Cozy Van Life – DRIVING TO THE ARCTIC – Solo Camping, Carplay, Store Tour, Heavy Rain & Dirt Roads

Cozy Van Life – DRIVING TO THE ARCTIC – Solo Camping, Carplay, Store Tour, Heavy Rain & Dirt Roads

Four o’clock in the morning Cheers, my friends Driving to the Arctic Cozy Van life in the north of Norway & Sweden It’s got Google Maps I’m running out of miles on my vehicle on my insurance I think there’s sheep under the van. and an
Arctic shopping tour Please like and subscribe if you
enjoy the video, it helps a lot! Good morning, my friends. Cheers. Got the most important meal today. And I’m just gonna. Hunker down and get cozy here for a while The storm Was pretty heavy through night. It rained like crazy, but now it’s calmer. It’s a little bit windy and foggy and there’s rain on and off It’s cold as well. It’s 10 to 12 degrees Celsius Very quiet up here Not a lot of people coming through And I think most people have fled the area for a better weather 4 o’clock in the morning. OK, I’m on the road again after two nights three days here and heavy rain. Got a visit from these cows out here this morning. and I surrounded my van and scratched my paint so I jumped on the horn and they fled and then I went out And I scared them away, but the damage done, a little bit of a scratch in the paint, one on the sides of the van. And that is pretty annoying. Beautiful place up here. It’s been foggy and cloudy and gloomy and stormy and rainy, and… now I’m just going through the gravel road here to get out on the Jotunheimen side of the Jotunheimen road We’ll see what happens from there. We’re gonna go down to Vågåmo, I think. Pretty vast and open up here I’m on another dirt road. I forgot what it’s called, but it is between Vågåmo and Lesja. and it’s. 100 kroners, so $10, eight euros. And it’s pretty awesome up here. I’ve been over here once before. So I’ve aired down to just below 50 PSI. And that works wonders for driving on dirt roads like this. It’s just a totally different experience. Just need to avoid the worst pockets.otholes but apart from there, it feels pretty comfortable. But this is a really good dark road as well. Almost like tarmac So, out here on this side, we got Reinheimen, home of the Reindeer National Park. I think it starts right on the other side of that creek… and this is not the National Park where I’m at now. I could have flown my drone, but did these power lines are just six sagging back and forth across the road, so I’m not taking my chances with the auto tracking. Bunch of good spots up here, but I think it’s better to continue a little bit further Yeah, so this is Dovrefjell, Dovre Mountains out here. And of course, with Starlink, I can now park anywhere I want to not too close to the power lines and not too close to the sheep. Well, it’s just rain rain rain rain rain really pouring down now Well, I’m lying. It’s not only rain. That’s also banana. And the sheep are seeking cover, sheltering behind that stone there. Absolutely no use now. I think there’s sheep under the van. seeking shelter I hope they don’t chew on anything. Alright, I’m heading off this mountain here and I’m gonna go up into Rondane today in the anticipation of a mass rainstorm that’s coming tomorrow So just gonna do a little bit of a driving day today, charge my back batteries, and all of that stuff. I’m having trouble with my solar panels, I think. Doesn’t look like I’m getting any charge at all. Something wrong with a connection or something, I think, because I’m getting sunshine, like, on and off, and my charger has been showing some charging, but on my app, I don’t see any current going into the batteries So I’ve been checking a little bit further, got some good sunshine, trying to see if my solar panels were charged and they’re not So there’s definitely something wrong there. I’m pretty sure it has to do with all the shaking and Chuck Loose some contact or something So I’m pretty sure that’s the problem. I wish I could get to it somehow, and I’m gonna try to see if I can get under the solar panels, but I’ve never been up there and done anything myself. so I doubt it So heading up on the Grimsdal’s road through the northern parts of Rondane and.. that’s a really cool dirt road, and now I got Starlink. It should be a different experience because I can park anywhere I want, basically. It’s pretty vast and open up here. Well, look at this. Everyone’s just gathered here. This is starting place for a lot of hikes, but definitely not for me. So I think I’m looking for a campsite overlooking the river or looking straight into the mountains with no cows Hopefully looks like the cows are down by the river though It’s so awesome in here kind of has a Wyoming field to it or Montana maybe Well, now I’m starting to see the view that I want. There is a campsite over here, where you can park, or at least you could. Last time I was here, Looks like that spot is still here. So what I want is to be out on this plain here somewhere. They might have closed everything here. They dig deep ditches along the road so you can’t cross. Here’s another one with a closed area. I’m pretty sure I won’t find anything if it’s like this. But this is… the Rondane massive in front of me. Hidden in the clouds now All right, I saw spot gonna turn around, I think. Go and get it. Look at this nice place here. Sometimes I really feel like owning something like that. That would be really awesome. That is so pretty. If you want to follow my maps, see my campsites and get access to exclusive videos & more you can sign up to:
Patreon.com/norwegianxplorer Very nice view this morning towards Høgronden , which is covered in clouds over there. There’s a ton of rain on the forecast. Right now it’s not bad. Maybe the forecast has gotten better. Let’s have a look. Yeah. That’s the right forecast for here, it’s improved a lot. and we’re not going to have that big rainstorm today. All right. Got to make some new plans then. But first, I’m gonna have the most important meal today, coffee.. then I’m gonna reply to all the comments from last night’s video Cheers, my friends The most important meal of the day, of course, and we got Rondane out here. Looks like it’s clearing a little bit. And I had anticipated big, big rain on the forecast last night. It said massive rain, and there were weather warnings going out for this area. Could be floods and stuff, but now it seems to be all gone. So don’t know where that weather went. So it definitely looks like there’s a storm front coming over the mountains here. The wind is pretty strong. and out by the coast, there’s actually going to be close to a hurricane and eight meter waves. That’s gonna be something that’s like 24 feet, 25 feet waves. But I’m far away from the coast now. All right, it is August 4 and I’m leaving this road leaving Rondane, gonna head up to Folldal and get some stuff done. I got an incredible toothache. and it’s been really bad over the last 12 hours or so. Started yesterday, and there’s one of my teeth that is just when I touch it, it’s just an excruciating pain. So I’m doing some painkillers now. And they’re not very strong, so it’s very uncomfortable. Maybe I have to go and see a dentist and get this tooth taken care of I I’m not sure. I feel like I’ve experienced this before and it’s like irritation or a little like inflammation or something that I’ve had before when I cleaned the teeth with toothpicks and and the thread and all of that stuff. But this time it’s much more painful, so I’m worried that the tooth itself is cracking or something. Feels like the pain is in the tooth itself, so I give it another day and then I might have to call the dentist or something So I just spoke with my dentist And it looks like she thinks it’s something that needs to be taken care of with antibiotics so she got me prescription and I’m gonna have to Røros to pick that up Apparently, it sounded like an infection in the root. That’s why it’s so painful. So I’m gonna head over there and get that taken care of. Good thing I remember that I could call my dentist that’s very good to get a real expert opinion on that. So let’s hope that works and should be fine in a few days, hopefully Right, I picked up my antibiotics from the pharmacy in Røros and I think should be good by tomorrow probably Found this epic little secluded secret camp spot in the forest here, and there’s a little bit of a storm coming in through the night night here as well. It’s not gonna blow a full storm here in the forest, but it’s gonna be pretty nasty as far as the forecasts says so I’m just gonna hole up here for a couple of days. I’m guessing got my starlink out front here and got a good place here all supplied, emptied my toilet and stuff and just gonna get well again this tooth. That was just crazy. That’s some of the worst tooth pain I’ve ever felt So my dentist said it was an infection in the root, so I’m really glad I called her. Kind of solved a lot of issues because when you have a bad toothache, you can’t really do anything in a good way Kind of lowers my ability to function 100% Well, here comes the rain perfect timing So today I’m just gonna stay here and probably tomorrow as well And then on Thursday, I’m gonna head up to Trondheim and change my head unit to CarPlay modern one with CarPlay All right, it is uh August 7th, and I’ve stayed in the forest here through the storm, healing from my.. tooth infection, and today it feels good. It feels like I don’t need painkillers and the antibiotics have worked and now I’m heading to Trondheim to get a new head unit with CarPlay and all the modern stuff so gonna be a driving day today and I’ll see you later Alright, so I got the new head unit installed in my van with Apple CarPlay and all the new fancy stuff, and it’s a nine inch screen. pioneer It was about 10,000 Norwegian kroner or $1,000, and I think it’s going to be worth it. All right, so here it is. It’s got, uh Google Maps that I’m using now. Got, uh, of course, Apple’s map. got the music and everything. And then you have the pioneer stuff bunch of settings and everything. Got the camera. The backup camera in place and that’s the same camera that I had not a great resolution on that one apparently but it’s set up to work now and of course there’s something new. You have an app on the phone where you can control stuff kind of defeats the purpose of having this, but that’s it. A little bit more modern and up to date. So I’ve been missing apps CarPlay, definitely It is August 8th, and it is 23 degrees Celsius. I’m heading north. So the decision has been made to start going north I’ve been debating whether to just stay in the south and do more fjords and dirt roads, but now I’m going to go north up Sweden We’ll see if I go to the Arctic, haven’t quite decided on that yet All right, I just passed into Sweden, and now I’m heading east. I have a plan to go up into the mountains across the forests and all of that stuff Right it is August 10 today and I haven’t been filming much the last two days so I’ve been heading north and I’ve had this toothache that is slowly improving and it drains some energy from me wanting to film anything and it’s been transportation route so far. I’m currently up on the wilderness Road in Sweden and I’m heading straight to the Arctic. Gonna be in the Arctic a couple of days. And I’m going to go through Jokkmokk, as usuall when I travel through Sweden Getting some weather up here now. It’s been raining like crazy for a few days, but you’ve got some national parks and stuff out here, and the clouds are moving fast. There’s gonna be a lot of rain today Today is Monday, August 11 and today I am planning to cross into the Arctic finally. It’s been a long summer of. going around the fjords and then going overlanding, but now I decided it was time to head into the Arctic Gonna cross into the Arctic by Jokkmokk in Sweden, and I’m gonna take a few days break in Jokkmokk after a long drive now and get some laundry done and get all the chores so can’t wait to get to Jokkmokk still got 250 kilometers left, so that’s like 150 miles should be done in three hours I’m not driving the main European Highway I’m taking some more backcountryish roads and they’re pretty bad out here They don’t have their rural road game in order up here I will either go up to the very northern parts of Arctic Norway or I will head out to Lofoten. Have not quite decided on that yet. We’ll just just have to see I am arriving in Sorsele and it’s time to get on the main highway the E45 going up to Jokkmokk and the Arctic Circle. Really love these little Swedish towns up here Here’s the fire station and the main store So now I got another one of those incredibly aggressive Germans behind me, and it was just pushing me, tailgating like crazy. crazy So I’m gonna let you have a good look at this guy when he passes me. It’s just so super annoying. I’m going the speed limit up here these good roads and he’s just tailgating like crazy. Gonna give you a good look of this guy here. All right, here we are. The polar circles. gonna be crossing into the Arctic right here. lot of RVs and lands here today. Oh, yeah, they opened that Arctic cafe up there. Wow, so many people and we are in the Arctic, so gonna head to Jokkmokk get some stuff done there. Better late than ever it’s August 11 A lot of people up here. I think August is high season for Germans and French, probably. So this could be interesting to see if I can get my laundry done today I’m expecting chaos We’ll see It’s a beautiful day in Jokkmokk. No doubt about that. All right, I got all my clothes washed. I bring so much clothing on these trips here. I have a I have clothing for a couple of months, but now I’m starting to run out so it’s good to get everything cleaned and now I’m gonna find a place to camp here. It’s 6 o’clock and I have a feeling places might be starting to fill up There’s a lot of Germans in town. I don’t think I heard any other language in Jokkmokk than German right now. No English, no Swedish, no Norwegians. Just German, German, German, German Today is August 13 and I’m heading north through Arctic Sweden I need to make a choice when I get to the next town in about an hour if I’m gonna head west towards Norway and go into Lofoten or if I’m going to continue north into Finland and up to the wary northern parts of Norway, I’m a little bit confused about my plans right now because I’m running out of miles on my vehicle, on my insurance, but I can always adjust that I know I’ll be all the way up here and all the way to the north again in winter Auto decisions to make next hour So I’m close to Gällivare in Arctic Sweden and I’m gonna try to get up on this mountain here. I’ve heard that from up there you can see a 10 of all of Sweden so I’m gonna see if that gravel road up there is drivable for my my van. Maybe I can get up there. Alright, I’m up on this road here and surprisingly it’s paved so far I’ve always wanted to see this view and I never thought that there was a paved road growing up So I’m gonna add this road to my gravel road map because this is very interesting. If you wanna see my maps and see my campsites and my secret gravel roads around the Nordics here, you can sign up to my Patreon patreon.com/NorwegianXplorer or you can join here as a member on my YouTube channel I post all my maps places of interest route on these two places I think the views are gonna be pretty cool from up here. It’s a lot of trails. So how far up can we get? There’s a few vehicles parked up here. But this is pretty cool. Wow. The views, though. Incredible. Yeah, there’s the no camping sign, okay, so that’s that’s cool. Maybe I’ll walk up to that summit there. I think we’re looking at Kebnekaise, probably, and Sarek National Park. This is Gällivare or parts of it mining town So these are the mines of Moria, I guess Huge area. It is August 14 and I’m up close to Kiruna in Norton Sweden Arctic, Sweden. There’s a lot of weather coming. in from the west now and I’m heading west but first I’m gonna head up into the mountains to a place I’ve never been to Nikkaluokta, which is close to the highesthest mountain in Sweden. Gonna go up there and settle for the night and looks very stormy. I think there’s thunderstorms and everything coming in Still not 100% convinced about what to do, but we’ll just see what happens. I’m really glad to be in the Arctic, haven’t been filming much, just driving a lot, and kind of taking care of my tooth that’s been bugging me. It’s definitely good now, but I can still feel it’s a little bit like, irritating. It’s not 100% yet, so. Anyway. Actually got some fall colors on some of the leaves already Well, it’s looking pretty dark all over the place now and I love it so gonna have thunderstorms tomorrow Might not be able to see much around here, but that’s OK. I love when it’s cooler and a little bit more rainy and less sun actually sun can be a little bit annoying when you’re in a van gets so hot inside. Well, this is gonna get heavy. Looks like everyone’s fleeing the Arctic now, because further south, it is much nicer summer weather. Kiruna mining town So I’m gonna go into the center of town here and see if I can find a multimeter and a compressor at Clas Ohlson Look at all the mining stuff up here They actually had to move a lot of the houses in this town because it was falling apart, because of the mining underground So up there is Clas Ohlson It’s a good store for anything like household electronics and ton of different stuff. I guess it’s the Swedish chain, but they have those in Norway as well. Very good store. All right, let me take you inside this store it’s got everything you need for electronics and home stuff and, yeah, fun stuff. So let’s have a look Not what I am looking for Yeah, so that’s like everything for the home electronics and everything store very convenient. They got almost everything. Sadly they didn’t have my air compressor, but I got a multimeter and a mouse mat

Van Life SOLO Camping – DRIVING to the ARCTIC – Carplay head unit, Arctic Store shopping Tour, Heavy Rain storms & Overlanding Dirt Roads in Norway and Sweden.

It is late August, I am solo camping in my tiny home on wheels, my cozy cozy cozy vanlife van in the remote Jotunheim road area.
I cook coffee and look out at the amazing troll scenery of Norwegian mountains. I am very much alone out here in this heavy rain weather. I continue my overlanding tour across dirt roads, off grid in the mythical Norwegian mountains of Jotunheimen, Dovre and Rondane. I set up camp in remote desolate corners of the mountains, and my new Starlink proves its worth!
As I get a tooth infection things change and I have to seek medical advice with my dentist, will this be the end of my tour?
I push on, get to Trondheim to install a new Pioneer head unit with a 9 inch screen and finally, Apple Carplay.
The journey starts for real, I travel remote backroads north through Sweden to the Arctic circle and visit Jokkmokk to do vanlife laundry and drive into the arctic circle. I head on to Kiruna in heavy rain and rainstorms and take a store tour to find a few things I need. Because of popular request I take my time to show you the inside of the very popular store.
This is the start of the arctic part of my summer and fall journey, it will be wet, it will be epic and it will be vanlife in the arctic like you have never seen it!

More to come!

👀 If you’re wondering—yes, it’s a safe place to camp solo for female travelers. Out here, no one bothers you. The people are kind, and the solitude is next level far out in the white snowy abyss!

Grab a blanket, hit play, and ride out the Arctic days and nights with me—van life in the north, off-grid survival style.

Part of the 2025 arctic summer tour series:

(☀️ Norwegian Xplorer Summer 2025 Van Life Tour | Fjords, Trolls & Stormy Freedom in Norway 🇳🇴

Experience the raw beauty of Norway through the lens of full-time solo van life. This playlist follows my journey across ancient Viking trails, wild fjords, and mountain passes steeped in legend — from lands of trolls and fairytales to the heart of dramatic summer storms.
⛰️ Camp with me through:
• Heavy rain, thunder & wild weather
• Cozy nights alone in the van during epic mountain storms
• Hidden roads, glaciers, and fjord cliffs from Viking lore
• Summer blizzards that roll in when you least expect it
• Solitude, silence, and cinematic nature therapy)

My van is a Fiat Ducato, FWD with Nokian Hakkapalitta studless Winter Tires. This is the same as a Ram Promaster in America – USA and Canada.

MAPS:
-If you want access to maps of my routes and campsite, and support my video creation you can sign up at Patreon.com/NorwegianXplorer

Enjoy camping and van life friends from around the world! Personally I enjoy watching Alaska van life, Canadian wilderness Winter off-grid survival & Remote cabins in the USA & winter bushcraft videos as well as Trent the Travelers van build and off course Foresty Forest, my long time favorite.

About me: I am a Norwegian adventurer and wilderness explorer. My youtube channel focus on outdoor wilderness adventures and exploration, backpacking, hiking, canyoneering, skiing, climbing and mountaineering. Nights spent in a tent, alone or with friends. From the snow covered mountains and misty fjords of Norway and Scandinavia to the remote plateaus of Yellowstone and the debts of the red canyons of Utah to the summit of Mt Whitney and the heart of Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park. I love the Wilderness! Email is under “For business inquiries”, for general questions please comment on a video, I try to answer everyone.

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