All quiet on the Northern Lights front last night, I guess it must have been too cloudy. I retired to bed early to catch up with some sleep as I seem to be waking up earlier than normal and it’s having a knock on effect. It does mean that we are both up in time for when breakfast starts and that’s when it’s at its quietest.
We maintained our normal routine by going up to the open decks to get some fresh air prior to that and it felt much colder today.
Our first daylight stop today was a 15 minute stop at Havøysund where we passed one of our sister ships, Havila Castor coming out as we were going in.
The small island has the world’s northern most wind farm which we passed on the way in.
Our second daylight stop was one I was really looking forward to as it provided an excursion to the North Cape. We had booked it before leaving home as we had read that it is the most popular trip and it sells out quickly. However, they were still selling a few places this morning even though there were 4 coaches making the trip.
We arrived at Honningsvåg at just before 10:45 and were soon on our way to Nordkapp. Our coach was the first away and we seemed to have a good driver too as the journey took just 40 minutes. I have to say the snow covered landscape was quite breathtaking and it seemed like we were there in no time at all.
There was an initial stampede off the coach to get to the globe including ourselves despite reading in the book that we should wait until the last half an hour when everyone has gone into the visitor centre.
We took some initial photos and then went inside to watch the film and visit the grotto but after a discussion, decided to go back outside because it was the location we had come to visit, not the added attractions. We did visit the very extensive gift shop and purchased a piece to go on our travel trophy walls.
The lure for being outside was too strong and as per the tip, the crowds had subsided and the monument had very few people around it so back we went.
Just being outside, in that location, with the ground covered in snow and the sun shining was more than we could have wished for.
The 1¾ visit seemed to fly by and we were soon on our way back to Honningsvåg and the ship where some soup and cake were waiting for everyone in the Havblikk Lounge. The captain wasted no time departing and we were soon on our way to the next stop which was Kjøllefjord.
At the entrance to the inlet to the next port there is a unusual rock formation called Finnkjerka, that legends say was an ancient sacrificial site for fishermen, travelers and Sami.
We arrived on schedule at 4:40 and departed 20 minutes later for the next port, Mehamn which we got to during dinner so no photos. Sadly our excursion tomorrow has been cancelled due to bad weather, we were due to be doing a snowmobile safari at Kirkenes but will now probably just get off and explore.
Another weather warning for tonight with strong winds forecast so I don’t think we will get a Northern Lights alarm.
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I enjoyed seeing your shots of Honningsvåg and Nordkapp. It’s always interesting to see things in a different season than we saw them. Since were there in June, there was no snow in sight. So you got the cold weather, and we got the sunshine but no Northern Lights.