This morning we wake to a fine day for our drive to Nordkapp where the forecast is for rain and 7 degrees. We put on our thermals and all our clothing layers in preparation for the cold.
Our drive to Nordkapp takes us along a narrow road that hugs the coast with many buses, campervans and caravans on it. We see many Sami settlements and groups of reindeer on the hills. We are now above the snow line and there are still patches of snow on the ground. The wind is strong creating lots of white caps on the ocean and the reindeer are mostly sitting down on the ground to avoid it.
Arriving at Nordkapp we pay our entry ticket fee of about $50 Aus each and make our way into the magnificent visitor centre that contains several restaurants, a couple of cinema areas, a chapel, a bar, post office, shop and display areas about the history of Nordkapp. It’s huge! This certainly wasn’t here when we visited last in 1983.
We have a coffee and a snack while sitting overlooking the globe monument and surrounds that are quite foggy & misty rain.
We then buy some postcodes and post them back to the boys with the special Nordkapp postmark. We look at the displays telling us about the history of the area and the discovery of the cape that was originally named North Cape by the British explorer Richard Chancellor, who was searching for the east west passage.
The chapel is the most northerly chapel and although it’s only small it’s very modern and a nice quiet space.
The wind is so strong that we have trouble standing up straight, but at least it’s not raining and we can see to the ocean below. We walk to the globe monument and the to the children’s Peace Monument which is just lovely in its very stark setting.
We watch a documentary about Sami life in the Nordkapp region showing their fishing and hunting semi nomadic life.
We leave the Centre and start our drive down to a town called Honningsva & Goldie Radios that they have a flat tyre.
We turn around and go back to help them and by the time we get there Ros has the boot emptied and John is hitting the spinner off. Michael helps jack up the car and before we know it the boot is repacked, the spare is fitted and the flat is tied onto the luggage rack on the boot.
All done very quickly fortunately as it’s windy, raining & freezing cold.
When we get to Honningsva John & Ros have a new inner tube put into the tyre while we shop for dinner and we get back on the road to our accommodation at Snefjord, back along the coastal road.
For dinner Michael cooks us reindeer stroganoff with roasted vegetables and broccoli, followed by mixed berries for desert, it’s delicious.
We look outside the house we are staying in and see reindeer running around!
Leave a Reply