Day 10 – 19 July 2023 – Honningsvag

We wake to low cloud & mountains we can see through the mist. It is disappointing to see the fog, unless the weather changes we won’t see a thing when we go out on our excursion. We have to check the clock as there is no other clue as to whether it is night or day – the sun does not set. It is 5am so we go back to bed. We are having breakfast as the ship cruises into the port of Honnisvag, there are lots of fishing boats in port, large & small.  We watch the ship dock & tie up as we finish breakfast & decide to go for a walk around Honnisvag, even though it is misty rain, cold & windy.

The Captain greets us at the end of the gangplank as we disembark in the rain & tells us this is Nordskapp weather. The ship is docked very close to the town & we wander around the docks first, looking at all the fishing boats. As we turn to go back the Hurtigruten ship “Polarlys” enters port with three loud blasts of its horn. The main street of Honnisvag is short with an array of shops that sell all the basics of life, plus the odd tourist souvenir shop & café. All of the buildings in Honnisvag are painted in different colours & the town looks good with the array of colours. Above the town a mountain looms over & there are lines of avalanche fences to help prevent the snow from slipping in winter.

After lunch on the ship we put on more warm clothing & head off to our tour bus waiting on the pier to take us to Nordskapp (North Cape), the furthermost northern point of Norway. It takes around half an hour from Honnisvag to get out there through a treeless rocky landscape with lots of little lakes & small streams. It must be so bleak in winter. The carpark is packed with around 50 or more motorhomes plus cars & lots of motorbikes. The large visitor centre is packed with people so we walk through & out to the edge of the very high cliff. Thankfully the clouds have lifted & we have good views along the coast in both directions, we even see some blue sky. There is a large globe mounted on a plinth with crowds of tourists getting photos with it. We keep walking & then explore the museum in the Visitor Centre, it is small & interesting.

The Visitor Centre has four levels & we keep walking down the levels & find a tunnel that takes us down further. This tunnel has some interesting history displayed on the walls plus a small chapel that is very cleverly made as well as a small museum that features the King of Siam (Thailand) when he visited Nordkapp in 1907. We keep walking down the tunnel & we enter a large theatre with a light & sound show with some seating. A small door in the corner leads out to a very large viewing platform that was a former gun emplacement during the 2^nd World War. It is a very long way down, the clifftop it is 307 metres above sea level.

Outside again we explore some more of the clifftop on the other side, we are blessed with the weather as the tour groups in the morning had fog & could not see anything. It is very cold with the wind.  Before the road was built in 1956 tourists arrived by ship in Hornvika then had to hike up the track to the top & then walk another 3 kilometres up to the Nordkapp. We had two hours to explore but the time went quickly before it was back on the bus to the ship then back on board in time for dinner.  There are another two smaller cruise ships that arrived in port while we were away, that explains the constant stream of tourists we saw as we were departing the Nordkapp Visitor Centre.

As we ate dinner the ship departed the dock & sailed north so we enjoyed the views of the coast & then enjoyed the view of Nordkapp as the Captain sailed the ship close to land. The Captain explained that the true furthest north point is the end of the next headland along, it is another 40 metres north than Nordkapp. This headland is very low & uninspiring, nothing like the towering awe inspiring cliffs of Nordkapp. We sit & chat with two ladies from Belgium whilst enjoying the views, they were on the tour to Nordkapp in the morning & could see nothing with the low cloud. It was cold & windy 7C but felt like minus 7.  We walked 8 km today. Another great day.