NORWEGIAN COASTAL VOYAGE
rists!
After the usual battle with the olds, we boarded our bus and we’re off Nordkapp, Europe’s most northerly point, well in fact the peninsula next to it is really, but you can blame Richard Chancellor the English navigator of 1553 for getting it wrong! Anyway we were proud to be stood at 71° 10’ 21” north of the equator, 2080 km from the north pole, it felt like we were standing on the edge of the world, it was very bleak snowy landscape and yeap the wind was relentless, but it wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be, honest! We also saw reindeer and stopped at a Sami camp, bit touristy but hey anything must help to make a living round those parts! You have to get to Nordkapp by snowmobile or skies in the winter, as the temperature can go down to -40 so you can guess how wild the place is.
After the usual battle with the olds, we boarded our bus and we’re off Nordkapp, Europe’s most northerly point, well in fact the peninsula next to it is really, but you can blame Richard Chancellor the English navigator of 1553 for getting it wrong! Anyway we were proud to be stood at 71° 10’ 21” north of the equator, 2080 km from the north pole, it felt like we were standing on the edge of the world, it was very bleak snowy landscape and yeap the wind was relentless, but it wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be, honest! We also saw reindeer and stopped at a Sami camp, bit touristy but hey anything must help to make a living round those parts! You have to get to Nordkapp by snowmobile or skies in the winter, as the temperature can go down to -40 so you can guess how wild the place is.
18TH MAY 2005
Kirkenes - Vadso - Vardo - Batsfjord - Berlevag
We had anotherexcursion this time to Kirkenes, Norway’s border with Russia! Neither me nor Rob had any idea how much the Norwegians suffered during the second world war. Its mad, all of the history from around the north has something to do the war and its effect. We have found out that Germany invaded Norway to ensure supplies of Swedish iron ore by the sea route from Narvik, which Britain had threatened to cut, so within 2 months the whole country had been invaded. When the war ended and the Germans were retreating, Hitler ordered a scorched earth policy intended to leave behind nothing of use, in case the Russians pursued them. It took 4 years to rebuild the country but it means that a lot of the little villages and towns all look very similar, and there are only a few really old buildings remaining. After the Russian border visit, we visited Bjornevatn an 11km large open case mine which is now a monument to 90 years of mining! The mines contained a tunnel where 2500 people sought shelter for 2 months before the