Lapland is a winter wonderland that will thrill kids from one to 92 (as Nat King Cole liked to sing) with reindeer, elves and snowy skids all within easy reach of Rovaniemi.

It’s minus 30 degrees centigrade, but I'm sweating profusely. I'm driving a car with no roof at a speed that must boost the wind chill factor to a thoroughly frostbiting figure, and yet things continue to heat up inside the cockpit.

I would enter a first-generation Toyota Prius in the Midnight Sun to Red Sea Marathon Rally. Starting from northern Sweden, we would have 5,000 miles and ten countries to cover, arriving in Jordan in just 20 days.

Oresundsbron isn’t just a bridge - it’s a bridge, a man-made island and a tunnel that link Copenhagen in Denmark with Malmo in Sweden and is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary this year.

It seemed like a good idea. Drive from London to the northernmost point in Europe. In a convertible. With the roof down. In February.