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We were now sailing up the last stretch of Western Norway before we sailed along the north of Norway. We had crossed latitude 71°. In the early hours of the morning, we slept through the stops at Øksfjord and Hammerfest.
We had breakfasted and up on deck to watch the sail in to Havøysund and see the wonderful colours in the sky.
We did see one lady getting around by a sled / scooter contraption. Seat on the front and she was stood on two ski rails and scooted along by pushing off with one foot.
The main port of call for today was Honningsvåg and we were due in a little before 11am. We had booked the excursion to take us to the North Cape and see the globe to mark this as the most Northerly point of Europe (whilst on an island, there’s a tunnel connecting it to the mainland so cars are drive across so counts as mainland Europe!).
Before we arrived in port, the postman came onboard again to stamp any postcards with the special Northern Cape postmark. This time, we didn’t post it but decided to bring this back home with us.
We went up on Deck for half an hour or so before our arrival in Honningsvåg. The passing scenery did not disappoint.
On arrival in Honningsvåg, it looked to be a really pretty town; had we not booked the trip, it would have been lovely to explore. Yes, there was the industrial dock and the warehouse but to the right was a little harbour surrounded by shops and houses. There had been fresh snowfall over night – the deck and rails were covered and shore-side everything looking white and pretty … and the locals driving around without any problems on the compacted snow.
No time to hang around though – we were only in port today for 3.5 hours. The coaches were a short walk away, passing the statue of Bamse, the Naval Sea Dog and the Troll.
Bamse was a St Bernard that became the heroic mascot of the Free Norwegian Forces during WW2. His owners boat, Thorodd (a whale catcher), was drafted into the Royal Norwegian Navy as a Minesweeper during World War II and Bamse was enrolled as an official crew member.
The story sounded just like the tale of “Just Nuisance” we heard about in Simonstown (South Africa).
There’s two statues of Bamse – the other being in Montrose, Scotland where his owner ended up after escaping Norway after the Germans invaded.
The North Cape point was a 35 minute drive away. All the roads were pretty much compacted snow, but a snowplough will clear some of the snow to make the roads passable. We crossed paths with a couple on our way there. Our guide did say that at times, a snowplough convoy is needed – the traffic follows the snowplough to where-ever its going!
The views heading up were stunning. The water had changed colour to an icy blue and looked cold. The sky was pink where the sun was rising and steel grey where the storm clouds were gathering.
On arriving at North Point, there are several interesting markers. There were a lot of people taking photos around the globe marking the North Cape so we took our time walking across, seeing some of the other markers.
The crowds had dispersed a little by the time we reached the globe and even managed to get a couple of photos without others in! When we got there, a group of Germans were celebrating someone’s 60th with a cake (complete with candles!) and two mini bottles of bubbly. Like their style!!
It was snowing at North Point so you got small glimpses of the views when the clouds allowed. Again, icy in places and people slipping over.
Inside the North Cape Centre, there was a large cafe and gift shop and a small exhibition.
We had about 1 hour 45 mins at the point before heading back. Once back in Honningsvåg, we had about 10 minutes before the ship was due to leave – the ships whistle sounded to give everyone a warning not to dally.
Near the car park, they had some racks to dry the Stokfish – a couple of fish were drying. They are hung for a couple of months on the rack, and can then last about 10 years!!! Must admit it didn’t look particularly appetising!
We pulled away from Honningsvåg and almost as soon as we were onboard. Almost immediately, the boat started pitching. The seas weren’t really rough, but it was nice to feel some motion so you know you’re at sea.
Both our guide today and the Excursion team were telling us about the reindeer – they are here on Magerøya Island in Summer but migrate back to the mainland over winter as there’s no food on the island to sustain them over winter. To get them across to the mainland, the herder used to capture one of the dominant female reindeer and tie her to a row boat. They would then row the boat across to the mainland and the rest of reindeer would follow, swimming behind. We were told they are pretty good swimmers – their hairs are hollow so they have a ready made lifejacket!
They showed us a video of this happening in the Gathering and it was just incredible to watch (click here).
Whilst some reindeer are still moved across to the mainland in this way, others are gathered up and transported by truck via the tunnel!
Jon’s first impression of tonight’s menu was a bit underwhelming but it turned out to be one of the nicest meals of the trip so far. The menu had “Bidos” down with no description – Google told us this was reindeer soup – a traditional Sami dish. It was a light broth with vegetables and delicious. We both then went for Arctic Char with a Choran Sauce (Bearnaise with added tomato) and this was the nicest fish we’d eaten so far. For pudding I had the Cloudberry Cream and Jon went for Chocolate Ice Cream.
The restaurant wasn’t busy tonight so we had a little time to chat to our waitress. We found out her name was Ene (we didn’t like to stare at the name badge). She’s from Estonia and both her and her husband work on Hurtigruten ships (different ships!). She is lovely and has really looked after us this week and given us some good advice on what to choose.
Afterwards, we went to book a table in Kysten for the meal upgrade we’d won. We opted for Friday night as there were no long port stops in the evening. The menu looked delicious so we are looking forward to it.
Jon was feeling shattered so we decided to just go back to the cabin tonight and chill. We can watch the Norwegian coverage of the Olympics and there’s also BBC World News. After the Olympic coverage finishes, random programmes keep popping up – Poirot and Heartbeat were two of them.
The ship does have an excellent webcam giving a captains eye view of where we are heading. At night you don’t see very much unless you are coming into port.
We stopped at Mehamn at 18.55 for 15 mins or so – nothing taken on/off the ship by the forklifts, but we picked up the passengers who had been on their snowmobile excursion from Knøllefjord. As soon as they were all onboard, we were on our way.
Final port of call for tonight is Berlevåg – we are only stopping here for 10 mins. Either we were running late or Richard With was running ahead of schedule as they were waiting for us to leave port so they could dock.
We were in luck with the Northern Lights again tonight – the grey wisps appeared as we approached Berlevåg and they hung around until we left port. Not terribly strong, but can to life through the camera lens.
