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“LEAVE – PERCEIVE – EXPLORE – INSPIRE”

Who are we?

We are Lisa and Glenn, two passionated ‘outdoor people’ who love adventure. Whether it is short or long, in winter or summer, by bike or on foot… Being outdoors and discovering new places makes us happy!

In the past, we have already made many adventures together. However, our biggest challenge starts now: a long journey by bicycle through various beautiful pieces of landscape that our Earth is rich. On top, we want to immerse ourselves in different cultures and enrich ourselves with experiences that you can only experience when you travel slowly, consciously and on your own power!

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Enjoy our 5 days of hiking in the mountains of Tro

Enjoy our 5 days of hiking in the mountains of Trollheimen National Park. From colourful birch forests to barren plains, from clear blue lakes to snow-capped peaks, from sunshine to intense rain and from beautiful mountain paths to lush wet bogs. 5 days of intense nature everywhere around us! #trollheimen #norway #hikinginnorway

Did you already met our neighbours? 🫎 The sear

Did you already met our neighbours? 🫎

The search for a place to sleep was quite arduous due to the crowds of motorhomes and campers on the Lofoten Islands. On a smaller island, we took the longest road to the other side and ended up in an oasis of calmness. It took some searching but we found a suitable field.

As we were pitching the tent, we heard bells. We still wanted to be sure it wasn’t cows and took a quick look around, except for a ‘metal cow’ a bit further on the other side of the meadow we saw nothing. Place approved!

When Lisa’s head is inside the tent to install some stuff, Glenn suddenly says: “Oh, there are 2 moose watching us. It wasn’t a ‘metal cow’ at all but a moose.”

We ended up having the company of no less than 4 moose for about 3 hours. They liked us so much that they even came a little closer for coffee and we no longer needed the binoculars, but we politely waved them off anyway. What an experience!

Oooh look, we’ll soon pass a small village with

Oooh look, we’ll soon pass a small village with an idyllic beach and a mountain we can climb. The sun is out, the weather is good. Shall we?!

And so a little later we hide our bikes in the bushes on a dead-end road and head up the mountain. A very varied path takes us through the nature reserve, up a steep wall, across sheep pastures, flower fields to the top of Måtind where we have a spectacular view of sandy beaches, rocky outcrops and the Atlantic Ocean. 🥾

During the way back, we take the rocky coastal side where we instantaneously descend into the deep, accompanied by several sea eagles. Impressive birds with their 2m-wide spans! 🦅

Hornøya, a hidden gem in the Barents Sea, a bird

Hornøya, a hidden gem in the Barents Sea, a bird island in northeast Norway where we set foot early in June and witnessed a breathtaking spectacle of thousands of seabirds.

We stood face-to-face with puffins, guillemots, razorbills, cormorants and several species of gulls nesting here on the steep cliffs. It was fascinating to see all these different birds living together in large colonies, busy preparing their nests and creating a safe place to raise their (future) chicks.

The silence interspersed with the murmur of thousands of birds, made this into one of our most memorable nature experiences.

The rain ticks merrily against the tent when we wa

The rain ticks merrily against the tent when we wake up in the early hours of the morning. The weather radar predicts it will stop raining in a few hours, so we turn over once more. The strange day-night rhythm in which we have been living for the past few days, without having a clock and where the day more often consists of 28-hour days, is gradually beginning to take its toll. The eternal light with the midnight sun is a special phenomenon with advantages and disadvantages!

We crawl on our bikes a few hours later under a bright sky and set off towards Vardø, further north around the Varanger Peninsula. Geographically, this really is almost the end of the mainland and we don't really expect much life here, but to our surprise we find another slightly larger town with outliers, and some 'summer villages' where people return for the summer months after spending the winter further south.

The landscape does show clear signs of a high northern region. We have clearly passed the tree line and are in rougher terrain. With a sudden rise in thick cloud cover and strong winds, it is difficult to find a sheltered spot. When we barely see anything of the surroundings around us the next day on our bikes, we decide to push on towards Vardø where a hot sauna awaits us!

With 2.850km2, Lemmenjoki National Park is Finland

With 2.850km2, Lemmenjoki National Park is Finland’s largest national park. The legendary River Lemmenjoki leads into the homelands of Lapland’s indigenous Sámi People with plenty of wild places to explore off the beaten track. A huge playground of rugged nature, wild life and unexplored terrain. It is almost an invitation to put on your shoes, take your backpack and get lost in search of the unknown.

There is also a milder option of getting lost on the ‘goldtrail’ through a more easily accessible part of the park. Since Lemmenjoki is still in sparsely populated Lapland, it was too difficult for us to provide enough extra food to walk this trail. However, a day hike to the top of Joenkielinen was an option, and gave us a glimpse of the region!

#lemmenjokinationalpark #joenkielinen

As soon as we crossed the Finnish-Norwegian border

As soon as we crossed the Finnish-Norwegian border, it seemed as if we had also crossed a landscape border. During the last few kilometres in Finland, we saw the forest gradually disappear for larger lakes. Now that we have crossed the border, the landscape becomes very rugged and much more hilly.

We drive northeast through a wild valley towards the coast. From the rocky cliffs, we get our first view over the Varanger Peninsula and the long-awaited Barents Sea. We are really in the north now!

Staring across the lake that lies in front of me,

Staring across the lake that lies in front of me, I enjoy the twittering birds, the 'fighting' goldeneyes, the view of the Joenkilien summit, the crackling campfire.... Just walking around (barefoot) makes us see, smell, feel and hear so much more. The smell of fresh, wet earth is so intense after months of snow-covered ground and the moss is like a springy carpet under our feet. While cycling gives us the feeling of riding through endless forests without really connecting much, these spots are the ones to look forward to.

Cycling through Lapland, we have to admit, can be quite 'boring'. Soon, it seems like you're just going straight ahead and crossing the same patch of forest in a loop each time. In a way, though, it puts you in a 'state of mind' that you can only experience in few other ways. It creates peace and freedom in your mind, if you can and are willing to allow it!

The extra reward you feel in a place like this, or during the short walks we can take from time to time, are what we do it for, and the experience comes in even more strongly because of that!

Today we had a long day on the bike, clearly seein

Today we had a long day on the bike, clearly seeing the landscape change the further south we go. From the snowy, mountainous peaks with low birch forests full of berries to a more open, vast hilly landscape with ever lowering hills and green tufts of grass growing here and there. Unlike the coastal side of the col, most trees here are still in their buds and no leaves can be seen yet.

Finland wouldn't be Finland either if we didn't end up on a long straight road, winding between the many lakes. Water and water birds galore here! We find a nice place to sleep in a Finnish laavu (shelter) with an observation tower over the wide river, which also forms the border with Sweden. Extremely happy that the mosquitoes are still hibernating here!

"And where do we go from here?" A question that ha

"And where do we go from here?" A question that has preoccupied us for some time over the past few months, and to which we were getting a clearer and clearer answer: Vardø. A small municipality in the north-east of Norway ánd suddenly also the most north-eastern point of Europe!

To get there, we could take the 'fastest' route, along the main road that also carries all car traffic, but we won't do that. We decide to drive most of the way through Finland to experience a bit more of Finnish Lapland.

The first challenge, getting from the coastal region back inland. And you do that by crossing a small mountain range. So we start with a tough climb where our bodies are immediately awakened, the muscles have to work, the snow has not completely disappeared, the lakes are still frozen and we end up in a landscape between winter and spring.

Hornøya, a small island with a bird cliff full of

Hornøya, a small island with a bird cliff full of seabirds. An attractable place for researchers, photographers, tourists and lllooooottttsss of nice looking seabirds to nest and lay eggs! 🐧

We saw lots of puffins, razorbills, shags, guillemots, kittiwakes, artic sterns and some other types of seagulls of which we don’t know the name. You literally walk between their nesting places close by the sea, and sometimes they even walked with us on the path or almost flew against us.

Funny story, the litter of puppy’s born in march on the husky farm where we worked last winter, all have a birdname from one of the birds you can find on Hornøya!

Hurray , that’s 2 years Belleave on the road! T

Hurray , that’s 2 years Belleave on the road!

That is..
• 2 years of human-powered travel through Europe 🚲🥾🛶
• 2 years of discovering diverse nature and geology, rich culture, and meeting friendly and hospitable people 🥰
• 2 years of waking up without knowing where you will go back to sleep at night 💤
• 2 years of living without your own toilet 🚽
• 2 years at the mercy of the elements of nature ☀️❄️💨🌧️⚡️
• 2 years of discovering the diversity in lifestyles 🧚
• 2 years of falling and rising, growing and getting to know ourselves and each other better 🎓

That's 2 years of inseparable us! 😘

Our Triple-C project is still going on! 💪 Conn

Our Triple-C project is still going on! 💪

Connecting three seas by three challenges is the moto. Since we entered Lithuania in july last year, we cycled, hiked and paddled for 4 months, we already met the Baltic sea and had a very unique scandinavian winter experience in Norway!

It’s time to meet the Barents sea. Next destination: Vardø. The most north-eastern village from Norway and Europe!

With a small heart, but filled with warmth and uni

With a small heart, but filled with warmth and unique experiences, we left our beloved Husky lodge in Bones on 21 May. With just over 5 well-filled winter months, with sometimes more difficult moments but mostly many fine experiences and growth opportunities, this place really does feel like our home. And ‘leaving’ a home is always hard.

But we are also excited to discover more of Scandinavia, starting with Lapland. We are ready to get physically and mentally stronger again, ready to deal with the first asthma attacks because we want to go too deep too soon, ready for the first sore butt, ready to fight off a thousand mosquitoes, ready to feel ‘small’ through wind and weather, ready to unabashedly sing nursery rhymes on the bike... ready for life on the road!

The first 24 hours are a intense emotional rollercoaster. A battle of emotions that you can't and won't win. Something we expected, but it still comes in heavy. Constantly swinging between the huge urge to explore and the feeling of leaving all the familiar behind. For a moment it feels like we are starting all over again and yet it is we ourselves who choose this!

And then you got a message: “You will have 6 day

And then you got a message: “You will have 6 days off next week, and can do whatever you want. Feel free to take some dogs with you!” It sounded like an invitation to go on an overnight sled-adventure with the pups we raised and trained the whole winter!

We left at our own farm, starting with the road we all know, crossing the ridge into Sweden. Since this was all new terrain for us as well, we did took it slowly and checked all the downhills before taking them to make sure we nor the dogs would loose control. It brought us down to a big frozen lake, crossing another ridge and back to the well-known way back home.

That’s 3 days, 65km and a super team of 9 active pups and 3 enthusiast adults. What a feeling to know we did this all on dog-power. Only gratitude! 🐾🤍

We accepted ‘the Puula challenge’ Mikael made

We accepted ‘the Puula challenge’ Mikael made for us (September 2023), left the bikes at his place and changed them for a shiny, red canoe.

5 days and 90km later, we meet Mikael again. Challenge completed and a unique experience richer. Enjoy the time with us on and around one of the many Finnish lakes!

@korppivuori_adventures @novacraftcanoe @mikael.j.t

Our last days on the bike for this year (2023)! Wh

Our last days on the bike for this year (2023)! What a strange and double feeling but the satisfaction of reaching our winter spot clearly prevails. Past weeks have been tough, with a big focus on our own bodies and comfort but also weeks of intense living and being present in this world. The fjords around Narvik, Bjerkvik and Gratangsbotn offer a beautiful setting to spend these last cycling days.

Despite the cold, we can't complain about the weather at all. Once again, we get to cycle whole days with clear blue skies, even though this is of short duration these days due to the rapidly decreasing day length. The mountains around us are also so high that the sun crawls behind them very quickly.

A first glance of the island of Senja and the many small islands around it make us long for spring and summer when we will explore Norway further. But for now, we mainly enjoy the last days of cycling and look forward to our new life on the husky farm!

After spending the night at the hostel in Abisko,

After spending the night at the hostel in Abisko, it's time for the last bit of cycling to Narvik. We want to do the climb to the border and descent in one day so that tonight we sleep on the Norwegian coast where it is clearly warmer anyway.

The scenery was already spectacular the last few days but today surpasses everything! Cycling in the middle of winter mountain scenery among frozen lakes and rivers with a beautiful autumn sun in the background. Enjoyable, even though today is also the day we break our ‘cold record’ on the bike with a whopping -16.5°. Bitterly cold but since we are mainly climbing, we can still keep ourselves relatively warm. Pausing or short passages close to the flank in the shade are freezing cold. Keep moving and never stop is the strategy, except in the nice and warm supermarket.

As soon as temperatures drop below -10° Glenn's beard and our nose hairs freeze. A special feeling and a good temperature indicator. We end the day in Narvik, where it is only ‘slightly’ freezing and there is grass under our feet again after almost 5 weeks. A special day we won't forget!

One big challenge awaits us before the winter brea

One big challenge awaits us before the winter break: the climb from Kiruna to Riksgränsen, the border with Norway, in the heart of winter. Or at least it feels like that because it is actually only the end of October.

We don't have to stress about choices here in the north. The E10 will be our guide for the next few days. When we see the sun gradually disappear behind the mountains around three o'clock, Glenn enthusiastically says: ‘It's already -12°C!’ To which Lisa thinks, sh*t my sleeping bag has a comfort temperature of -9°C and the night will get even colder. Realising that few people live here, we make use of a shelter hut and hostel to get through the cold nights. Not that the shelter hut with its -12° inside is all that cosy but still better than the -19° outside, and above all drier which allows us to keep our sleeping bag dry and thus warm.

The sight of the snow-capped mountains in this frozen landscape with very little traffic, is well worth all the effort though. We can even spot a hawk owl sitting right next to the road. Take a moment to enjoy the natural beauty!

In Kiruna, we were invited by Timo, a very helpful

In Kiruna, we were invited by Timo, a very helpful and friendly man who gives us the option to stay as long as we want. We accept that invitation and so we take a short break to recover from last weeks' winter adventure.

On one of these days, we take the train to the mountain village of Abisko, just next to Abisko National Park. Ideal for a walk in the park to enjoy the mountains we haven't seen since Slovakia. This time though, in beautiful winter splendour!

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STATISTICS

837

Days on the road

20499

Cycled distance (km)

24

Number of countries

295

Nights in tent

244

Nights with locals

109

Longest day (km)

207626

Total altimeters (m)

1477

Maximum altimeters in 1 day

837

Days on the road

20499

Cycled distance (km)

24

Number of countries

295

Nights in tent

207626

Total altimeters (m)