June 26, 2013 (Posted Aug 6)
Honnigsvag is a small fishing port on an island just off the coast of Norway. It was our starting point for a bus trip to the somewhat misnamed North Cape. North Cape is advertised, at 71 degrees 10 minutes north latitude, as the northernmost point in Europe. This would be true if it were not on an island adjacent to the mainland. The actual most northern point on the mainland, several miles to the east, is not quite so far north by a fraction of a degree of latitude. North Cape has the publicity, the modern visitor center and the crowds. Mageroya Island, the island on which North Cape lies, connects to the mainland by ferry and by a mile long tunnel under the sea. It is a popular destination for European vacationers traveling by ferry or driving campers as well as hosting a dozen or cruise ships per year.
Michael and I had originally signed up for a bird watching boat tour from another fishing village on the other side of the island. Only six people on our ship chose this excursion so it was canceled for lack of enough participants to run the tour. We were not interested in scuba diving for king crab, the other available tour, so we signed up for the tour to the very touristy North Cape Visitor Center.
A very strong wind was blowing as the Silver Cloud tried to dock at the small pier at Honnigsvag. For a while, we were not sure we would be able to go ashore at all. The captain was able to get lines secured on the third attempt and we made it ashore and onto the tour bus only a few minutes late. A local guide gave a narration about the settlement and the history of the island as we traveled over a paved road through rugged, treeless scenery. The external temperature was in the forties F. and the snow had almost all melted but the landscape was cold and forbidding even in the arctic summer.
The tour bus made a stop at a supposed Sami camp. Sami is the politically correct name for people called Laplanders when I was growing up. The "camp" was a gift shop and a nearby tent with a corral for a single reindeer. A Sami couple ran the place. We could see their house, a normal ranch style dwelling, just down the road. I imagine they put on their authentic Sami costumes and wait for the tour buses every day in summer. Our stop was a photo and shopping opportunity. Our guide told us not to touch the reindeer but to take pictures and perhaps visit with the Sami man stationed at a well-worn and obviously not inhabited tent. The gift shop next to this display was a frame building filled with Sami souvenirs mostly made in Finland. The wife ran the gift shop. Business was brisk. Four tour buses from Silver Cloud and several from the Hurtigruten ferry stopped there during the forty-five minutes or so our tour bus guide allotted for pictures and shopping.
The Sami are an ethnically distinct people inhabiting extreme northern Europe. Some are still nomadic following their reindeer herds across the most northern parts of Russia, Finland Sweden and Norway. Many are settled fisher folk and farmers. They are politically semi-autonomous having their own government but no homeland. They remind me of American Indians without official reservations. Historically they haven't been treated much better either. It was sad to see this couple making a living by dressing up for tourists, posing for pictures and selling trinkets.
The area around the visitor center at North Cape was cold and windy. I was glad to have my new brand Norwegian coat for the wind was really blowing. Eventually the cold and wind turned to cold rain. Michael and I paid our respects to the globe mounted near the edge of the 300-foot cliff. A couple of French bicyclists were celebrating the end of a long journey from Provance in the south of France to the north end of Europe by taking pictures of each other and their bicycles on the plinth of the globe. I think the main point of arriving at North Cape by whatever means of transport is to take a photo to prove you were there.
The visitor center was a new building housing a cafeteria, a bar-restaurant and a very large gift shop on the main level. There were three more levels going down into the rock of the cliff. Michael and I watched a time-lapse movie showing a typical year at the cape compressed to twenty minutes. We then explored the underground corridors full of historical exhibits. We wandered about the gift shop, took another look outside and waited for the return bus trip. Since neither Michael nor I are much interested in buying souvenirs, this type of excursion is mostly a waste of our time. We would much rather have visited a fishing village and seen real people living real lives. However, the trip was worth it for the scenery, the tour guide's narration and the ability to say we were there.
Silver Cloud's bridge crew had problems leaving Honnigssvag similar to the difficulties arriving. One of the lines snapped in a sudden gust of wind as we cast off. We stayed a bit less than six hours and the weather was very windy with occasional rainsqualls the whole time.
Oddly enough, the weather cleared and the temperature climbed as the Silver Cloud entered the Barents Sea north of the mainland. The Gulf Stream raises the water temperature along the north coast of Europe well into Russian waters. I was able to take a clear picture of the actual northernmost point in Europe. There was only empty ocean between us and the North Pole.
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