67 ....71 Degrees North...at last

Tuesday 27^th Sept.

We were expecting a dry tent to start the morning off. However, at about 2am it started to rain heavily and carried on for the rest of the night.....and all day too.  We were a little bit peed off and on to say the least.  We struck gold though as we battled through the grey fog, when I spotted dolphins in the Fjord and as we both struggled to get our cameras ready for action, a white tailed eagle flew through the scene.  We both missed that photo opportunity, but our faith had been restored and we tackled the rest of the weather with a new spring in our step.

Wet is wet

Draining wet

This is how the cross country skiiers train. She was going up hill

Our journey northwards took us further along the E6, which has been our main route through Norway.  At this point it is a normal two lane road, one either way.  There is very little traffic, very little vegetation, but lots of herds of reindeer.  Bearing in mind that this is the main route for lorries as well, it can get a bit hazardous and whilst we were busy taking photos of these beautiful creatures, a lorry coming the opposite direction had to ram on his brakes and took to the middle of the road to avoid a stag and his harem crossing the road.  I don’t think they are related to the lemmings, but maybe it has something to do with the awful weather that makes them all suicidal.  We again saw loads of birds of prey.

Is that snow, no its Rain Dear.

This was at the side of the road

I don't have this problem when Santa's in charge

Did we struggle to get this piccy or what ! A white tailed Sea Eagle

This place realy is bleak. Very few trees survive this environment.

We drove through the final part of our journey north and had to drive through a tunnel that connects the mainland to the northern most point. This tunnel was 8.2k’s long and was quite disconcerting in that you could see for ages as it went downhill, apparently it is 200m’s below sea level, and then we watched it go back up again. (Ray’s ears kept popping).

We crossed 71 degrees north and then had to start looking for somewhere to stay. Owing to the fact that it was a lot colder here and still drizzly, we wanted to be in a hotel or at least in a cabin.  Having consulted our trusty “where to stay and what is still open in Norway at this time of year book”, we didn’t think it would be too difficult.  It was, sites and hotels that were shown open to the end of September, as in the 30^th, had obviously had a bumper season and closed early.   

It was looking like wild camping, and in a land of nothingness, we weren’t going to be too difficult to spot, but that was only if there were any people to see us.  We tried our last phone number which was a cabin on the west side of the island, approximately 40k’s from NordKapp.  Ray rang a very charming man named Bjorn who said he had a lovely cabin with a sea view and we could stay for 3 nights.  We arrived there about seven just as it was getting dark.  Having settled in and watched a DVD at about 10:30 we got in Gromit and headed back off into the hills and find a bit of clear sky so we could look for the northern lights.  We saw them briefly and faintly, but we did see an amazing shooting star. It is certainly the brightest one we have ever seen.

Wednesday 28^th Sept.

We awoke to joy of joys, lovely sunshine.  We sorted ourselves out then got Leon and off we went to the most northern point in Europe.  If yesterday’s scenery was bleak, today’s was bleaker.  By the time we reached NordKapp, there was a really cold wind blowing which dropped the temperature right down. Nordkapp (North Cape) was first discovered and named by a Brit called Richard Chancellor in 1533 whilst looking for a north east passage to china.

There was only one other person there when we arrived and then an Italian contingent arrived waving their flag, so not to be outdone, we got out our big guns, the Union Jack and Leon.

The Big Guns.

We did not know we were making the same pose. We know each other too well.!

From there it was down into Honningsvag for a spot of lunch and then back to our little cabin and a much needed afternoon nap, in preparation for hitting the hills later on to see the northern lights, sky’s permitting.

ON the road to Honinngsveg

A view from our dinner table at Honinngsveg

Ray says the troll is the one on the right.

We then drove back to our cabin.

Our cabin

The boat that goes with the cabin is the little dark one on the left.

We have the upstairs bit. Half of it is too low to stand up in. but it is quaint and we like it.

At about 11:30 we noticed that the sky was clear, albeit for a short while, so we jumped in Gromit, went about 5 miles back along the road for a clear view of the sky and managed to take a bad photo. It was however my first attempt at a night photo so I am not too dissapointed.