Author Archives: (Staffan) Spencer Holms
mar
Winter February / March 2018 This icy trip took us through the Swedish and Finnish Laplands, across the Russian Kola Peninsula far north of the Polar circle further on over the desolete and remote frozen wetlands and taiga in the Arkhangelsk region which leg included long distance travel on the White Sea ice road and […]
nov
2017 – summer trip to Iran 30 June – 5 August (8 August – LR) Toyota: 17.340 km – 3000 ltrs petrol Land Rover: A bit more; some 19.500 km + Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Poland. ACTUAL ROUTE (FJ) Riga, Kursk, Rost n Don, Grozny, Georgia, Yerevan, Nagorno Karabach, Umria, Täbriz, Tehran, […]
okt
Started leg 1 via Belarus and Russia; quick transportation with a 2 day stop for a full and professional car service in Volgograd (as usual) whereafter the “real” trip commenced with Kalmuckia, Dagestan and a problem free border cross into Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan countryside as tidy, clean and safe as everywhere – a garden country in […]
jan
Travelling the Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and Russian Laplands and celebrating christmas in Russian Murmansk was a perfect break from the commercial traditions. Highlights were the Finnish ski resorts Ylläs and (mostly) Levi, the food in Swedish Pajala, Norwegian Kirkenes, the Russian mining towns Nikel and Zapoljarnyj along with the desolete ice road from Murmansk to […]
nov
Our summer trip 2015 aimed at discovering the south west areas and central Russia, sniffing on central Asia with Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan and to tackle parts of the legendary Silk Road. Russia from Helsinki through St Petersburg via Moscow, Tolyatti and south Urals (Magnitogorsk) was a comfortable first leg of this summer trip. Russian roads are […]
okt
A party of ten persons from SWES carried out a short but highly rewarding preparatory “expedition” to the historically troubled region of Armenia and Georgia. We travelled in 3 rented 4×4 Nivas and a Nissan from snowy Armenian mountains to tropical-like conditions at the Black Sea. Besides the obvious historical theme some attention was also […]
aug
Temat var geopolitik med fokus på Sovjets/Rysslands påverkan i Europa idag. Kriget tog inte slut 1945; det “förflutna” lever i allra högsta grad över hela sydöstra Europa. Ukraina rustar även i väster mot Transnistrien. Att köra över det annekterade Krim till Odessa var inte att tänka på. Den militära närvaron förekommer överallt – även på västra Balkan. […]
aug
A high speed short tour of the Balkans – Albania and Kosovo inclusive – offered many memorable meetings with ordinary local people off the main roads. 8020 km/1684 liters petrol. 12 days/13 countries.
jan
Deep frozen landscape as from mid Sweden temperatures down do – 37 celcius. Did not even think about skiing in Finnish Lapland and instead continued to Murmansk followed by staying over New Year at Kirvosk, southern part Kola Peninusla. The Khibiny mountains offered pleasant down hill skiing. No sun – 24 hours a day complete […]