Heading across the Atlantic on July 19,2018 and hoping to ride the Baltic route "counter-clockwise" up through Finland and south along the Norwegian fjords. I am following up on recommended ride reports. Given the weather and the ferries and the apparently complicated routing necessary to have a great ride through western Norway, I am at a loss for how to really plan such a trip.
I don't mind traveling without a plan but would not want to find myself sitting on a dock waiting four days for the next available ferry. Is 5 weeks long enough to make this big circle?
--JohnD

No way you gonna have to wait 4 days for a ferry on a motorbike. Im from northern Norway so I have some knowledge about the ferries there, maybe another fellow norwegian can chime in and add info about the ferries from mid-Norway and south, lets say from Trondheim?

There are 3 ferry stretches that can get a bit complicated in the north.
First one is from Bodø to Moskenes, from the mainland to the Lofoten islands. This is a 3-4 hour crossing, and a few departures also goes to the remote islands of Værøy and Røst. And if youre not going there - avoid these departures as its a detour of many hours.
And at the peak of the summer where all central european campervans (germans...) comes northbond and most of Norway are on holidays it can get cramped and be long lines and waits on this stretch. But most people are lazy, they want to travel at daytime, so early morning departures and late evening departures are normally less crowded. Bodø-Moskenes They even have a midnight cruise over I think. It will be broad daylight even at midnight or 3 am so you will see the same as at daytime.

The other two stretches are Andenes - Gryllefjord (The Whale Route) This is just a ferry that operates during summer, roughly late May to September. It is a 1 h 45 min crossing and its normally operates only by one vessel. And there are usually 3 departures pr day. So be aware of that. Unfortunately I couldnt find the schedules for this ferry.
The last stretch is Brensholmen - Botnhamn. From the northern tip of the Senja island and to the southern tip of Kvaløya. Its also a summer only route afaik. And also operated by one vessel only and crossing is 40 minutes if I remember correctly. So there wont be heaps of departures. And Im sorry again as I couldnt find the schedules for this ferry.

All other ferry stretches should be trafficed regularely and even be more departures during summer than normally. That said, at peak days and hours theres no guarantee that you might miss a departure or maybe two. But they usually find spots for bikes. Anyhow - bring a book or a Kindle in case of some waiting.

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In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....

Some useful tips there about using ferries off peak.

You can go online and see the ferry schedules, but there are two key things to remember:

1) A motorcycle will (nearly) always fit on a ferry. It's normal practice to rock up and jump the queue of cars and motorhomes - follow the loadmaster's instructions, you might go on the front or the back of the boat, but you'll always be squeezed in.

2) The fjord-crossing ferries are a public service, a literal extension of the national road system. Their schedule is designed for a more-or-less constant stream of traffic. You might have to wait an hour or two if you're really unlucky, but never days.

https://www.tromskortet.no/ferger/category2088.html - the schedules for those awkward summer ferries.

I did a trip to the North Cape a few years ago. Maybe you can get some usefull information from my tripreport https://jkrijt.home.xs4all.nl/trips/n2g/index.shtml

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Jan Krijtenburg

My bikes are a Honda GoldWing GL1200 and a Harley-Davidson FXD Dyna Super Glide

My personal homepage with trip reports: https://www.krijtenburg.nl/
YouTube channel (that I do together with one of my sons): motormobilist.nl

Thanks I will take a look at it over the next couple of days.