Where is Varanger?
Varanger is a peninsula in Troms og Finnmark, the vast county in the far north-east of Norway. The geography up here is hard to comprehend.
Firstly, the peninsula itself is vast, at 2,069 square kilometres (799 square miles). But perhaps even more striking, the small town Vardø is farther east than Saint Petersburg, Kiev, and Istanbul.
The municipalities of Vadsø, Båtsfjord, Berlevåg and Vardø make up the peninsula, together with bits of Tana and Nesseby. Altogether, just 11,000 people live in Varanger.
A whiteout on the Varanger national scenic route. Photo: Øyvind Antonsen / Statens vegvesen
There are small airports in both Vardø and Vadsø from where you can hire a car and start your trip, but both offer only Widerøe regional connections to Tromsø and Kirkenes.