North Cape is a rocky cape (307 m high cliff, 71°10′21″N, 25°47′40″E) in Norway on the island of Magerøya, connected to the mainland by a submarine road tunnel.
My journey to Nordkapp was one of the most exciting adventures I have had in my life.
The whole thing was planned as a cruise on the Bahia Sol yacht z Honningsvåg to Bodø in Norway.
Visiting the North Cape was just one of the stages of my journey. I had the pleasure of visiting this place twice from the land, once from the air, and then sailing around the cape from the northern side.
But one step at a time
First, I had to get to the airport in London. The stress started here because the bus was delayed. When it finally arrived, it turned out that the driver had only had his driving licence since... yesterday. It was his first day on the job! During the journey, we nearly crashed a few times....
I hadn't even started yet and the whole party could have ended up at home.. Fortunately, I managed to get to the airport on time, so I happily flew to Oslo with Ryanair.
I was in Oslo at 7:00 PM and the next flight, this time with SAS, was not until the following day at 11:00 AM
I had already been looking for accommodation options in Oslo, but the costs would exceed half of the budget for the entire two-week trip!
I decided to sleep at the airport. I read that in Norway it's quite normal and that people often do this. And as it turned out, I wasn't the only one. People were sleeping in every possible corner of the airport! At first, I found this spot. I thought it would be perfect..
Unfortunately, it was bright and loud in this place all the time. I decided to move to one of the restaurants that was closed, but the outdoor area was accessible. I took out my sleeping bag and lay down under one of the tables. I fell asleep..
The noise woke me up. It was a cleaning staff member who passed by me with a floor cleaning machine. I asked if I could stay here, and he just waved his hand and said, "Keep sleeping!". To this day, I regret not having recorded it, that I couldn't be bothered to take out my phone and take a picture...
I'm probably not going to surprise you if I say that I made it to the plane ;)
As you can see in the picture below, I was well-rested and relaxed ;)
During the flight! The views from the window were stunning
What really surprised me was the fact that during the flight over Norway, I had 5G internet the whole time. It wasn't the fastest, but it worked. I was having chats with Ancia on WhatsApp.
After landing in the small town of Alta, I had just half an hour to catch the last bus to Honningsvåg. You can imagine my stress! How could I leave the airport so quickly and find the bus stop? Was I facing another night at the airport? Alta closes its airport at night, so the situation was really tense.
I ran out of the plane onto the airport tarmac and then quickly made my way to the terminal. To my surprise, the entire terminal resembled a waiting area at a bus station. I passed passengers waiting for their flight and within just two minutes, I was outside! I stood at the stop with 28 minutes to spare. It was amazing!
It turned out that the bus from the airport only goes halfway along the route between Alta and Honningsvåg.
In Olderfjord, I had to change to another bus that took me to my destination.
During the transfer, I almost lost my phone. I left it on the bus; you can see it in the photo below, on the shelf in front of me. I realised I didn't have it when my Bluetooth headset disconnected. Fortunately, the bus hadn't left yet, so I was able to retrieve it.
The views through the window were stunning all the way. Despite the poor night, I was enchanted. It's hard to capture it with a camera.
I saw the first reindeer:
When I got off the bus in Honningsvåg, I immediately called Tadeusz, who was already waiting for me. He had rented a car that was to be our shelter for the next 24 hours!
Before we set off to Nordkapp, we decided to first check if our boat was already in port.
After greeting the captain and having a brief conversation, we set off towards the end of the world.
The views along the way were stunning!
On the way, we also stopped at Skarsvåg. It is the northernmost fishing village in the world..
The village has around 60 inhabitants, and the local fishing fleet mainly catches cod in the waters north of Magerøya. I wrote about what Magerøya is in the first paragraph of this text..
Zobacz film, jaki tam nagrałem w technologii 360 stopni. Można się rozglądać!
After a short break in the village, we returned to our route. We kept encountering reindeer!
We arrived at the car park around 22:00.
These barriers are intended to inform us that parking is free. The fee only applies to entry to the museum. We could purchase tickets from that gentleman or later, before entering the museum itself.
We parked the car in a huge car park.
Yes, you see correctly, someone has arrived there by lorry from Poland!
And so we went to conquer that dream point on the map of the world.
I took out the drone and took some aerial photos.
I also recorded this film. It's a sort of raw footage from the drone, but one day I will get around to editing it and create a whole, long, beautiful film from this trip. I promise. In the meantime, this is the best I have..
Make sure to see this to understand why I went there. What was the point of all that effort?
And that was the first time we conquered NordKapp from land and from the air!
We returned to the car and went to look for a place to stay overnight. We stopped at a small car park by the E69 road, a few kilometres from Nordkapp. The location is marked on the map as Aurora and Fjord View parking
Many tents were set up in the area, and visitors arrived there by both car and bicycle, camping in their tents near the car park..
We slept little, just a few hours.
We returned to the port early in the morning in Honningsvåg.
After a while, the rest of the crew arrived. They came by minibus from Poland..
We unpacked the food and started to wonder what next.
The rest of the crew also wanted to reach Nordkapp from the land side. We still had a car, but it was too small to accommodate us all. Eventually, a decision was made that we would all go by city bus. So we left the port and ... went to explore the city. ;)
In one of the sports equipment shops, I bought myself a rather nice jacket.
Finally, we went to the bus stop and once again took the bus to the end of the world! (that means another time for me and Tadek)
All these upheavals related to boarding our group, disembarking the previous crew, unpacking our things, and the subsequent shopping meant that we managed to catch the last bus of the day. Up top, we had only about 30 minutes to make it to the final return trip..
As seen in the video, as an experienced local expert, I pointed the way to the group ;)
This time the weather was not kind. There was a thick fog.
Będąc na górze postanowiliśmy wysłać sobie pocztówki z końca świata. Dodatkowo postanowiliśmy sprawdzić mit o tym, jakoby możnabyło wysyłać listy za darmo używając specjalnej pieczęci z nazwą okrętu/łodzi na jakiej się pływa. Mieliśmy taką pieczęć.
Wysłaliśmy pocztówki.
DOSZŁY!
We wandered around for a while, did some quick shopping in the store, took a group photo, and then we headed back. And that was the second time I reached Nordkapp from the mainland..
We returned to port, quick training,
...route planning...
...and you can move
... SLEEP! It was bright all the time, many of us forgot that we need to sleep!
Fortunately, we were woken up as we approached the area of Nordkapp and we could see this:
And in this way, we captured the cape from the sea side!
We did it! Next stop: Hammerfest! Ale o tym w innym artykule. Teraz tylko morze, cisza, spokój... But that's for another article. Now it's just the sea, silence, peace...
Nordkapp is often mistakenly regarded as the northernmost cape of Europe; in reality, another cape located on the same island about 4 kilometres further northwest, Knivskjellodden, extends 1457 m further north than Nordkapp. However, Knivskjellodden rises lower above sea level and, most importantly, there is no road leading to it, which is why Nordkapp is the destination for most trips to this area (and also the endpoint of the international E69 route). However, since both of these capes are located on an island, the northernmost piece of solid land in Europe should be considered Nordkinn (Kinnarodden) – a cape that lies 2 minutes and 19 seconds of latitude to the south (i.e. about 4.7 km further from the pole than Nordkapp) and approximately 68 km east of Nordkapp.
