ON THE ROAD A LO N E
Self-isolation is nothing new for photographer Kasper Høglund, who lives in his Discovery 4 in the spectacular Arctic wilderness
WITH the world in pandemic lockdown and some folk unable to get their heads around the concept of self-isolation, allow us to introduce a young man who positively loves being alone – as long as he has his Land Rover for company, of course. Kasper Høglund, 23, from Norway, has been on the road alone for 15 months now. He’s currently deep inside the Arctic Circle, enjoying every moment of it – and with no plans to return to civilisation in the foreseeable future. This is his story… “I had been working as a teacher’s assistant for about four years, focused on children with special needs. I had planned to become a teacher, because teaching was something I was passionate about, and I enjoyed teaching others, but sadly I had no interest in the topics that you find in the traditional elementary school and I couldn’t see myself doing that for the rest of my days before trying out more things in life. I needed to find a way of disconnecting once in a while, so I bought a tent and started to hike around Oslo, where I lived at the time. “Since I was visiting a lot of pretty places, I borrowed a camera to take some pictures. As my interest for travelling grew, so did my interest in photography. Soon I was spending more nights in a tent than in my apartment in the city centre. After doing this half a year, I didn’t want go back to the big city. “I had a passion for making food outside, sleeping in harsh conditions and documenting it, with my camera. The photography was eventually the passion that grew the strongest. I wanted to capture more, see more and do more.” The apartment was the first to go. Kasper moved out on New Year’s Eve 2018. His new home was a Discovery 4. “I wanted to get to places the usual camper van won´t go,” he explains. “I grew up with Land Rovers on the driveway. My dad had a Discovery 3, so I bought a Discovery 4, reasoning that it would have fewer faults than the earlier model. I started sleeping in it right away, but it was a rolling conversion while I worked towards the camping set-up I have today. “I did all the work myself, but couldn’t have done it without the use of a friend’s garage. Wiring and fiddling with wooden parts outside is not the best during a typical Norwegian winter. Working in the warm helped a lot! The majority of the build was done in the first month. There was still more to do, but it was capable as a camper.” Kasper’s initial plan was to head off exploring for a year. But as he ventured into Norway’s remote but spectacular scenery, he took some amazing photographs – including the images you can see on these pages – and found he could make a living from what had been just a hobby. Soon he headed north on a 22 hour drive to the legendary Lofoten Islands. If you haven’t heard of them, let Kasper explain... “If you take the tallest mountains in the Alps, flood them with water so just the peaks protrude from the sea, that’s how the Lofoten Islands look. Words can’t do them justice, so hopefully the pictures do! “The islands were closed off from the rest of Norway until about 100 years ago. The people lived off fishing, which is why there are boat houses and fishing lodges all over the place. They are still here, and used as tourist hostels. They have become a bit of a tourist spot, but only in the summer,