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Overnight Nordnorge stopped in Vardø and Vadsø. Ships only stop at Vadsø on the Northbound route, not the Southbound – 34 ports on the way up but only 33 ports on the way back down. Whilst we weren’t up to watch the sail-in, a local lady, Anita Isaksen, captured our ship heading in and out of Vadsø and shared them to the Facebook Group.
Kirkenes was the half way point of our cruise. All the interesting excursions were happening out of this port. The husky ride, the trip to the Russian border (just 30km away from here) and the King Crab expedition all sounded really good. We were only in port for a little over 3 hours so we could only do one. We settled for the King Crab excursion.
We were up on deck to watch the sail into Kirkenes and it was stunning. Temperatures were cold – around -22C and the sea approaching port had started to freeze over. The ships coming into port keep breaking the ice up and the gulf stream helps the sea from completely freezing over.
With the temperatures being so low, we had really layered up that morning and good barely move! Four layers on top plus jackets and two on the bottom with two layers of socks and hat/hood. Balaclavas were packed in our rucksack in case they would be needed as were our Yaktrax. The only issue with all the layers is you need to get outside pretty quickly as you overheat. Deck 5 beckoned so we could watch the sail in to Kirkenes. We loved the patterns the broken ice was making in the sea.
There were two vertical rainbows in the skies (there was a third but this was hidden by the ship). It was a rare phenomena only seen in the Arctic at certain times. Our guide on the bus to take us to the Snow Hotel said it was the Norwegian sun, the Finnish sun and the Russian sun as all these borders are close to here.
As soon as the ship docked, all passengers were trying to disembark to go on excursions or to travel on to the next part of their adventures. We were off and found our coach to take us to the Snow Hotel, about 15 mins away. The scenery was particularly stunning as we passed the frozen lakes and fjords. A fresh fall of snow made everything look pretty, especially as the trees were holding onto the snow.
We arrived at the Snow Hotel and met our guides for the excursion. Patricia (a lady from Poland) was the main lady looking after us for the morning. We were first led to the Dressing Room to put on outer overalls, balaclavas, gloves and helmets. The Michelin man was the look of the day – we could barely move with all the layers.
Out next challenge was getting into the sleds. You need to launch yourself into the sled bottom first, then try and lift your legs over the sides of the sled. Once everyone was safely aboard, we set up. You felt every bump the snow mobile and sled went over. Jon was sat in the very back and he said this row kept being launched up in the air!
We had to slow down as we passed the group that were doing husky dog sledding so we didn’t spook them. We were then heading out onto the frozen fjords and towards the crab fishing sites. The ice was a minimum of 30cms thick for people to taking groups on there.
Once we arrived, we all disembarked. Patricia and the other guide opened up the hole in the ice and then started hauling the cage up with the King Crabs in. The only ones that can be eaten are the smaller crabs. They can grow up to 2 metres in leg span. Any females caught need to the thrown back into the water.
Not sure if they had preloaded the cages with just the right amount of King Crabs for the group or just lucky! Patricia then took out her knife and deftly killed the crabs. The crabs are known as King Crabs as they French call them [Crab] Royale – Royal Crabs – because of their Blue Blood. Patricia did warn us they will still move for up to 20 minutes afterwards.
She then handed the crabs around so everyone cold get photos holding them. She advised to hold the crabs away from the body so no blood drips onto your boots (they won’t smell particularly good when we got back to the ship) and also it makes the crabs look bigger in the photos!
Once we’d all got the photos we wanted, she then proceeded to prepare the crab ready for cooking. Unlike other crabs, you don’t eat anything under the main body of the crab – it just contains the digestive system. All the legs were cut off to be taken back to the restaurant to be cooked for us. The crab bodies were put into a black binbag to be disposed off. Patricia then showed us the extra legs the crab has tucked under the shell. Small legs with brushes on the end to help the crab clean itself up.
Now the tricky part again – loading ourselves back up on the sleds to go back to the hotel. Once back, we needed to hand back the overalls, helmet, gloves and balaclavas and we were then taken to the restaurant. Between the dressing room and the dining table, we’d gained an extra three dining companions. One guy was paranoid it was him – but Patricia checked and he was one of the expected guests. It did mean that not all guests that paid for the excursion got a claw and a leg – they received two legs instead.
Patricia demonstrated how to get the crab meat out of the legs and the claw. Much easier than cracking a lobster! All you needed was a pair of Scissors. It was really surprising just how much crab meat came out of the legs. The traditional way to eat the crab was sliced white bread, buttered, spread with mayonnaise, the crab meat piled on top then finally a squeeze of lemon over the crab. It was delicious.
The crab meat was unlimited – they kept coming around offering more legs to eat. Most took one or two extra and I don’t think anyone could manage any more. We had one extra.
There was very little time to look around the Snow Hotel. It was really just the walk back to the bus that you got to see. They were building a new part of the snow hotel so was quite intriguing to see the work that goes into this. It wasn’t going to be open for another couple of weeks. We thought it quite late to start building given we were in February. There were some reindeer and huskies to see plus other statues.
The journey back to the ship was just as pretty and a real shame that we no time to pop into the little shop by the port. The ship was itching to set sail so just time for a couple of ship photos and back onboard. We headed straight up to Deck 5 to see us sail away. In the 3.15 hours that we’d been in port, the sea had started to ice back over. Nothing too thick though.
The sea was full of ice and the mountains/hills at either side were chock full of snow. We had no need for lunch today as we were full from the King Crab. Back to the cabin and de-layer ourselves and have a couple of hours to chill.
Our next port of call was back at Vardo. We stopped here earlier today when we were asleep!. We wrapped ourselves up and headed back out on deck to watch the sail into Vardo. It did make up chuckle that the first thing you see was a great big sign saying “Make the North Great Again!” The town was spread out around the harbour. We were docked up for 55 mins. We headed off the ship to take some photos of the ship but decided not to venture into town to see what was there. Jon was fascinated and watched how the brought cars onboard … they had a lift!!
Just as we were leaving Vardo, the Northern Lights came out to play again. Not too bright but hopefully a taste of what’s to come this evening!
We headed down to the Gathering this evening. No David tonight – we had Robin and the newest member of the excursion team, Ana-Therese. We had facts about brown bears today – there are 200 or so in Norway, mostly in the Kirkenes area.
With the gathering a little later than usual, we didn’t have long until dinner. We wondered if we would have new table mates join us. Alas when we got to dinner, Ene had been moved across to the other side of the dining room and Nikolaus was looking after us. Jon likened his talking to Hannibel Lecter from Silence of the Lambs, There was no chit-chat, no recommendations, just taking the orders very slowly … and taking away a fork when we ordered soup?! Someone was meant to be seated with us as bread was on the table, but no-one showed up. We were on our own!
We had just ordered our food when the announcement came that the Northern Lights were out but no chance of diving out. For our meal, we both chose Borscht – very different to what we expected. For mains, I chose the smoked duck )amazing) and Jon chose the locally caught Lingfish. We both went for the Raspberry mousse for pudding. Just as we were finishing our meal, the call came over the tannoy for Northern Lights sighting. It was at that moment, our waiter decided to become really chatty and try as we might, we struggled to break away to head back to cabin and layer up again.
We made it out on deck to see the lights as we approached Båtsfjord. Not as bright as previous nights but the grey swirl was visible with the green becoming visible via the mobile phone camera. We stayed out until we came into dock at Båtsfjord – whilst at sea, the wind was bitter so we tried to take a little shelter whilst out on deck. It was funny trying to walk to the front as the wind was so strong you could barely step forward. Anyone on the petite side was in real danger of being blown over!
Back to the cabin to warm up – I went out on deck to watch the sail in to Berlevåg and the lights came out once more. I was feeling quite smug that I was out on deck and spotted them before anyone else. As soon as the bridge spots any Northern Light activity, they do broadcast out to all cabins. There’s a setting on the cabin phone that allows all these announcements between 8am-10pm to come through into your cabin so you don’t miss anything.
This was the largest swayth of lights we’d seen, visible from the front, port and starboard sides. One section was quite bright but rest was fairly muted. I was really starting to feel the cold so decided to call it a night and head to bed.
