"Hunting the lights" tour to the Northcape

HUNTING THE LIGHTS - that is the English title for one of our tours in our winter brochure.

It sells pretty well and I always wanted to know what I'm actually selling there. On top of that, this programme would hopefully and finally bring me to the Northcape - after three miserably failed attemps to get there (for more details click attempt no. 1 / attempt no. 2 / attempt no. 3).

So the question was just when I would manage to get there. It should definitely be still this winter season. I didn't wanna wait another year. Always eager to discover new places in Scandinavia I asked Jana and Audrey to join me. However, Jana was already going to accompany one of her clients on exactly this tour some weekend in the end of February, so it was just Audrey to join me. We decided on the last weekend in March and booked all services of the tour (well, slightly modified though) for the dates 22-26/03/12.


Thursday 22nd March:

Early meeting with Audrey at the airport and Norwegian flight at 08:20 a.m. from Oslo to Tromsø. Upon arrival transfer by the public airport shuttle bus to Tromsø city, where we checked in to our hotel: Rica Ishavshotel - it's pretty much the best hotel in whole Tromsø... I got of course a special agent price there :-)

After check-in we went to Emma's Drømmekjøkken (Emma's Dreamkitchen) for lunch, a very cosy place with local food which we highly recommend also to our tourists. We had to try this place... and we were hungry :-)

Delicious, creamy fish-gratin with maccaroni noodles and shrimps accompanied by crunchy bacon,

juicy carrots and yummy potatos.

 Dessert: no words :-)

Totally filled up with goooooood food, we took a little tour through the city during which Audrey ended up equipping herself with a complete new skiing outfit. She "just want to have a look" at the store, "no shopping"... well, she walked out of G-Sport with a brand new pair of skiing pants and a new McKinley jacket - both on sale at 50%!

In the afternoon, at 3:30 p.m., we met up infront of our hotel, starting point of our fist activity of this tour: the dog sledding organised by Lyngsfjord Adventure.
First we got equipped with some super sexy, warm overalls.

 

The dogs - 5 per sledge - were already harnessed and ready for the tour, just waiting for us come.

Always 2 people shared one sledge, one driving and one sitting in the front on the sledge - with possibility to switch at half-way.

 Unfortunately it was raining all the time during the tour so I couldn't really take out the camera to take pictures of the tour itself.

The dogs had been running for about 1,5 hours like mad. I felt sorry for them that they had to pull us, not always on straight, but also on more difficult terrain. But apparently they love it. Everytime you had to break for some reason they turned around, looking at you with an expression like "What the hell do you do? Why do you break? Let me do my exercise and don't interrupt me right in the middle of running!".
Anyways, despite the rain also Audrey and I loved it. It was a great tour.

Right after the tour we were brought to the base camp of Lyngsfjord Adventure, to camp Tamok, where we enjoyed some soup and bread for dinner.

 

On the way back I could see my first Northern Lights :-) :-) :-)
It was a strong, green one, but not visible in that strength as it was partially covered by clowds. At one point on the road the bus driver that brought us back to Tromsø, found a place to stop and was so nice to give us the time to admire this natural phenomenon!
The first picture below shows my miserable attempt to take a picture of it. I just say pocket camera! LOL!

So actually I got in contact with one of the tour participants with a very much better camera, who was so nice to share his pictures with Audrey and me... so that I can share them now here with you :-)

What a great day - topped in the end by Northern Lights! Can it become any better??? Let's see what all happened the next days...


Friday 23rd March:

After getting to bed quite late, the next day started very early. Not only because our next activity started already at 08:30 a.m., but also because we had to get up enough time in advance to benefit from what is told to be (one of) the best hotel breakfast(s) in Norway! So with 15 minutes only for breakfast we wouldn't get far in examining that statement :-)

Right after breakfast we started on another excursion with Lyngsfjord Adventure. This morning for a snowmobile safari. Again the bus took us from Tromsø through the Lyngen Alps...

...to camp Tamok again where we got dressed up for the snowscooter tour.

Before starting our tour we walked over to the place where others started a reindeer sledding tour.

 

The reindeer tour is guided by a sami.

While a handfull of other tourists started their sledding tour with the reindeers, Audrey and I headed back to our starting point where the snowscooters were already parked.

Audrey was driving first.

On the way we saw a reindeer herd in the mountains being moved over to another place.

Half-way, after about 45 minutes of driving, we switched and I took over the controls.

 

 

On straight and plane terrain we managed to speed up to over 30 km/h - I think not too bad for beginners :-)

Our tour ended at camp Tamok.

Time for lunch. Again soup - kind of the same one as the evening before.

A little tour around the camp.

The sleeping facilities in the camp. One can spend an overnight either in this sami tent or in a timber log cabin. This is actually what Audrey and I actually tried to book for us in order to avoid all the long driving to the camp the evening before and again in the morning. However, those sleeping possibilities had been fully booked. That's why Audrey and I stayed at the Rica Ishavshotel in town.

 

 At around 2:30 p.m. we left the camp and were driven back to Tromsø.

Back in town we met Helder, Jana's boyfriend, who lives in Tromsø. It was really a pleasure meeting him. We went to Café Aunegården, a very nice and cosy place where we ate some super delicious cakes.

Not even two hours later, we already had to say goodbye to Helder. Our ship was ready for departure.

The Hurtigruten ship Polarlys would bring us now the next 40 hours from Tromsø all the way up to Kirkenes, close to the Russian border.  

We checked in...

 ...left Tromsø harbour at 18:30...

...and went for dinner slightly after.

After dinner, Audrey and I spent most of the time like many others in the panorama lounge on the top deck, hoping to get some Northern Lights to see. However, we all got disappointed. Just rain and clowds :-(

 

Instead, we got to greet the southbound sailing Hurtigruten boat, the old and small M/S Lofoten.

At not even midnight, Audrey and I gave up finding some aurora borealis enlightening the sky. So we went to our cabin for a good night sleep.



Saturday 24th March:

Actually for me this good night sleep ended pretty early. Not on purpose though. I think I just woke up by the louder engines upon docking in Hammerfest harbour at 05:15 a.m. Though there's nothing special in Hammerfest to see I always wanted to visit it. Just for professional purposes to be able to confirm "yes, there is nothing special to see". One day, but definitely not when having to get up at 5:15 in the morning for it! Nothing in Hammerfest would justify the interruption of a restful sleep. However, that morning I was awake. In somehow pretty much awake. Probably because we went to bed quite early. Anyways, awake as I was by the time we docked I decided to get out of my bed and into my clothes - yes, to pay beautiful Hammerfest a visit. To my astonishment I wasn't the only one out there by 5:30 a.m. Actually two hands full of other crazy passengers had also left the boat for a stroll through the empty streets of this rather less attractive city.

The beautiful town hall!

 The main street - of course totally abandonned at that time of the day.

 Kulturhuset - the cultural centre of Hammerfest.

 

 Daily freight brought traditionally along by Hurtigruten - supplies of goods and food for the locals.

The ship stopped in Hammerfest for nearly 1,5 hours. It hadn't even left the harbour when I was already back in bed, continuing with another two hours of sleep until Audrey and I woke up again to have some breakfast.
A beautiful day on board started.

 

At 11:45 a.m., arrival in Honningsvåg, which claims (alongside Hammerfest, Longyearbyen in Svalbard and Barrow in Alaska) to be the Northernmost city in the world. It's just a matter of defining "city" in this context...
Anyways, the arrival in Honningsvåg was for me a very special moment: I had been there nearly exactly a year ago with my colleague giving it a third try to see the Northcape, but failed at 13km before it, and soon it would be decided if this was now the tour on which I'd finally make it or if also this time something would interfere with this project at last minute.

All passengers left the boat to participate in this excursion. We were divided on four different busses - based on language. Most of these people made me laugh. They had gone off board with just some light jeans and sneakers - to the Northcape!!! Did they have an idea where they were going and what weather conditions would await them there? It seemed not!

Soon we were on the way further Northwards on the peninsula of Magerøy.

And yeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssssssss, this time - following in a convoy the snow plough - I passed the barrier at the beginning of the 13km long road leading to the Northcape plateau!

I made it!!! :-) :-) :-) Finally!!!

Lilian at 71°10'21"N - I REACHED THE NORTHCAPE - at my fourth attempt - on 23rd of March 2012 :-) :-) :-) 

 

 The "real" Northcape is actually that flat piece of land called "Knivskjelllodden" pointing into the sea, laying 1,457 m further north.

Audrey (dressed in her new acquisitions) and I did well putting on our skiing clothes. After already a short while all those "slightly" underdressed cruise tourists felt the extremely cold blowing and strong wind and escaped into the visitor's centre.
So soon Audrey and I had the Northcape and its globe all for ourselves :-)

  

2.102,3 km to the North Pole in this direction.

Back in the visitor's centre we watched a little video about the North Cape and I buy some postcards for some of you :-)

The Northcape under the midnight sun.

That little bit of time we had up there passed extremely quick and soon we all sat again on the bus on our way back to Honningsvåg, crossing the stormy plateau.

 

 Racks filled with drying cod - very typical and to be found all over the Northern coastal fishing villages of Norway.

Back in Honningsvåg we unfortunately had no time for a stroll through the little town, but directly had to go back on board the Hurtigruten. Our journey was to continue further along the Norwegian North coast.

In the afternoon, sometime before reaching Kjøllefjord, a boy came on board with his father - for a little demonstration of how to cut out "torsketunge", cod tongue - a speciality.

 

 

 Torsketunge - to be prepared and served on the dinner buffet later on.

 

 

 

 

 Arrival Kjøllefjord. Just a short stop of the Hurtigruten at this destination. Only for un-/loading of passengers and goods.

 

Also this evening, Audrey and I were desperately waiting for some Northern Lights. But nothing. Or lets say, we didn't get to see anything, but apparently there had been some activity outside at around dinner time. From Jana's experience we were told that Hurtigruten staff would announce via loudspeakers on the whole boat if there are lights to see. That was at least the case when Jana did the same trip just some weeks before. I can understand if they do that only during reasonable times and no later than e.g. 10 p.m. or so and not during the night. But dinner time at 8 p.m., where everyone on board is still awake, they could have announced that there were some Northern Lights to see outside. Audrey and I had even taken our jackets to dinner - just in case such an announcement would have been made, so we could quickly jump out. And from people we talked to later on, that have told us that there actually was some activity, staff had taken notice of the aurora borealis as they had then switched off all outside lights on board.
I was really disappointed that they didn't say anything on board. It's not every day that one gets to experience this amazing, natural phenomenon. And eventually we missed it that evening :-(
So in the belief there hadn't been any Northern Lights, Audrey and I went to bed early.


Sunday 25th March: 

09:45 a.m., the ship arrived in Kirkenes, only 10 km from the Russian border and also the terminus of Hurtigruten's Northbound route along the Norwegian coast.

Audrey and I went off board here and had a stroll through the deserted streets of Kirkenes. Though it was a sunny winter's day, it was still Sunday, and thus the small town was just DEAD!!! We didn't meet one single human being out in the streets. This made the whole place even more unattractive than it already was just from its outer appearance.

 Not too inviting this pub, but apparently (as we got informed later on) pretty frequented by the locals.

Neither did this "Pizza Kebab Restaurant Siciliana" convince me of getting good Italian food in a cosy atmosphere in there.

 With the blue sky in the background this church actually looked quite alright, though,...

...and if this poster truthfully dipicts Kirkenes downtown in summer season, it also seems "ok".

Filling in the time until the start of our next activity, I did some "work": we visited a couple of hotels (Thon Hotel Kirkenes and Rica Arctic Hotel) in town which we book for our clients.

Being done with that we went back to the Thon Hotel Kirkenes where we had left our luggage.

Here we also met up at 1 p.m. for starting the upcoming activities: the king crab safari and our overnight in the snow hotel :-)

We got picked up by a guy from Radius Kirkenes & Snow Hotel and on the way out of town we passed actually quite some nice residential areas of Kirkenes.
Some 15 minutes later we met up with a guy who equipped us with some helmets and off we went in a carriage pulled by a snowscooter out to the frozen fjord.

It turned out that it was just us two, Audrey and I, booked on this tour that day. Pretty VIP :-)

We stopped at one of the pre-installed fishing spots.

First the thick layer of snow had to be shovelled away...

...before the massive ice could be destroyed with a huge saw and other tools (whose name I wouldn't even know in German).

Under the frozen surface of the fjord...

...some of the king crabs had found their way into the net.

Since it was just the two of us having the catch for lunch, the guy just took out one of the giant crabs and threw the others back into the fjord.

It was surely not the biggest example of a king crab, but definitely impressive - and definitely nothing I would ever make friends with!

Fascinating and scary alike, but definitely not cute!

If we didn't wanna starve for lunch, the guy had to kill the "monster" crab. Therefore he turned it onto its back before ramming his long knife right into the middle.

In more detail: the torn off legs (our lunch!)...

...and the brain and other innards.

A 15 minutes ride with the snowmobile...

...brought us to some reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaallllllllly isolated, but magnificent place, called Namdalen in the commune of Sør-Varanger.

Here the guy (by the way from Belgium) was housing in alternation of some 3 weeks with another guy, during the day guiding tourists to the king crab fishing, preparing and serving them the catch afterwards in the restaurant and just enjoying the silence and slowness of life in this remote place.

Shortly after our arrival even the sun came out :-)

 

The guest house - which can be rented out to tourists.

The restaurant.

The "chef" with our lunch, cooked in boiling water for (I hope I remember well) approx. 20 minutes.

Bon appétit!

I'm all but a big fan of sea food. So of course my experience in preparing and eating such things is pretty limited. So while Audrey did quite a good job in pulling the meat out of the king crab leg...

...I was struggling a bit more in this matter - but eventually (more or less) successfully getting it out as well :-)

After lunch we visited the "bathroom facilities" available in this place - to be heated up two hours in advance of having one's shower in there...with nothing but water heated in a kettle.

Nevertheless quite a fantastic location and even more special by being the only one's there, creating a pretty private and non-touristy atmosphere. That Belgian chap took his time to talk to us and tell us more about his life and job there and other interesting stories. And maybe he was also this talkative, because he could tell us all those details in his mother tongue French.

  

At around 3:15 p.m. it was time for us to leave and the guy took us on this approx. 45 minutes snowscooter drive through the wonderful snow landscape back to our starting point.

 

 

When we left the carriage the guy's colleagues picked us up and we were brought to the last highlight of our "hunting the lights tour": to the Snow Hotel, located at some 10km from Kirkenes :-)

The snow hotel itself from the outside...

...the "Gabba Restaurant"...

 ...and the guest house with the common room and the washing facilities.

After the first impressions of the "camp" we paid the huskies and reindeers a visit. It's feeding time for the 91 hungry, barking huskies. What a noise!

 

Audrey also lent a hand with feeding.

 

 

 

Common means of locomotion in winter areas: the kick-sledge. Available for rent out at the snow hotel.

Time to discover the particularities of the snow hotel, including its detailed decorations and snow design.

 

 

Get together at the hotel bar for a welcome drink.

 

Two corridors leave from the hall: one with fairy-tale themed rooms and one with rooms who's design and art works are dedicated to famous Norwegian explorers and personalities.

Regulations from Brussels - just in case...

 

The "explorer" rooms:

The "fairy-tale" rooms:

 

 

 

Room nr. 20 with the Taj Mahal theme was supposed to become our room :-)

Time to get our bed sheets, linen and sleeping bags. Time to move in.

By the time we had installed ourselves in our rooms, it was already time for dinner at the "Gabba Restaurant".

On the menu: typical Norwegian reindeer pølse (=sausages) with lumpe (=potato flour wrap) as starter, fish with root vegetables and baked potatos as main dish and in an ice hotel of course what else than ice cream for desert.

Followed by some instructions on how to prepare and wrap up properly for a night in a snow hotel!

After dinner Audrey and I used the observation tent hoping for some Northern Lights. However it was simply too cloudy for that.

So once more disappointed from this point of view, we decided to get the adventure of sleeping at -6°C started and went into our room.
And yes, already getting properly set and dressed up according to the demonstrations was quite an adventure :-)

However, we eventually made it getting comfortable in our sleeping bags and to fall into a deep sleep at under 0°C!

Monday 26th March:

07:00 a.m. - my alarm went off! The day started early - but veeeeeeeery beautiful!

I actually started my day with a sauna session. Only one other person felt getting up early enough to benefit from this offer.

After a good breakfast we visit once more the huskies. They are sooooo cute - especially the new born puppies!!!

 

Unfortunately at 09:00 a.m. it was time to say goodbye to the dogs. I could have still spent hours with them cuddling!

 

Back in Kirkenes city we have a whole day of free time ahead of us. Initially we thought about booking ourselves on some further excursion, e.g. to the Russian border. But for several reasons, none of the options were in the end feasible. So first of all Audrey and I discovered the town on a Monday. Actually no big change in comparison to the Sunday, apart from the increase of 0 to 15 people around in the streets. Also the local shopping mall was open now, but didn't keep us busy for more than 20 minutes.

That was basically all we actively did that day. For the rest of the day we made ourselves comfortable at the common/reception area of the Thon Hotel Kirkenes. The hotel staff was so friendly to endure our presence there for the next 6 hours even though we weren't even overnight guests at their property. We had passed the whole time working on our computers, either working or selecting the pictures of the tour. Even for lunch we didn't make the effort anymore to go out. There hadn't been anything attractive to dine out.
It was only at 6 p.m. that we left the hotel with the shuttle bus to the airport to take our SAS flight back to Oslo at 8:25 p.m.


Well, no more Northern Lights, but still a fantastic tour full of amazing impressions! And I finally made it... to the Northcape :-) I'd say mission completed!