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In terms of weather, I think you may do much better to do it the other way. It is still very cold in the far north of Scandinavia in May, and there will still be plenty of snow around on the ground. Also southern Europe is still reasonably pleasant in May before the heat of the summer arrives, and has lots of lovely flowers. Look at the wikipedia page for any decent sized place and it will have a climate chart. eg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkenes - av max 5C in May, nice. There are plenty of other internet sources if you google for them. Also, going north, you have those prevailing SW winds behind you to a greater degree.

Something that stands up to strong winds. You may also like to have a tent that erects outer first, or both together, in case of erecting it in the rain, a common experience in Norway.

Yes. Seek and you shall find. It's southern Europe south of the Alps where getting detailed/accurate maps is a problem and also more eastern parts of Europe.

May be tricky in denser populated areas, and possibly also mediterranean type areas where the ground is rocky, steep and substantially covered in dense thorny bushes. If you are going through Germany, it's illegal there, and people are less inclined to turn a blind eye to it, so you need to be rather discreet about it there. (I think maybe Denmark too).

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Btw most cyclists find cycling through Norway is much more interesting than cycling through Sweden/Finland. You could detour off route 7 onto routes 1 and 3 through Norway. If you have read Josie Dew's book "A wind in my wheels" you will discover that although she cycled from the north to the south of Finland, she could only find summon up sufficient of interest to write a paragraph about the experience. It runs approximately "Finland is mostly flat and covered in trees and lakes. One night a reindeer walked into my tent." Much of Sweden is similar.

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Btw, you might get more responses if you post on the On Your Bike branch.

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Thanks for all the info, for some reason i never though about cycling the other way. I have put it on there as well.

Edited by: darrononabike

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iviehoff has answered this very well, but maybe I can give you a "local view" on the weather.

What will the weather probably be like in May/June in the Nordic states.
Very unpredictable. This year around Oslo, Lillehammer we had plenty of rain and the occasional sunshine. But this changes a lot.
Weather around that time, will still be cold. And believe it or, we have been to snowy areas in May too.

Any detailed maps of the Nordic states
A lot! I can't find the link to the map, now but they are many.
Here is one site my boyfriend uses a lot (they had also done a Kiel, Germany - Paris trip last summer)
www.sykkelioslo.no

What a wonderful thing you are doing! I love the Make a Wish foundation and have read and heard so much about it!
Are you raising money at all?

And maybe, if you want to try to arrive on May 17th! Its Norway's national day, and if you are already tired and needing a boost, this day would be perfect! Tons of happy people and good food going around!

All the best!

Link Name

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Hi, thanks for the info.

Sadly, I will not be there on 17th May. Probably be around the 22nd May when I arrive in Norway.

I looked at going from Malta to Norway, but an open ticket from Norway to Manchester was nearly £1000.00, way too much for my budget, but AirMalta do it a lot cheaper open ticket so looks like it will have to be Norway to Malta.

I will be raising money for the charity, I just need a few things and to make sure I can afford to do the trip before I start raising money.

I am struggling to get a tent that would handle the trip, and I can't afford something like a Helliberg. I also need a few bits like a multi fuel stove and sleeping bag.
My camping stuff are suited for the UK, but I don't think they will would cope with the full trip and I don't want to be left with a bunch of equipment that is not fit for purpose.

Once all these things are in place, I will be finalising the full map details and collecting money for the charity.

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I think there are more economic ways to handle this than buying open tickets. What I would do is, when sufficiently far along to have a reasonably comfortable idea of final timings, would be to go to an internet place and book tickets with a low cost airline to fly home. Even just 3 weeks ahead it should be completely different from £1000, though ideally you would try and place it a bit earlier. I would guess Alta - Oslo Gardemoen - Manchester with norwegian.no would likely be the best bet, though you may have to overnight at Oslo, as I had to when flying London-Oslo-Narvik with them once. Oslo Gardemoen lets you kip down there overnight, unlike many airports, or at least it did in the recent past. You could also cycle on to Kirkenes and fly back from there if you were enjoying yourself. (But you are doing it for charity so you aren't supposed to enjoy yourself, ha ha.)

There is also a Ryanair flight from Oslo Torp to Liverpool, but Gardemoen to Torp is on the same scale as transferring from Stansted to Gatwick, as all the domestic flights from the far north come in to Gardemoen.

Honningsvag is the closest airport to Nordkapp, and Hammerfest is an alternative that might seem a bit more likely. But these have only local flights. If you got a quote for flying from Hammerfest or Honningsvag, that might explain the high price - you'd need 2 flights just to get to Oslo.

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Hi

I did look for a flexi ticket from Honningsvag, and I know it would be expensive, but didn't expect that much.

Booking on the way is a thought, but it looks like it will be cheaper to cycle from Norway to Malta, rather than the other way around (even though starting in Malta would save on taking clothing for the cold in Norway).

I do believe my body will adjust to whatever I throw at it, with regards to the cold, sadly my wallet isn't so accommodating. So it does look like Norway to Malta.

You have been a great help and offered some great advice, but can I ask you if you know what would be the best tent to buy from this trip, and what would be the best stove?

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Provided you are the kind of person who has a little bit of competence with mechanical items - you can change the chain on your bike yourself, etc - go for a petrol stove. The fuel is available everywhere, and so much cheaper than gas canisters you will save the price of the stove already on just this trip. Also they cook much faster than gas stoves once you have done the tedious starting procedure. Regardless of the dire warnings on the instructions, ordinary unleaded car fuel is much the best thing to run them on, far better than paraffin (very best is coleman fuel, which is cheap and widely available in the USA, but few other places) provided you aren't doing it in a poorly ventilated room. They also run on leaded if you find yourself in such a country. My favoured specific stove is the MSR Butterfly, as it is much more adjustable than most. Also the cleaning procedure is easier, and if you read the instructions carefully the stove tells you when it needs cleaning, and whether you have cleaned it enough. The only disadvantage is it is the noisiest stove on the planet. I have a 1 litre fuel canister (indeed 2, because we needed that when 2 of us did a 12-day wilderness crossing once). If I'm being careful, I can make a 1 litre last one person 10 days, and that provides for large hot drinks (2 large mugfuls) both morning and evening, and one cooked meal per day. Lavish use it might last 7 days. So clearly you can get away with a smaller fuel canister in Europe for one person, where you are going to see a petrol station at least every 3rd day even in northern Scandinavia. Do not forget to wash out the fuel canister thoroughly with soap and water and dry it as best you can (a few mins in a low oven is the best trick, if you have one available) before packing it for the return flight in your hold baggage, and wrap some clothing around it.

I already answered that in the way I thought most helpful to you. I don't have detailed knowledge of every tent on the market. To meet that specification I would buy a Hilleberg Nallo 2, because it is superb quality, very quick and easy to put up, very stable in wind, will last you for years, and has the extra room I find desirable when camping night after night for a long period. But you might not like the price.

Do buy a Thermorest sleeping mat (or equivalent from other producer). It is the one thing that makes camping tolerable in my view. Only a minority disagree with me - I expect they don't understand how to use it.

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Examine yourself as to whether this is going to be a false economy. If it's 3C and very windy with sleet in the air, and the ground is mostly covered in dirty snow, are you going put up your tent, or are you the kind whose determination runs out at this point and puts his hand in his pocket for some indoor accomm? Or maybe you are the shameless and silver-tongued type that finds himself an invitation into someone's house at this point.

There was a couple posting on a similar subject earlier this year, and they were not dissuaded from flying to N Norway this May following my acquainting them with the weather facts. I think they may still be on the road, but maybe you could track down the threads and PM them to ask them how they found cycling/camping north Scandinavia in May.

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About the tent.. have a look at the vaude brand. I have a vaude hogan ultralight (about 250 euros) and it is fully waterproof (tested on the alps this april).
I've heard also the msr is not bad. I think the name of the model is hubba hubba (around same price, but not sure).
you could definitely go cheaper, but then you risk to lose in quality and comfort.
I once did an hike with a less than 100 euros tent, no problem I just got slightly wet once, when it rained a lot, but it was also my fault that I build it wrongly.
About riding for a charity, I just read this yesterday, which you might find interesting: http://bicycletouringpro.com/blog/ride-to-read-the-realities-of-a-cycling-fundraiser/

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Thanks for the help.

It looks like I will be doing Malta to Norway for various reason. Cost and weather being the main ones.

It seems easier to organise the first flight with AirMalta. They seem to be the old fashioned type of airline that value customer more than money).

I think i will book a flight from Norway to Manchester for a given date (10 August) and if I am struggling to make that date, it seem cheaper to amend the date than buy an open ticket.

I have got most of the equpiment sorted, just need a tent and stove (I figured it would be cheaper buying them in winter).