Day 7 - Honningsvag and the North Cape

We got up early this morning to go on the bus to the North Cape.  The ride there was very nice.  The landscape is very pretty and we got to stop at the camp of one of the indigenous Sami people on the way.  This was done up for tourists, with the head of the family dressed in traditional costume and posing with one of his herd of reindeer.  There was also a gift shop there with a combination of handmade and production souvenirs.  However, these people do come to the island of Mageroya where Honningsvag and North Cape are located to graze their herds of reindeer every summer.   There are estimated to be about 5,000 reindeer on the island in the summer.  We saw several groups of 10-20 grazing along the road as we drove.  The guide said they are not afraid of people or vehicles, and sometimes have to be nudged off the roads.  They have to be careful not to hurt them however, or they will have to pay a fine to the family that owns them.

Our guide was very good.  She is a native of the area, attending college and coming home to work as a guide during the summers.  She told us all about the Sami people, the lifestyle of the Norwegian people who live in this remote area, and a little of the history.

We were a little disappointed when we got to the North Cape.  The fog had settled on top of the hills so thick that we could not see anything.  The visitor's center was nice though.  They had a good panoramic film and various exhibits showing the history of the discovery of the area.  There are a lot of arctic birds that nest in the area and there was a section in the visitor center talking about them.  We saw some of their nesting islands from a distance on the bus ride back.

Ray took this picture as we left port this afternoon.  It shows pretty well the fog we were in at the North Cape.  It was perfectly clear below, but a cloud sat on top of the plateau like icing on a cake.  


All aboard was supposed to be at 1:30PM so we could leave port at 2PM. Shortly after 1:30PM there were 3-4 announcements at 5 minute intervals asking for 2 passengers with Russian sounding names to contact guest services. The last announcement was in both English and Russian.  I believe we left port without these two.  Later at dinner, we overheard people at another table saying that the pilot boat brought these people out to the ship after we had cast off and were making way out of the bay.  I hope that's true.  Otherwise they are having big trouble.

 

One last picture for today.  Ray took this panoramic shot of Honningsvag as we sailed out of the bay.  (He was very happy to have figured out how to use the panoramic feature on his camera.  :-))

We are on our way to Murmansk, Russia now, and are scheduled to arrive in the morning.  The tough part is, we have to set our clocks 2 more hours ahead for the next 2 days to be on their time zone.  Norway is already 6 hours ahead of the U.S. eastern time zone, so we will be 8 hours ahead tomorrow.  We're skipping the show tonight so we have a chance of walking up in time for our tour tomorrow.