I bet no one got sea sick last night as we were docked here in Honningsvag all night. Well, as I said yesterday, they do not have nights during the summer months this far north. I can attest, it was light outside the past 24 hours as I woke up several times during the "night". After dinner Jane and I went ashore to take pictures with a big wooden troll. A troll is a supernatural being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. They are quite ugly looking creatures for sure. Featured in the theater last night was a pianist playing classical music. Not my cup of tea!
Our tour today left the ship at 8:30 for a nice drive up to the North Cape which is mistakenly called the northernmost point in Europe. Cape Nordkinn is actually 4780 feet further north than North Cape , but what's a few feet when it comes to tourism! It is an overcast day, unlike the beautiful sunny skies we enjoyed when we arrived here yesterday at 7:00 pm. Temperature this morning was lower 50's. At noon today it was 56F.
We are actually on the island of Mageroya situated a couple of miles north of the Norwegian mainland. Mageroya is only 20 miles across. The main industry here is fishing. Because of the gulf stream flowing along the coast of Norway, the ports up here are ice-free even during the winter months. This means they can fish year-round. There are 170 licensed fishing boats on the island that annually catch 79,000 tons of fish. 90% of the catch is processed and frozen for export. The other 10% is dried. You will see my photos of the drying racks with the heads of cod drying. They dry all parts of the fish with the heads used as food for commercial fisheries. Cod and halibut are the two main fish caught. We just had some fresh Norwegian fried cod for lunch and one of the entrees on the dinner menu tonight is poached Arctic sea cod. I am attempting to put a photo taken of our dinner entree selections for tonight below. In my photos taken today on the way up to the North Cape you will notice there are no trees on the island. That's because there are no trees above 70 degrees north latitude (the sub arctic region). During the winters the temperature is very moderate due to the gulf steam waters so the low temperature is about 20 degrees. They do, however, get a lot of snow--up to 10 feet of it at one time. There is a lot of snow removal equipment here on the island and cars are only allowed to drive in convoys behind the snow plows after snowing. The lakes freeze over and the locals ice fish for salmon and trout. We saw several reindeer today in the fields along the roadway. We found it quite interesting that the reindeer live on the mainland of Norway in the forests during the winter months and then are shepparded by the Sami people (more about them in a minute) to the Norway coast. Then a Norwegian ship transports them the two miles over to the island. They spend the summer here grazing and producing offspring. Once again right before the harsh winter, the Sami's herd them back to the waters edge and this time the swim back to the mainland. The reindeer grow horns during the summer. The horns are to attract their mates and they lose them every year and grow new ones every year. Their thick winter hair is also shed during the summer. There are 5000 reindeer here on Mageroya now and only 3000 people. Ok, the Sami. They are like our American indians. They are indigenous to the Arctic area of Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Traditionally they have been coastal fishermen, fur trappers, and sheep herding but are best know for semi-nomadic reindeer herding. Reindeer herding is reserved for only the Sami people. Another interesting story about reindeer was related to me by one of the guides. She said that the reindeer will sometimes go the the roads to escape insects bothering them. She said you can blow your car horns all day long but they will not leave the road.
The main reason for our tour was to see the North Cape and look out over the ocean 1000 feet below. Well, when we got up there we were in a cloud (fog) and you could not see 20 feet in front of you. No ocean for sure. There was a very nice visitor center which was built in 1988. We watched a panoramic movie showing the different seasons of the island. The wind was really howling up there (at least 40 kts), and with the fog, it was very cold. So not much to see at North Cape but the drive up and back was very interesting. Our guides today (different one each way) were excellent as they were Norwegians and easily understood. I believe they were local college students home for the summer. Our guides pointed out a small island next to the Mageroya that currently had an estimated 1 million puffins (a bird) on it. They come to the island the same day (I believe she said April 14th) every year and arrive within a two hour period. They spend the summer months on the island mating and laying their one egg. They return to the ocean and live there during the winter. They mate with the same bird every year, and if one dies, the other never finds a new mate. I took a photo of one in the visitor's center today. These are Atlantic puffins. We have seen puffins in other parts of the world on other cruises but can't remember exactly where.
Over 250,000 people visit here annually and there are 150 cruises ships each summer calling on Honningsvag. It is 2:00 pm now and we have just left the pier and are sailing out of the harbor and back into the Barents Sea. We are now making the 160 mile trip on around to Murmansk, Russia, where we will be docking by 8:00 am tomorrow.
REMEMBER CLICKING ON PHOTOS WILL ENLARGE THEM.
One of the passengers as our bus drove up. He's European but today just "pee'n".
Puffins
Last photos of Honningsvag. Colorful little community.
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