Nordkapp
The alarm clock went off at 2:45 interrupting 4 hours of deep sleep. Last night in Kjøllefjord we had a good meal, did some trail laundry (I.e. hand washing our bibs in the sink) and some minor bike maintenance. At 3:20 we rolled onboard on Hurtigruten. Managed to get some more sleep on some comfy couches before disembarking in Honningsvåg. A sizeable town that attracts a lot of tourists to the main (?) attraction of North Cape, at 71 degrees latitude.
We’ve had some discussions on this: strictly speaking, North Cape is on an island, so can we really consider it the northernmost point of (mainland) Norway? What then about Svalbard, also a collection of islands with Verlegenhuken at 80 degrees north? The actual northernmost point on the mainland, Kinnarodden, is still untouched wilderness and not reachable by road, so perhaps it’s a good thing that stream of tourists are directed to North Cape…
In any case, we are happy to oblige with the customary “starting point” of the Norway Traverse (Norge på Langs) at North Cape. What we were not so happy with, is the weather forecast of 10m/s winds an rain…. After two pretty hard and long days on the bike we chickened out and got a room at a hotel in Honningsvåg. An early breakfast and some more sleep while we settled in to wait for improved conditions.
At 6 in the evening the weather had cleared up a bit and we hopped on the bikes. As the kilometres went by and the elevation went up, the sun eventually came out through the cloud cover, lighting up a pretty dramatic and epic landscape. In the distance we could even see over to Kinnarodden!
The North Cape monument itself was pretty busy and very much a case of what you see on Instagram vs reality. Even so, this is a milestone and we now turn towards the south.
Today’s route
| Elapsed Time | Moving Time | Distance | Average Speed | Max Speed | Elevation Gain | Calories Burned |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
04:00:52
hours
|
03:36:10
hours
|
67.95
km
|
18.86
km/h
|
70.45
km/h
|
1,330.00
meters
|
1,603
kcal
|