Hurtigruten Day 7: North Cape, Mehamn, Barents Sea

Today, we can sleep a little longer as the next excursion, the trip to the North Cape, does not begin until noon time. Thus, we start the day slowly. The nice weather seems to leave us. The clowds are low, although the blue sky and also the sun is visible in between, the trend is not that good. Around 09.00 a.m. we are supposed to come across the "MS Lofoten" and everybody is waiting at the larboard. But no ship appears; When all of a sudden there is a loud hoot, everybody runs to the starboard and there it is! They made a little joke and pass the wrong side, what a Bande!

Meanwhile, the islands strongly changed their character. It is over with the trees and bushes, only moss and lichens cover the cliffs. It got cold and here, it is still winter. We circumnavigate the peninsula Måsøy and land in Havøysund. Is the weather going to change positively? In between, it looks like that. But unfortunaltely, this definetely was the last blue spot in the sky. The further we get to the east, the darker, misty and colder it gets. In the passage at the south of the North Cap island Magerøya it starts to drizzle. Rita makes a preventive visit to the board boutique and buys a pair of fleece gloves (I expected this).

Shortly before 12 o'clock we land in Honningsvåg. The last country visit is waiting, the trip over the island to the North Cape. The sky is grey through and through. The landscape fits to it. Here, there is still late winter. Dirty snow remainings, frozen lakes and clowds and mist above. But we have to be happy and thankful, as it could have been since several days this way! On the way to the plateau of Magerøya, we see the first rentiers, shortly afterwards we do a little stop at the camp of Nils, the touristical model Sami people. He stands in his traditional costume with a rentier and lets readily take pictures of him. Beside, he built a tent in order to show how the Sami (in former times they were called Lappen) normally live. In a souvernir shop it is possible to buy all the things one does not need, thus we leave it.

We continue the last curves and kilometres up to the North Cape. It rains. The North Cape centre is lonesomely located in the mist. We are the only visitors, a thing that is really positive, as during the travel time, hundreds of tourists swarm here. We of course walks the last metres to the North Cape monument, the pyramide with the globe on it; General foto shooting, everybody makes pictures of everybody,as people want to keep records of having been there; A funny scene in the blue rain and mist weather. As nothing else is worth seeing, we do our unavoidable obligations in the tourist centre and inform our children per SMS about our current position, 71°10'21". Due to the special stamp, we write a postcard to ourselves.

The we descend into the panorama cinema and enjoy the worth seeing film about the North Cape in the course of the seasons. After that, we go down the alleyway to the rocks to the view hall (today with no view), passing the little museum and dioramas with historical scenes and visit straight the little ecumenical chapel. Now we feel like having a coffee and something to eat.

Meanwhile, the mist moved in order to give space to the rain, a thing that causes a better sight. I get outside again, I am on my own on the rocks and make some nice pictures of the view to the sea and the neighboured tongue of land with the really most northern point of europe, the Knivskjellodden, 71°11'08"; Now I have really enough, it strongly rains. Thus, back to the bus and we rapidly make the slalom auto stretch back to the ship. We have still some time left to have a look in the souvernir shop, elk socks for Samira, espresso cups for us, then back to the ship.

Here, there is a little snack for us excursionists, a zesty little tart, it tastes very good. Rita looks sad, as it is not gluten-free, but the cook is mercefully and makes a gluten-free zesty omelette with a salad! This is what I call service! Thus, we can kill the time up to the buffet at the evening without any problem.

The sea gets rougher. We are not in the North Atlantic any more but in the Barents Sea. The clowds are low, the wind is refreshing and drives the waves against us. We, or better said Rita, slowly notice the sea condition. It is still ok and the fresh air is nice. At the side of the starboard, there is the bird island Svaertholtklubben, but unfortunately there are no birds visible except the seagulls and the storm-petrels that continuously escort us. After a further hour on the open sea we approximate Kjøllefjord. At the side of the starboard, there are some peculiar rocks, the "Finnkirka", here, the sanctuary of the sami people should have been. Kjølleford is a pure sifhing harbour, there is a fisher boat at the dock and is surrounded by seagulls, there is obviously some waste. Here, we are are at the right end of the world, everything looks very bald and desolated.

Today, there is again an abundant buffet for the farewell, of course with lots of meat, fish, but also nice meat and vegetable dishes. Despite of the sea condition, it still tastes good and Rita can barely get her dessert to the table without loosing anything on the way.

At 08.00 p.m. we are in Mehamn, the place is more picturesque, coloured houses, amidst a big church, it seems to be a nice place when the sun shines.

On the way to Berlevåg it gets really stormy. The wind blows the waves to a height of 4 m and our ship bravely continues its way against the wind. It is slowly getting critical for Rita and she grabs the first superpep chewing gum in order to keep the stomach calmed. At the bar of deck no. 7 the storm is the easiest to bear, as the deck is located in the centre of the ship and this is the reason why it doesn't go so strongly up and down. But then a tray with dinnerware slips and everything gets broken. The service staff distributes some antislide mats for the tables so that the glasses are firm. In between, we try to pack our suitcases in the cabin, as they should be ready in front of the cabin until mignight for the pick up by the staff. But we can't even think on packing. Thus we wait until it is after 11.00 p.m. until getting to the harbour of Berlevåg. During this 30 minutes demurrage time we stowe everything what we do not need any more in the big suitcase and put it in front of the door.

We spend the further trip either up at the bar or warmly wrapped at the bow at the front of deck no. 5. In the fresh air, it is easier to bear the sea condition. Then we warm up again in the arm chairs of the bar and watch the storm petrels how they jet absolute accurately over the waves with a damned speed. They are obviously having fun. When do they sleep? There is still daylight, or is it daytime again?

It is late after midnight when we dare to go to our cabin and try to sleep. We lay with our heads in direction to the course, so that we can bear the up and down. But this feeling of relieving when the ship is descending from a wave and then the pressure in the matress when the ship goes up again, this is realy something one needs to get used to. Rita is laboriously chewing her gums against sickness and I doze around. We land a couple of times, in Båtsfjord, Vardø and Vadsø, but we notice this only casually. At 4.00 a.m., I look at the watch for the last time, then I finally fall asleep.

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Author: Rudi Kronenberger; Copyright: Patrick Wagner, www.urlaube.info