November 23, 2025. In Međimurje, the first late-autumn snow is falling. After about a decade of mild, climate-change-softened winters, today’s snow and biting bura wind feel like faded memories from some distant past. As is customary this time of year, the days will keep getting shorter until the winter solstice. And then, thanks to the Earth’s tilt and orbit, they’ll start growing longer again, minute by minute, like magic.
Last year, Siniša and I set off on a cycling adventure that took us to places where, on this very day, the sun no longer rises. One such place is Honningsvåg, a fishing and tourist town in Norway, located on the island of Magerøya and connected to the mainland by a tunnel nearly 200 metres below sea level. This island is also home to the famous North Cape, the northernmost accessible point on the European mainland.
Open any weather app, type in Honningsvåg, and check the details. You’ll see the message: “No sunrise today.” Two days ago, the sun rose there for the last time this year at 10:32 and set at 11:34, giving them exactly 1 hour and 2 minutes of daylight. Yesterday? No sunrise at all. The polar night has begun.
But just like Lord Voldemort has his Harry Potter, and Sauron has Frodo Baggins, the polar night has its opposite: the polar day.
This is a story of how a woman from Međimurje cycled to the far north of Europe.
True, I’m starting on Day 16, but we’ll rewind soon to Day -3, when the journey began. 😊
On August 4, 2024, around noon, Siniša and I rolled into Rovaniemi, Finland, the village of Santa Claus, and the final checkpoint on our NorthCape4000 adventure before the finish line. Behind us was roughly 3,500 km traveled by bike, starting 15 days earlier in Rovereto, Italy.
Arriving in Rovaniemi felt like reaching a milestone. We had entered the Arctic Circle, and from that moment on, we wouldn’t experience night. While riding through northern Sweden and northwest Finland, we noticed the days were “abnormally” long. We hadn’t needed to turn on our bike lights until well past 11 p.m. The illusion of endless daylight gave us more time on the saddle and messed with our instinct to rest. Ares, our cycling companion, put it plainly in a message that I received: “Now that there’s no more night, you don’t need to sleep! Full gas!”
Crossing into the Arctic Circle, marked at 66°32′35″ North Latitude
They say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So after Siniša and I checked in at the control point (only ultra-cyclists and randonneurs still appreciate a proper stamp 😄), I set out to find Santa Claus. That’s what you do in Rovaniemi, right? A helpful elf pointed me to the house where his office was. When I stepped inside, I saw a long line of visitors from all over the world. I joined the queue and thought, “This might take a while.”
I remembered I’d left Siniša outside chatting with Klaus from Frankfurt, another rider in the NorthCape4000 challenge. “Our average is dropping!” I heard Sinisa’s voice in my head, his classic cycling joke. “Let it drop”, I thought, and stepped forward in the line. After all, you don’t get to visit Santa Claus every day, especially not after cycling across all of Europe.
The NorthCape4000 organizers divided the entire route into several stages.
For us, the final stage was about to begin. There I was, right on the edge of the Arctic Circle. After my audience with Santa Claus, I hopped back on my Pink Panther bike and opened the final gpx file on my navigation device.
Every cyclist knows that feeling, “almost there”. Only 700 kilometers to go.
Until next time, keep riding!
Ksenija