After another ridiculously long drive we reached our northernmost base camp in Norway, Olderfjord. A pretty basic campsite with cabins, confusing washing machines and a whopping great souvenir shop. Go figure.
Here we were in reindeer country. We did a road trip one night to Nordkapp, Norway’s, if not the world’s northernmost populated point. The aim in going here, apart from being really far north was to go to the top tip of Nordkapp, look out off a viewing platform over the northern sea there at midnight and not see the sun dip below the horizon at all. Hence see the midnight sun. This didn’t go quite to plan. We got there with plenty of time to spare, the lookout wasn’t too crowded……..and the weather was o shitty I couldn’t even tell there was a horizon out there, or the sea, and definitely not the sun anywhere! The weather was really eerie. It was an experience in itself. You couldn’t see more than 6 feet ahead of you at times. I’m glad there was a big fence to stop people falling off the cliff. So I suppose that while it was disappointing that we didn’t get to see the view we had intended to, I still definitely had an unforgettable experience.
Nordkapp is a strange and amazing place. The landscape is bewildering. It seems to want to tell you it is still in charge and we are at its mercy. I have the absolute respect for the amazing people who manage to survive and flourish in these extreme conditions. I would love to go back and see how they live. When I was there it was late spring just about to be summer and the snow was still thick on the ground, lakes were definitely still frozen over, and I had about 20 layers of clothing on. I can only imagine the weather in winter.
We arrived back at Olderfjord at about 3am. It was sunny. Bastard!
The next day was a relaxing one after a long lie in. I went for a long walk with some of the girls in search of reindeer. We didn’t see any but did manage to spot a couple of arctic rabbits (big, whitish), and an arctic fox. So that was nice I guess. I think my lack of reindeer spotting on this day may have been a bit of karma from the reindeer gods for that lovely meal I ate in Sweden!
