along the route is crossing the Tropic of Cancer (also called the Circle of Cancer). This is the northernmost latitude where the sun can be directly overhead at noon — a global reference line currently around 23.4° North. Kind of the opposite of the artice circle, which we crossed one year ago on our Baltice Sea Circle Rally. […]

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About us - Pooh is a Danish citizen, Viator is German – and together we bring a unique blend of cultures, perspectives, and curiosity to every trip we take.

At the end of June (2025), our journey took us quite literally to the other side of the world: After more than 25 years, we had the chance to visit New Zealand once again.

The Insanire team is gearing up for an exciting adventure—the Baltic Sea Circle Rallye Winter Edition 2025 .This unique and northernmost rallye in the world spans 7,500 kilometers across 9 countries, encircling the extraordinary Baltic Sea.

Learn more about our participation at Dresden-Dakar-Banjul Rallye from the Breitengrad e.V. in 2026.