Midsummer's day, 2008, 4400 mile round trip in nine days: we made it deep into the Arctic Circle to witness the Midnight Sun. I'll let the photos do the talking...











That last one was taken after 12am - the fabled, beautiful, life-changing Midnight Sun.

That was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. We'd made it, after the hardest slog of my life, after getting stuck up a mountain between a glacier and frozen lake, after having to warm my fingers on an exhaust pipe to get them to move again, hoping that the engine wouldn't stall, after, three days later, the wettest, coldest conditions imaginable, breaking through the cloud cover and the sheer delerious joy of getting two days of 30-degrees and non-stop sun, after nine days of lonliness and discomfort, of meeting a bike rally who invited us to share their came, food, fires and friendship.

But, the most beautiful sight in the entire universe? When we'd finally pitched our tents some 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle, they brought us some beers.

Heaven.
(Miraclefish How appropriate, you fight like a cow, Mon 9 Aug 2010, 16:37, 21 replies)

Lovely pictures
Even lovelier that the bike rally you found later invited you to share their came.
(sabre-tooth monkey, Mon 9 Aug 2010, 16:39, closed)

What?
I have literally no idea what this means!
(Kitcar memeless in a meme filled world, Mon 9 Aug 2010, 19:36, closed)

!
Should say share their come.
( browser still relating boring anecdotes into a void on, Tue 10 Aug 2010, 12:40, closed)

Absolutely awesome.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 9 Aug 2010, 16:59, closed)

Oh, for reference....
Picture three is me with a poncho I bought from a camp shop. It was the only way to keep dry. I gaffa taped myself into it at the start of each day and escaped at the end, usually about 16 hours later. And image five is me doing a Return of the King stylee photo with a LOTR ring over a huge waterfall. I hadn't had much sleep and, when we got up north, it didn't get dark. Ever. Your brain doesn't fire on all cylinders at that point...
(Miraclefish How appropriate, you fight like a cow, Mon 9 Aug 2010, 17:03, closed)

wow
beautiful.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Mon 9 Aug 2010, 17:09, closed)

lovely
but in the 3rd pic, you appear to have shat a pair of legs.
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Mon 9 Aug 2010, 17:43, closed)

giving birth at the side of the road
That's just how hard she is.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Tue 10 Aug 2010, 10:42, closed)

She?
I'm a man, you heartless urchin! I just happen to be standing like a girlie...
(Miraclefish How appropriate, you fight like a cow, Tue 10 Aug 2010, 11:13, closed)

HAHAHAHA!

( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Tue 10 Aug 2010, 13:06, closed)

Cuntyfuck!
Less laughter, munchkin!
(Miraclefish How appropriate, you fight like a cow, Tue 10 Aug 2010, 15:07, closed)

ok
haha!
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Tue 10 Aug 2010, 17:06, closed)

I thought you were an alarmingly butch woman
Sorry. I now see that you're a slightly effeminate man.

Once again, my apologies.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Tue 10 Aug 2010, 19:37, closed)

...thank you?

(Miraclefish How appropriate, you fight like a cow, Tue 10 Aug 2010, 20:16, closed)

Genuinely good stuff.
Quite an achievment.
(thediscokingpin, Mon 9 Aug 2010, 17:58, closed)

Awestruck.
Simply awestruck. This is the kind of thing I think I'll be doing one day, but will never, ever, get around to.
(dchurch bah, Mon 9 Aug 2010, 18:58, closed)

Git
The furthest north that I have done Midsummer is Ostersund in Sweden and it got dark for about an hour (may have been more or less, I was pretty wasted at that point). I'd love to do what you did. But in a car. With additional heating. Clicky for the sun.
(Kitcar memeless in a meme filled world, Mon 9 Aug 2010, 19:34, closed)

Bikes are hard work. Sportsbikes are bordering on criminally fucking stupid. I know this now.

One of the group who shall remain nameless *cough* Adrian *cough*...
Managed to crash three of the four bikes. Epic.

He rode one into the back of a car before we left, a second he smashed the pannier off on a garage wall and the third, a Kawasaki, he dropped down the side of a hill. Ironically, Kawasaki had just started using the slogan 'Let The Good Times Roll' but I don't think they meant down the side of a mountain...
(Miraclefish How appropriate, you fight like a cow, Mon 9 Aug 2010, 20:46, closed)

Like I said.
I'll have a car please. Although a Bowler Wildcat would be nice. (insert Fast Show style shout of "LET'S OFF-ROAD" here)
(Kitcar memeless in a meme filled world, Wed 11 Aug 2010, 18:44, closed)

You utterly, utterly
lucky bastard. This is amazing - if you ever require a spare pillion....
(berk, Tue 10 Aug 2010, 10:16, closed)

Haha I do plan to go back
The bike club guys keep asking when I'm coming to visit them...
(Miraclefish How appropriate, you fight like a cow, Tue 10 Aug 2010, 10:45, closed)