Norway - Part 7

Tromso to Karasjok

From Tromso we sailed overnight to Honningsvag. As we approached our furthest northern location there was no sign of sea ice or any snow on land except on the highest mountain tops. While sailing along we passed a wind turbine array. Click on the second panoramic scene below to enlarge it.

The captain announced a whale was passing the ship, but, by the time I scrambled outside, the whale had disappeared. Soon after we saw our first reindeer herd on the shore. We were too far away for closeup pictures. The white dots you see near the shoreline in the next picture are reindeer.

We arrived at Honningsvag, pictured below, at 70.98 degrees north latitude.

We left the ship at Honningsvag for a bus trip to the North Cape (Nordkapp), the northern most accessible spot on the European continent. As the bus drove north over Mageroya Island we were entertained and informed by our cheerful Sami guide. Apparently, all visitors who travel this route end up stopping to take photos of an elderly Sami man with his white reindeer. A small souvenir shop stood nearby and a few small houses were located across the road in this otherwise completely empty landscape. It seemed these local people made a living from passing tourists.

Eventually, we arrived at the North Cape. If you look on Google Maps, you will see that North Cape is actually not the northern most point on Mageroya Island. The narrow strip of land jutting out toward the sea near center in the following panoramic view is really the furthest northern point, but there is no road to that spot.

There is a monument at North Cape and an amusing visitor center where we took shelter from the significant wind chill outside. The latitude here is 71.17 degrees north, roughly 0.1 degree south of Prudhoe Bay on the northern coast of Alaska.

In the visitor center I descended a couple levels to view some quirky underground exhibits and dioramas. One diorama was a miniature recreation of Norwegian royalty visiting North Cape in the late 1800's before any roads were present. Visitors then arrived by boat at the base of an enormous, extremely steep climb up to the Cape. Some miniature diorama figures were pulling themselves up with the help of a rope running parallel to the steep path. Small diorama women dressed in full gowns were resting on rocks near the top. The strangest exhibit, I thought, was an entire room set up as a shrine memorializing the visit of the king of Thailand in 1907.

After warming up in the North Cape Visitor Center we boarded our bus again and drove back to Honningsvag with our smiling guide. There we got back on the ship and continued sailing over the "top" of Norway. The sea was rough here, and we experienced the worst ship motion of the entire trip. By dinner time I had no appetite and ate very little. We spent an uncomfortable night as the ship pitched and rolled.

In the morning we were longing for solid ground. The ship was an hour late docking at Kirkenes, but, finally, we stood on land again. Of course, it was raining as we boarded another bus for a drive to the Storskog border crossing between Norway and Russia. Dim, dreary, drizzly weather added to the depressing border scene below. You can see the gate to Russia in the distance on the right in the next picture.

It's not surprising there would be lots of Russian influence in this part of Norway. Apparently, there is a significant amount of everyday travel between the two countries. Lots of local signs feature messages in the Cyrillic alphabet, and the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church has left it's mark through history. Our guide took us to an old wooden Russian Orthodox chapel sitting among birch trees next to a river. The chapel was supposedly built in 1565.

Our next stop was a Sami museum in Varangerbotn where we had some lunch and viewed indoor and outdoor exhibits including a Sami boat and dwellings.

After lunch we returned to the bus for a long drive to Karasjok. Along the way we crossed into Finland for a time and drove many miles along the Tana River. At last, after dark, we arrived at our very nice hotel in Karasjok. After six nights on the ship it was wonderful to check into a fine, modern, large room that wasn't swaying to and fro! The night was completely cloudy, so no aurora viewing was possible.

The next morning was gray, overcast, and wet, as usual, but the rain had finally stopped. Our Sami guide first took us on a drive around Karasjok, a center of Sami culture and government. We stopped at the old church seen in the next picture.

On the church grounds, beside some birch trees, was a memorial stone with names of Norwegian soldiers who died in the area while clearing land mines left by Nazis in WWII.

The whole region around Karasjok endured great suffering and destruction from Germany in WWII. Our guide showed us the somber location of a mass grave and repeatedly gave examples of German scorched earth tactics applied to the region near the end of the war. She explained how the Nazis thought Russia would invade and attack through this territory, so the Germans burned or blew up buildings, houses, and infrastructure to slow the anticipated Russian advance.

We next stopped at the Sami cultural park near our hotel where our guide explained many things about Sami history, culture, and life. She showed us small and large examples of the traditional Sami shelter called a lavvu. The next two pictures show the outside and inside of a small lavvu.

We also spent time in the larger lavvu pictured below where our guide explained the elaborate rules governing lavvu group living. There was a kitchen area ruled by the senior woman, and assigned places around the central fire. Guests would sit humbly near the entrance door until invited to move elsewhere.

Before lunch our guide demonstrated how to lasso a reindeer and several in our group tried their luck on mounted reindeer antlers. Then we visited the gift shop where several attractive items were displayed, including the Sami jewelry shown below.

After lunch we visited the Sami Parliament. It was easy to understand the relatively recent proud open assertion of indigenous Sami identity, language, and culture after many years of pressure to assimilate the Sami into the larger Norwegian culture. The Parliament building was built to resemble a lavvu. Among the artwork displayed on building walls was a collection of Sami proverbs written in the Sami language. Some were typical words of wisdom like, "One can't go far on borrowed wits." Or, "Knowledge will keep you from getting stuck in the mud." But some others were amusingly odd: "Filth and tobacco are fine in dreams." Or, "Don't kill a louse on a book because then you'll be not be good at reading."

After visiting the Parliament we were given a few hours freedom. We walked partway up a nearby mountainside to search for a suitable dark aurora viewing site in case evening weather cleared, but we found lights from nearby buildings would interfere even there.

Dinner was served in the unique sod-covered, nearly underground Sami restaurant shown in the next picture.

We sat in a semicircle around a central fire as shown in the picture below. Dinner trays rested on log stumps. There were four such semicircles in the restaurant. Our first course was raw salmon. The second course was "elk stew" which we later learned was stew made from the meat of a moose - a smaller European cousin of the North American moose. The meat tasted very much like beef, and the stew was delicious.

After dinner the sky unexpectedly cleared and we saw a spectacular aurora display described in a previous post.

The next morning I woke with aurora hangover, happy, but tired. After breakfast we boarded our bus for a drive across Finnmark to Alta.