My travels in Sweden:
Lappland tour in Northern Sweden, 2002

Content:

1. Introduction to the Lappland tour, 1963
2. Day 1 to 3: From Stockholm to Holmbacka
3. Day 4 to 5: From Holmbacka to Jämtön
4. Day 6 to 7: From Jämtön to Barsele
5. Day 8 to 9: From Barsele to Munkfors
6. Day 10 to 12: From Munkfors back to Stockholm

Introduction to the Lappland tour

My father's tour to Lappland, 1963

In our family we had old photo albums from the 1960s. There are some photos from my father when he with his new car, a Volvo PV, travel to the far Northern Sweden, Norway and Finland. That Northern geographical area we in Sweden call Lappland. He traveled alone and no one know very much from this travel, he didn't talk about it much.

Northern Finland ?

The first photo from his travel isn't until he is far from Stockholm where he started, this photo looks to be taken up in the North at Lappland.

This could be from Northern Finland after my father had left Sweden on his way North. Forest workers my father meet on his way to Tana Älv. My father always liked to meet and learn to know new people. You see my father's car in the background, a Volvo PV, parked on the right side of the road. Sweden didn't change its traffic system until 1967 when we started to drive on the right side of the road. Then this must be Finland or maybe Norway because it's 4 years before we changed the traffic system.

If I'm lucky maybe someone in the future can recognize who these people are and tell me where the place is.

This is 1963 and they still used horses when transporting timber in the forests.

Tana älv (river):

This photo I guess is from the river Tana älv. Tana älv is very famous for its rich salmon fishing. After many years I have now understood that the main purpose for my father's travel all the way up here to Northern Sweden and then Norway and Finland was to fish salmons. Tana älv goes along the border between Norway and Finland and another part of the river is in Norway.

What a perfect camping place my father have found here.

More information about Tana Älv from Wikipedia:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Tana (Norway)

No luxury hotels to stay at, my father liked the camping life. Is it fish in the frying pan? Maybe he had catch the fish himself and now make his dinner from it. I remember the saucepan, frying pan, water can and the blanket from our camping adventures together.

Norway to the left and Finland to the right. The bridge is Tana Bru and the river is Tana Älv.

Tana Bru:

On the other side of Tana Älv is the country Finland. This bridge was built 1948, the original bridge was blown up during World War II in 1944. Now in 2021 they are building one more bridge.

More information about Tana Bru from Wikipedia:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Tana Bru

The view over the river is fantastic. It's during the summer but still there are snow on the mountains.

Ifjordfjellet, Norway:

This must be the most Northern place my father visited, he is now in Norway, Isafjordfjellet in Finnmark, Norway. To the East is the Russia Murmansk. You can see that the roads standard these days wasn't very good and my father drove alone, I think he must had driven 4'500 km or even more. My father never told me very much about this trip, maybe the fishing didn't go very well.

More information about Finnmark from Wikipedia:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Finnmark

If I'm correct my father now is on his way to Norway's Hammerfest and passing by the snow covered mountains.

Hammerfest, Norway:

Hammerfest is a town at the very Northern Norway. My father always liked to drive the car and doing adventures. I'm not surprised that he come all the way up to here.

This photo with my father standing against a polar bear was always fun to show my friends when they visited me. Now when my relative Göran P. saw this page and photo he told me that this polar bear belongs to the Polar Bear club of Hammerfest. You have to have a little patience, after 56 years I got the answer!

More information about Hammerfest from Wikipedia:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Hammerfest

Maybe on the way home after Hammerfest, still in the Northern areas. Anybody, any guess where it is?

Google map:

This is a wild guess which roads he took, I have an old map from 1963 where I can see which roads that were available:

I found these old photos exciting already when I was a child, later I got inspired to do a travel like that. But it took many years to find a friend who want to go that far North, for sure more than 4500 km to drive. In fact, I'll be 44 years before it became reality. This is very strange because my father was also 44 years old when he did his Lappland tour, I didn't plan this to happen this year.