When did you enter Norway?

Finally we met fellow overlanders – this was only the third time since we entered Scandinavia two and half months ago.

A couple from Germany, friends of our friends with a monstrous 4×4 truck fitted with a 15-litre, 450 hp engine, automatic gearbox and a full-size apartment at the back with electric kitchen – among other facilities – thanks to a 25 kWh lithium battery system, enough to move an electric car for about 150 kms.

We don’t publish pictures or names because these guys keep a low profile and don’t want publicity at all.

They are people like us without a child but with a dog on-board. Which means they work on the road for years and couldn’t stay home during the pandemic, so they decided to spend the winter in Norway.

We found them by chance while they were parked at a parking overlooking some astonishing fjords. We had a nice chat for half an hour and we departed before starting getting dark. 

At the outskirts of Sorkjosen village, we found a mountain road and a parking to spend the night. Late afternoon there were 2-3 locals who practiced cross-country skiing in the area.

As soon as we prepared our bed to sleep, we saw some fancy lights outside our camper. It was a Politiet patrol car.

Three young policemen with their stylish outfits and wearing masks approached and knocked our door. They asked for our passports and the date of our arrival in Norway. Then they checked the passports on their online system and explained us the motives of the control. 

Due to Covid-19 outbreak they wanted to know when we had entered Norway. After we presented the SMS “Welcome to Norway” dated October 18th and needed an explanation why Anastasia’s surname is Temperidou and not Temperidis (female surnames change in Greek as in Russian), they wished us “stay safe” and good night.

One of the officers told us that he visits Greece every summer and that his mother spent her holidays in our country this year, right after the re-open that followed the first lockdown. 

Of course we asked the officers what would be the procedure in the scenario we had entered the country the same day and they told us that according to government’s measures, if we didn’t present a PCR test taken max 72 hours before our entry, they should accompany by night back to the border with Finland. Keep in mind that even the neighbour country is considered “red” lately, like Sweden. 

So you realise that travel is not straightforward any more during the pandemic. While we are free to roam for the moment, we will have red tape problems from the moment we decide to cross a border.

If for example we enter Sweden, then we will surely have problems entering Denmark from there for example. So we don’t think about leaving Norway any time soon. We would say we are already thinking asking an extension of our 3-month stay from the local police, as the fellow overlander advised us to do. We will think about it…