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Published: December 13th 2017
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Sun 10 December 2017 Honningsvag & the North Cape After brief early stops in Hammerfest and Havoysund we arrive in Honningsvag, the gateway to the spectacular North Cape. Honningsvag is the nearest port to the North Cape which is only 2000 kilometres from the Geographical North Pole. We enjoy the magnificent sub-Arctic landscape as we crossed the 71st parallel on our journey towards the North Cape, the northernmost point on the continent.
The bus we were travelling in, had very noisy chains on the tyres. In this area the vehicles can’t use the winter tyres with spikes because there is not enough grip for the deep snow and ice.
At this time of the year, the road is only opened for 2-3 hours because of the snow build up. The graders go through the road first before all the busses can ferry the people to North Cape. That is why it is only open for the maximum of 3 hours as it snows/ices over. There were about 6 busses full of people.
On arriving at the NordKapp visitor’s centre, covered in snow, we walked through the building and
sited the iconic world globe perched on the cliff. It looked so different when compared to when we saw the area in the summer.
The obligatory photos standing in front of the globe was next on the agenda. It was magically with all the snow around. We looked over to the neighbouring cliff to show Sheryl were we had parked our motorhome in 2014 to watch the midnight sun.
Tom and I thought that is was as cold then as it was today because there was no wind blowing today. It was a fantastic temperature at about -3 degrees. The wind-chill factor in July 2014 was freezing. Today we were so lucky as a week earlier it was -25 degrees and snowing.
We then walked through more snow, over to the Children of the World monument before going back into the visitor’s centre.
The building had a very distinctive Christmas feel to it with reindeers and sleigh in the centre of the main room. The Cave of Lights was next and then the movie on the history and weather of the region. There was the souvenir shop of
course as well as descriptions on the northern lights and the midnight sun and explanation of the Children of the World monument. In summary, it heralds the importance of the word working together for the benefit of the children.
It was then time to get back to the ship for our last leg of our cruise.
The Hurtigruten ship continued north, sailing in the heartland of the indigenous Sami people. We passed their ancient sacred site, the rock formation Finnkirka, and as we approach our next stop, the fishing village Kjollefjord. As we were passing the sacred site, my camera was not functioning as it usually does as I had been fiddling with it to work out to see if I could put it on a longer exposure for our next siting of the northern lights. Oh well!
That night we had to put our suitcases out near the lift, so they were collected by the ship’s crew to put them on the bus the next day. Sheryl & I did some washing in the ship’s laundry. Surprisingly the machines needed no coins.
In the evenings after dinner,
5 great couples joined us in the café area for a coffee and chat. The group has been so good and all of us have travelled considerably so everyone was easy going and not much phased us all. It was so interesting to hear others’ travel stories. The only problem is that the travel list suddenly extends again.
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