Norway

12 years ago I lost a friend my own age; fit and active, life and sole of the party, went to bed feeling unwell and at the age of 42 slipped away in her sleep. I was working 16 hours a day, climbing the corporate ladder by rescuing stricken projects with not much time for pleases and thank yous as multi million pound projects were brought back from the brink. No birthdays, no holidays, no fun drives out in the car I had bought cash with the overtime earned.

What has this got to do with Living the Legend you may ponder? Those twelve years ago, I ‘owned the legend’, but wasn’t actually ‘living the legend’. Overnight priorities changed and I spent the next five years extracting myself from one life and creating a new life worth remembering, one steeped in spontaneity and hair brained ideas like driving aged and by all accounts stratospheric mileage Porsches past the arctic circle to the northern reaches of Norway and back down to Geiranger to meet Porsche Club Norway and a bunch of the Driven not Hidden Collective (9werks) for the annual Porsche gathering.

It is always tempting to covert newer, faster models, without taking the time to enjoy what you have. Slowing down to enjoy the 996 C4S and other cars instead of chasing the next dream has lifted me into a new reality of meeting people and ticking off bucket lists leading to me writing this column thousands of miles from home having driven two of our cars 3100 miles across the most stunning scenery you could wish for.

Starting off just south of London we have driven through six countries up the east coast of Sweden to turn at Tromso and head down. For once I was not at the helm of my C4S with that being driven by my partner while I cruised the 928. It is a surreal experience watching your car ahead and in the rearview mirror as we have flank Fjords, crossed bridges hopping islands. While the weather has been excellent, the range in climate has seen us drive through -2 C spring melt through to Trondheim basking in 25 C heat, and every possibility in between. Both cars have performed without fault with one having covered 234 000 miles while the 996 sitting just over 134 000 miles; both a testament to Porsche engineering.

By the time we arrive home we will have covered 6000 miles in sixteen days of a real driving holiday. It is what we enjoy and already have the next three adventures lined up with the follow up trip of 1000 miles booked for two weeks time

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We may never own a box fresh model specced to our very tastes, but if it means we get to use the fantastic selection we have already as they were design, then that is the sacrifice we need to make. The friends we make and places we see are worth more than the ticks in the box of a dealers spec sheet. As I write this my phone is buzzing, fellow columnist Nick Jeffries, letting me know the rear guard has landed and are making their way over from the airport for the start of a long weekend of Porsche fun amongst the Fjords. It will be great to meet everyone again brought together by our enjoyment of the marque who have been following our mad cap dash to the arctic circle and back on social media.

I don’t really have a bucket list but a few loose ideas of things I want to see or do and the will to spontaneously grab the opportunity today if I can, not waiting for tomorrow. If I did have one though, I would tick off: Looking out across the arctic ocean ‘in the most northerly Porsche IN THE WORLD’ said in a Jeremy Clarkson voice.