What Direction to Walk

The first decision I had to make was what direction to walk in. Slightly more people walk north than south as it is easy to get to and they can get their trail legs of the roads before heading into the wilderness. Also it is warmer in the south and not as much snow to worry about. One attraction for me of this direction was the possibility of seeing the Northern Lights in the later stages of the trail. The down side is crappy weather for the usual finish time around October. However the decision was made pretty easy after my research on visas was finished.

I played with the numbers and decided that 90 days was achievable if I uppped my mileage from what I had planned. From what I can determine from blogs and maps I think the walk will be physically easier than Te Araroa. Te Araroa was 3021 km and I completed it in 114 days which is an average of 27 km per day. In order to complete NPL in time I will need to average 30 km per day.

Just in case I cannot finish it the most interesting part for me is in the north. Also access in the North is harder so that drove my decision to walk south. If I am getting close to time I will have to stop walking and it will be easier to get back to Oslo from the more populated south.

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