There's a line on the map that every road-tripper heading north in Norway wants to cross, and this drive takes you straight over it. At 66°33′ north, the Arctic Circle cuts across the wild Saltfjellet plateau in Nordland, and the E6 highway carries you over it through some of the most open, treeless country in the whole country.
The drive starts about ten kilometres north of the line and runs down to the Arctic Circle Centre (Polarsirkelsenteret), the lonely visitor stop that marks the crossing. Up here the landscape changes character completely — gone are the fjords and forests, replaced by bare rock, low scrub, patches of snow that linger deep into summer, and a sky that feels enormous. It's stark, quiet and unmistakably northern.
Crossing the Arctic Circle is more a feeling than a sight: there's no fanfare, just a slow realisation that you've driven into the land of the midnight sun. Press play to make the crossing from the driver's seat, and find more of Norway's great northern drives across my channel.
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