Hi All,
The voyage
http://www.hurtigruten.co.uk/norway/Voyages/Classic-Hurtigruten-Voyages/7-days-Voyage-North/
Hurtigruten run the mail ship daily from Bergen-Kirkenes the north leg is 2600km.
This is a beautiful voyage. Book a ticket. Look for the 2 for 1 discount if you are travelling with two people. Aim for no moon for Aurora trips and travel within the summer season for an additional leg up a scenic fjord as part of the trip. Do not stay at Kirkenes unless you have no choice.
The boat we were on was the Richard With about 120m long. It was a small cruise ship and well set up for tourism.Vanessa and I had a cabin for two without a window (batcave) but had a toilet and shower so we quite nice.
The ship is generally smooth travelling but there are some open sea sections and the ship bounces around a bit in even smallest swell.
I don´t travel particularly well in the initial stages on ships and head for the bed as soon as the rocking starts. Vanessa normally goes fine but the swell was a little large initially and was a bit sick but after this we both were fine. Sea aclimatisation?
We travelled through bands of weather throughout the trip. One minute it would be clear, the next pelting rain or hail and the next sunny. Mostly it was cloudy.
The trip is a mix of fjord and open sea travel and there is plenty of chance to get off the ship for a couple of hours walk around. We really enjoyed these breaks.
The food was not good. We took our own food to save costs but apparently the ship food was outstanding. Our food was not outstanding and were sick of eating trondhjems brun lapskaus by the end of the trip. What? Mixed vegetable and ´meat´ in a tin. Nothing a pensioner and their pet wouldn´t turn their nose away from. Hope there wasn´t any whale meat in it! We bought food along the way for a bit of variety. We refused to eat the trondhjems cans by the end of the trip.
There were many amazing sights along the way. Probably the most interesting for me were the isolated comunities on small islands hundreds of kms away from civilisation. The isolation must have been so challenging. We also enjoyed the various lighthouses and fjord towns and cities along the way. Aparently a city in Norway is 5000 people or more according to the ships tourism officer.
The trip took us into the arctic circle. We cross the 66 deg line and had a ceremony run by the norwegian neptune equivalent and assistant with no oil in sight who poured ice cubes and iced water down participants back before handing out certificates. I was one.
We eventually got to 71 deg N and I was surprised that there was no ice in the water. The gulf stream makes the coast of Norway quite liveable in winter. The air is still very cold.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
