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Norway 2007: The North |
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Friday 1st June: Alta - Nordkapp - Olderfjord (132 km) |
Nordkapp (latitude 71 degrees, 10 minutes, 21 seconds North) is very accessible. In summer you can drive here in a car, take the bus or ride a bicycle.
It isn't quite the northernmost point in Europe - for that you must walk to Knivskjelodden, which is 4 km west of Nordkapp.
Neither is it the northernmost road in the world - there are roads further north on Spitzbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago.
But for most tourists, it is an easy way of getting as close as possible to the North Pole.
In the Southern Hemisphere this latitude is not very accessible for the tourist. It is similar to that of Norway's Troll Research Station in Antarctica (latitude 72 degrees, 7 seconds South).
Getting to the start of the tour took some time. We flew from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur, then Amsterdam and Oslo. In Oslo we took a smaller plane to Alta in the North of Norway. A day later we took a bus from Alta to Nordkapp via Honningsvåg. Here we are waiting for the early morning bus at Alta airport.
Nordkapp: the start of our journey south. Finally, after months of planning, we were ready to go. Or so we hoped.
The desolate landscape south of Nordkapp
The road between Nordkapp and Honningsvåg climbs and descends a number of times
North of Honningsvåg
Karen's diary:
We woke up at 3.30am. It was impossible to get back to sleep so we got up to eat breakfast and pack our things. Alta airport doubles up as a bus depot and periodically, large groups of people swarm into or out of the terminal as the planes and buses come and go. Our bus left at 6.50am, with very few people on board. Two of the passengers are Englishmen, brothers, who are planning to start walking at Nordkapp and walk all the way to Spain.
The bus fares seem a bit expensive but the drive is lovely. It is quite hilly. Near Alta there is plenty of forest, but further north the trees shrink and disappear and there is endless tundra, striped and splotched with spring snow. Reindeer are everywhere. They are not tall, but sturdy-looking, and are mostly a light, creamy colour. There are lots of cute little babies.
We arrived at Nordkapp at 11.00am. It is officially the northernmost point of Norway (and Europe) - an attractive place with a lookout and visitor's centre perched on a high cliff overlooking the Arctic Ocean. To the north was nothing but calm, blue sea and above us was a bright, blue sky. What good luck! At noon we said goodbye to the Englishmen and began to ride, destination: South. The road undulated, and we had some great views of the promontories and the sea.
We stopped for lunch at Honningsvåg, a picturesque town of multicoloured houses terraced up the hillsides, surrounded by crags. Between Honningsvåg and Olderfjord were three long tunnels, one of them under the sea. It is almost 7km long - you plunge steeply down at a 10% gradient for 3km, flatten out for a little bit, then climb slowly and steeply up for another 3km. The road is quite wide and well lit and seems perfectly safe, but if a vehicle goes by the noise is deafening. The coast road is very scenic and good, easy riding. We moved fast on a flat road with the wind behind us. By the time we got to Olderfjord at 8.30pm we were extremely tired and sore. We rented a cabin, showered, ate and collapsed into bed at 10.30pm.