Rally Recap Time
It’s been six months since we competed in the 2024 Baltic Sea Circle Rally, conquering the northernmost rally in the world! We raised over $3,200 dollars for The Jessi Combs Foundation as this was a charity rally, and we wanted to give you a sneak peek of our vehicle prep as well as highlights of each of the 16 days of competition with our 2024 all-electric German-spec short wheelbase Volkswagen ID. Buzz van. Never did we think we’d be rallying through nine countries and nearly 5,000 miles in just over two weeks, but we did it!
We were the first non-European EV team to compete in and finish the Baltic Sea Circle Rally. We also were the only all-electric team competing this year. It was an electrifyingly fun and challenging ride.
Part 1 includes our Instagram reel highlights as they happened just before and during the first four days of competition. Our Part 2 story will feature rally days 5-8, Part 3 will have days 9-12, and our final Part 4 article installment will showcase our reels with rally days 10-16. Hope you enjoy!
Rally Fast Facts
- 16 days (June 22 to July 7)
- Nine countries
- 7,500 kilometers (our actual was 4,771 miles)
- Wild camping and rally challenges
- No GPS, and we supply our own maps
- We’re driving Volkswagen’s new all-electric ID. Buzz van
- Driver: @andy_lilienthal + navigator: @mercedes_lilienthal
Getting Paper Maps
We struggled to find current (or any) paper maps of the countries the rally would be traveling through: Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. But, thanks to Amazon and a few other sites, they finally came! This is a charity rally, and we decided to raise money for The Jessi Combs Foundation. This is a wonderful non-profit that helps women who are getting into the automotive trades, a cause very important to us. Consider donating to them!
Traveling Overseas and Taking Receipt of VW ID. Buzz
After two flights and a long travel duration to get from Oregon to Germany, we landed in Frankfurt with our luggage and rally supplies, eager to meet our third teammate: The short wheelbase Volkswagen ID. Buzz (not the longer version we’re getting in North America). Wild anticipation was experienced as we loaded up our gear and took off for my sister’s house in northern Germany.
Final Pre-Rally Prep
It was there where we’d add rally decals, check out the supplied German-made interior Ququq sleeping/camping setup, and get things rally-ready. We had a scant three days to prep, including purchasing food and supplies, but with the help of my sister and her two grown children, we managed to finish everything. Gut Basthorst, here we come!
It’s not an easy task preparing for an overseas rally, especially when you aren’t familiar with the vehicle and you need to fly with all your camping and rally gear. But, thankfully, the ID. Buzz had plenty of room, and the Ququq system made it simple for us to eat, sleep, clean things, and store stuff. My family was instrumental in helping us be rally ready with various things, including lending us a German-based iPhone loaded with several charging apps and our new accounts we needed to pay for charging the ID. Buzz as neither of our US-based smartphones would work with those apps.
We raced between raindrops to wash our van and install the stickers, and charged it up one final time (charge #4), before heading off to Hanover for a quick hello at the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ headquarters and then to the rally start line just outside of Hamburg, in Basthorst, Germany. Once we got there, the heavens opened up, and it POURED. Thank goodness for Gore-Tex jackets! Eventually, the rain stopped, and fireworks lit up the night sky as we said goodnight in anticipation for the next day: Day 1 of the 16-day, nine-country Baltic Sea Circle Rally. Jet lag be darned, we were flying high on excitement and couldn’t wait for the northernmost rally in the world to start.
Buckle your seatbelts as the following are daily rally recaps as we told them when they happened.
Day 1: Basthorst, Germany to Falkenburg, Sweden
The 2024 @superlativeadventureclub Baltic Sea Circle Rally start line at Basthorst, Germany to Falkenburg, Sweden!
DAY 1 QUICK STATS:
- 11 hours, 50 minutes
- 587 kilometers/365 miles
- 3 charges (2 new charge apps)
- 1 ferry (Germany to Denmark)
- Germany, Denmark, Sweden
We were one of 140 total BSCR teams, although we’re the only all-electric vehicle and the only team outside of Europe to compete this year. The official rally start included another Superlative Adventure Club, or SAC, rally, the Viking Sun. They did only the Scandinavia portion. I believe there were 320 total starting teams for both events.
Day 1’s goal was to make it through Germany and Denmark and camp at the Skälderviken beach in Sweden (or pretty much anywhere around there as we quickly found out). We took our first ferry of the rally (from Puttgarden, Germany to Rødbyhavn, Denmark) and spent the night wild camping near a wind farm in Falkenberg, Sweden.
Charging Challenges
After smooth-sailing charging experiences in Germany, charging in Denmark and Sweden wasn’t as easy. None of the dozen-plus apps or four charging cards worked in both countries, though our research said that many of them should’ve.
However, Andy was able to download coordinating charge apps successfully with each new machine today to charge our Volkswagen ID. Buzz van. We learned every charger company was very different, even from country to country, so it took a while to figure things out on the fly.
The German-spec short wheelbase Volkswagen ID. Buzz van we drove had been working out well. It was quiet, very comfortable, and fun to drive. Our first night sleeping atop the Ququq sleeping system was great. We slept extremely well after our nearly 12-hour-long day on the road.
This rally consists of nine countries, 16 days, and about 5,000 miles if all goes well. No GPS is allowed, and you must stay off of main motorways, so paper maps and our sense of adventure was required. 👊 Stay tuned as we have 15 more days of jam-packed adventures to share with you! Articles, podcasts, and radio will follow. Starting line photo courtesy: @peugeot_106_rallyteam.
Day 2: Falkenburg, Sweden to the Outskirts of Oslo, Norway
The rain stopped for the 2024 @superlativeadventureclub Baltic Sea Circle Rally as we made our way from Falkenburg, Sweden to the outskirts of Oslo, Norway.
DAY 2 QUICK STATS:
- 12 hours, 15 minutes
- 516 kilometers, 321 miles
- 3 charges (1 new charging app)
- No ferries
- Norway (4 of 9 countries)
Thanks to the kindness of a Polestar EV owner in Töcksfors, Sweden, we learned Tesla Superchargers could charge a variety of EVs, including our Volkswagen ID. Buzz. We were able to download that app onto my nephew’s German-based phone (which to that point, housed all our charging apps), and quickly connect. This was a game-changer for us!
As we continued to figure out what the rally “meant” by non-motorways, we found ourselves on farm roads and narrow paths that tractors could barely make their way down, let alone two-way traffic. But, we were playing the rally game to the best of our ability, making our way from southern Sweden to Båstnäs, a tiny village home to an enormous car graveyard.
Our Task of the Day (among lots of missions) was to find the mossiest vehicle of the bunch. Pressed for time, we found a great one on a pile of chassis, snapped a necessary photo for points, and moved on.
It was another three-charge day (with one new app), and with the help of ioverlander.com, we found a great little place to wild camp at just outside of Oslo, Norway. Tomorrow would be our second longest-ever drive day at over 16 hours long—the name of this game is ENDURANCE.
Day 3: Outskirts of Oslo, Norway to Molde, Norway
We pressed on for our first full day in Norway! The 2024 Baltic Sea Circle Rally kicked off as most teams left the Oslo area.
DAY 3 QUICK STATS:
- 16 hours, 10 minutes
- 568 kilometers, 353 miles
- 3 charges / first broken chargers
- Two ferries
- Still in Norway (4 of 9 countries)
We passed through Lillehammer, host of the 1994 Winter Olympics, detoured to see the Geirangerfjord via the stunning Road 63, and got to an organized campsite at 9:55pm after three charges and two ferries that took us from Eidsdal to the Linge area and Vestnes to Molde, Norway where we found our first organized camp spot to lay our heads.
Starting at 5:45am, we proceeded to finish a long day: 16 hours and 10 minutes of driving, ferry riding, and charging. We encountered gravel tracks, sheep and cows in the road, and our first set of broken EV chargers. But, we witnessed spectacular scenery and started to realize that Norway had something special to offer (other than slow speed limits and dried fish): insanely beautiful landscapes. We knew it’d only get better from here on out.
Next up? Day 4 includes Norway’s Atlantic Road, or “The Road of the Seas.” The trek features the region’s high bridges, countless islands, and more.
Day 4: Molde, Norway to Namsskogan, Norway
We started to realize just how big Norway was. The speed limits were also very slow. The 2024 Baltic Sea Circle Rally continued on as we left the Molde, Norway area and ended up in Namsskogan.
DAY 4 QUICK STATS:
- 13 hours, 25 minutes
- 310 kilometers, 193 miles
- 2 charges
- One ferry
- Eaten alive by bugs
- Still in Norway (4 of 9 countries)
After Day 3’s exhausting push (16 hours and 10 minutes), we still managed to leave at 6:05am on Day 4. We knew the Atlantic Road, otherwise known as The Road of the Seas, would surely impress us. And that it did! Intertwined high-arched bridges and twisting landscapes far exceeded our expectations. Someday, we hope to go back.
Afterward, we pressed on and bypassed the city of Trondheim and other towns like Steinkjer, going beyond the roadbook’s suggested stop of Namsos and ending up in Namsskogan, Norway. We found another organized campsite and stayed among new rally friends, but got eaten alive by tiny bugs as we ate a delicious dinner: Volkswagen curry bockwurst!
Day 5 will be a major achievement, crossing over our third Arctic Circle ever: Norway! Stay tuned to our next article, featuring rally days 5-8 in both written and video form.