This European journey hasn't gone the way I originally planned it. Nothing bad has happened but the rest of Scandinavia wasn't originally on my radar. My "internal compass" as I call it guided me to go north, and as far north as I could possibly go. I said goodbye to Monica in Hakvik and then stayed the night with Jimmy, who hosted me when I photographed the aurora back in '18. Warming up to a cup of reindeer soup at a Sami shop, I was picked up by a Sami lady who spoke North Sami fluently. She taught me to say "mun rakistan du," which is "I love you" in North Sami. Tourists usually get to Nordkapp as fast as possible but I set my sights on Mehamn, the northernmost town in mainland Europe. At 71 degrees north, it's at about the same latitude as Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and as far north as I could feasibly hitchhike. Reminding me more of East Greenland than the rest of Norway, Mehamn is one of those special places where you really and truly feel like you're at the end of the world.
Homes are very colourful and cosy and the landscape is mostly treeless and lunar-like. My CouchSurfing host is Luna, and she's originally from Indonesia. Whenever I've stayed at someone's home in Indonesia I've always been offered an abundance of food, and Luna did the same as she offered me a plate of chicken and rice when I arrived. Today I met a group of geocachers on their way to Kinnarodden, which is the northernmost point on mainland Europe and home to the northernmost geocache in mainland Europe. It's a two- to three-day hike over nothing but rocks. I won't have time to do that hike but they gave me an idea for next year. Until this journey, the furthest north I'd ever been was Tromso. After a hike up a hill for a geocache I hitchhiked to Kjollerfjord, where the setting is even more dramatic than in Mehamn.
This is the first area in Norway I've been in where's been consistently sunny, although it was very windy for much of the day. It's absolutely surreal that I can see the sun out at the stroke of midnight. 24 hours of sun also mean a lot of walking, exploring, photography, and geocaching.
Luna is my most northerly CouchSurfing host and today I've found my most northerly geocaches. Last week I was looking at going to Svalbard as I found a CS host but all the flights are sold out. I'm going to look at Svalbard for next year. I reckon it would be interesting to visit Mehamn during the polar night but the roads are often closed, meaning I'd most likely have to fly in. Reindeer run amok on the roads here, and a driver nearly hit one yesterday.
As the crow flies, Mehamn is nearly as close to the North Pole as it is to Oslo. I'll admit it's a bit frustrating that I can't go any further north without things getting either really expensive or really complicated. I would hitchhike to the North Pole if it were possible. There's a trip usually offered by Poseidon Expeditions aboard 50 Years of Victory, which is a nuclear-powered icebreaker. The trip costs $41,000 but isn't currently operating due to the invasion of Ukraine. Thanks Mr. Putin. Not!
Not exactly feeling defeated but instead feeling euphoric, I'm going to have to start heading south from here. I told myself that I'd be content coming to Norway without going to Nordkapp but I can't resist it, the same way I couldn't resist the Taj Mahal when I went to India. As a journey of extremes, I'm going to make it even more extreme as I'm doing Nordkapp and then perhaps Vardo and Kirkenes.
