June 20 - North of Everywhere

We are on a large island called Magerøya in a town called Honningsvåg. The indigenous people here, the Sami, were reindeer herders. You may have learned that they were called Lapplanders. When the Europeans arrived, in the 1300's, it was to take advantage of the fishing.

Honningsvåg is a somewhat forlorn town, population ______. It has seen better days. Fishing is in decline. During WWII, the Germans burned the town down. Only a church remained standing. In the 50's the town was rebuilt in that blocky 50's style that is totally lacking in charm.

Tourism has now found Honningsvåg. It is the gateway to the North Cape (Nord Kapp). There isn't much at the actual North Cape and if the weather is bad you can't see anything. There is a big metal globe and a visitor's center that you have to pay to get into. We sailed by it on our way to Honningsvåg, and on the way back and that is good enough. I'm not going to spend an hour on a bus each way and pay an exhorbitant sum just to say I've been to that little piece of land. I was there when the ship sailed past and I saw it from the ship.

Our Northernmost Life

Our morning activity was a play called Our Northernmost Life. It was in the church that didn't get burned down by the Germans. The church is now a cafe and playhouse. We sat at small tables - maybe 40 audience members - and every seat was taken. Three local kids in their early 20's (my best guess) were the actors. They sang, danced, and performed skits, all in English. It reminded me of a low-budget version of Mr. Whitekeys. With humor and lots of enthusiasm, these kids told us what life is like in Honningsvåg. In addition to the live performance, there were slides showing the history of Honningsvåg. They also told us about the local economy, the weather (of course), and the Sami people.

This play was very well done and it seemed very authentic. And it was laugh-out-loud funny. I enjoyed it very much.

Trash Art

There was an interesting gallery in the same building. It was called Once Upon a Dream. The owner had an exhibition called Trash Art. Several collages were made of shoes that had washed up on the shore. There were some pieces made of sea glass, too. She also had paintings nice with a local theme. Even in tiny Honningsvåg there is an art scene.

ATV Safari

For our afternoon activity we went on an ATV Safari with Destination 71 Degrees North. They gave us warm suits to wear, helmets, boots, and gloves. We rode on 2-person ATV's. 

TIP: If you do this activity, bring your driver's license. Mine was on the ship, so I didn't get to drive.

We  started out on the road out of town. After a while we turned off onto a gravel road. It was in good condition, but it was steep and had a lot of switchbacks.

We stopped once to take photos and then kept going up.

At the top of the mountain there was some kind of military communications site with towers and one of those big white spheres. We were told not to take photos of the military stuff.

The terrain was very stark. There are no trees on Magerøya Island. No bushes to speak of, either. There were some grasses and a few wildflowers and all the rocks you could ever want.

After we descended to the highway, we followed the highway past the town to a tunnel. The tunnel was about 3 miles long, but it seemed much longer. At the other end we continued to a tiny fishing village. There was a fake Sami camp there.

We got off and went inside one of the tents. There was a nice campfire and coffee and cookies. We sat on benches covered with reindeer hides.

I saw a guy squirming around on the floor. He was trying to take a selfie of himself and the ventialtion hole in the top of the tent.

Not a selfie

We headed back to Honningsvåg, driving past a series of huge racks being used to dry cod. Yes, you could smell it. I didn't get all the photos I would have liked. It's hard to do on a moving ATV.

Overall, this was a really fun trip. Most of our shipmates sheepishly went to North Cape in big buses. I hate that kind of tour, and I'm glad we did something that was a little outside our comfort zone.

Shopping and Whales

Despite being at the end of the supply chain, there was a nice souvenir shop here. In addition to all the troll items, they had some nice locally-produced gift items. In a small refrigerated case they had packages of vacuum-packed salmon. There were also some vacuum-packed packages of some very dark meat. It turned out to be whale meat. I think Norway is one of the countries that still engages in commercial whaling.

On the way out, as we passed the North Cape, I did see a whale from the ship. It's good to know they are still there.

Caliente

The production show tonight was called Caliente. We've seen it before, but it's a good one. After the show we gazed at the beautiful Midnight Sun.

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