At Alta River Camp we say again goodbye to our irregular travel companion Steinar, that keeps suprising us by popping up again unexspectedly! We walk into the busy mountains, were a lot of Sami people are preparing to herd in the reindeer: driving around checking and repairing their fences. We walk on the many quadtracks that keep appearing, loose them again, but always find a new track that goes the right way.
The weather turns colder and stormy. Unaware a storm is comming up we get suprised by hard winds that challenge gravity: With the big backpacks it is easier to climb (or fly) over the mountaintops than to cut over their feet. After hours of struggling we decide that this weather is too hard to walk in, and pitch up in a half way sheltered place. Unfortunately not sheltered enough (above treeline it is hard to hide from the wind...), and when carefully trying to get our tent standing the wind breaks one of the tentpoles. Gladly we took a repair kit along so we get the tent standing. After a windy and not so restfull night the storm calmed down a bit, and walking is possible again!
After another day of windy walking and a finally calm night that we spend in the shelter of some trees we walke up with snow on the tent, and when we climb higher we walk through 10 cm of snow. With the reindeer geathering into gigantic heards all around us it feels magical to walk through this landscape! We meet a Sami that gives us the tip of a hut ahead, which motivates us to walk a long day and reach a warm and sheltered place to sleep in – wet sleepingbags and minus degrees do not improve a good night of sleep...
The weather turns colder and stormy. Unaware a storm is comming up we get suprised by hard winds that challenge gravity: With the big backpacks it is easier to climb (or fly) over the mountaintops than to cut over their feet. After hours of struggling we decide that this weather is too hard to walk in, and pitch up in a half way sheltered place. Unfortunately not sheltered enough (above treeline it is hard to hide from the wind...), and when carefully trying to get our tent standing the wind breaks one of the tentpoles. Gladly we took a repair kit along so we get the tent standing. After a windy and not so restfull night the storm calmed down a bit, and walking is possible again!
After another day of windy walking and a finally calm night that we spend in the shelter of some trees we walke up with snow on the tent, and when we climb higher we walk through 10 cm of snow. With the reindeer geathering into gigantic heards all around us it feels magical to walk through this landscape! We meet a Sami that gives us the tip of a hut ahead, which motivates us to walk a long day and reach a warm and sheltered place to sleep in – wet sleepingbags and minus degrees do not improve a good night of sleep...
After another day in snowy mountains that are hard to walk in and weather that makes breaks very uncomfortable we are glad to hit the road again: A nice snakey road following the coast and ending at a camping, where the temptation of another night in a hut makes us morally weak- and we enjoy a warm bed again! With only 2 and a half days to go the end comes close, and motivates us to walk even longer days. We walk through the nordkappstunnelen- a 7 km long tunnel under the sea. The idea of being 200 meter below sealevel freaks us out a bit, but out of wind and cold and only very little traffic there are worse ways to walk. After a icy night in the tent right after the tunnel we decide to walk the last bit in only 1 day - risking getting stuck on Nordkapp in the evening, but if our tent is frozen stiff in the morning and the zipper does not want to open anymore we decide: no more camping for now!
A long day through some snowy mountains, on the road getting eaten by a verry dark snowcloud but enjoying the last kilometers of our trip in very dramatical weather, we make it to Nordkapp!!!
There we get a warm welcome from Steinar who also just arrived, we quickly make pictures and (with it being half past 4 and out of the tourist season) ask the last car on the parking place to take us back to Honningsvåg. It all happens in a bit of a hurry, and we arrive dead on our feet and very hungry (all the exitement made us forget to eat- until it gets warm!) at a youth hostel.
A long day through some snowy mountains, on the road getting eaten by a verry dark snowcloud but enjoying the last kilometers of our trip in very dramatical weather, we make it to Nordkapp!!!
There we get a warm welcome from Steinar who also just arrived, we quickly make pictures and (with it being half past 4 and out of the tourist season) ask the last car on the parking place to take us back to Honningsvåg. It all happens in a bit of a hurry, and we arrive dead on our feet and very hungry (all the exitement made us forget to eat- until it gets warm!) at a youth hostel.
It takes a strange restless night to start realizing that walking has now come to an end... Very happy we made it, and knowing we will be back soon in beautifull Norway, we are happy to go home for now. After a beautifull sunny day enjoying as much food as we can eat on the Hurtigruten we get one more northern lights show on deck, and next day we fly back (over a still autumn coloured Oslo) to an incredibly busy Amsterdam, where the leaves are still green and tempratures tropical ;) So now we are sitting home, safe and sound. Enjoying the comforts of home :)