The North Cape

We all had a big outing today to the North Cape.  Our ship came in to Honningsvaag just before noon where we had a three-hour stop.  It was enough time to hop on a bus and travel the 35 kilometers due north on the only road on the island.  The end of the road is the only reason anyone would want to be here – to see the North Cape.  It’s the farthest north one can go on this entire continent.  It’s 71 degrees north, and it was 53 degrees warm with a strong wind blowing that made it feel below zero.

The visitor’s center at the North Cape is most impressive and we could have spent more time there than we did.  I took the time to write a postcard home to Kaleb and we, of course, took several pictures.  We were told by all the employees just how incredibly lucky we were today to have blue skies, as it’s a rare thing in those parts.  I guess if we had to suffer through so much rain getting up this far north, it was worth it to have this one day be sunny.  Otherwise it’s not really possible to see anything, as the tip of this far north country is usually covered in a thick fog and all they can offer is photographs of sunny days so people know what they are supposed to be seeing.  Today just couldn’t have been any better.  It was so worth the extra cost to go on that excursion.

On the way up we saw lots of reindeer and had a ten-minute stop at a Sami camp to take photos of the locals, see reindeer up close and personal, and buy homemade souvenirs.  They were cheaper than in any stores, so it was a good outing.  I bought a few things made of reindeer hide and later in town I bought some reindeer antlers for just three bucks.  Such a deal.

The landscape this far north is pretty much just rock, although our guide said there are over 200 different plants growing on the island.  Hard to believe.  There wasn’t a tree to be seen anywhere.  All the houses look like Monopoly houses with just four basic walls and a roof.  We found out it was because the Germans had a “scorched ground” policy during WWII so every single city this far north was wiped out.  After the war, they basically just used one floor plan in order to build up the houses again in a hurry.  To make up for the “sameness” everyone has, they actually paint their houses different colors, which is not like the rest of Norway, so some people really enjoy the small villages in the north because they are so colorful.  But how people can live here year round is really a mystery.   Talk about remote! 

The winters this far north aren’t as cold as they are in Alaska because of the Gulf Stream coming up and keeping things fairly warm.  The highs are in the 50s in the summer, but the lows are only in the 20s, so it’s not that much of a range difference, unless a strong wind blows and brings in a chill factor – which we had some of today.

The tour guide told us a few months ago a terrible storm came in while the buses were heading from Hurtigruten (the ferry) up to the North Cape visitor’s center.  She said the road there is always closed in winter, expect to the tourists on the ferry, and the busses must travel together, right behind the snow plow.  She said it’s more like traveling in a tunnel since the snow banks on either side are so high.  But just this winter a huge wind came up and knocked three of the buses over on their sides.  Because everyone had on their seatbelts, no one was hurt, but they had to evacuate all the tourists and get them to the visitor’s center in a hurry.  They were stuck there for eleven hours until the wind died down and the other three busses could get everyone back to the boat.  The storm was so terrible the ferry couldn’t continue on it’s journey to the ends of Norway, so it had to turn around and head back south and give everyone a refund.  Glad our trip isn’t full of those kinds of unexpected events.  So far it’s just been smooth sailing.

Kory started on a new picture today of a fish seller we saw yesterday in Tromsø and I am now nearly done with the photobook of Israel.  Kaleb is at a birthday party this evening for his pal, Daniel.  We called him today from the North Cape – weird that we could even do that – and he was happily anticipating the birthday party tonight so his thoughts were on anything but us.  I so wish he could have transported him somehow to this North Cape today so he could have experienced it with us.  I’m already regretting that he wasn’t along.

The internet signal on the ship and in the towns where we have docked has been horrible, so I haven’t been able to get on the internet all day and am going through withdrawals.  I need to go to sleep early so I don’t start obsessing about it.  Even the TV signal froze in our rooms, which I guess is something we should expect this far north where for most of the year, EVERYTHING is frozen.  Glad we arrived in June.