Nordkapp, the end of Europe and the wind

The debate is where is the furthest north point of Europe. North Cape was so named by an English sailor in the 1600s. Cooks ran their first package to tours there in the 1850s. The tourist were landed on a nearby beach and told to climb the 300 metre cliff. Package tourists were hardier in those days. In 1956 a road was built followed by tourist centre and so on. Now there is just a steady stream of coaches bringing people to view the further north point of Europe. Actually though the next headland is slightly further north but it doesn't have a cliff or a road. We attempted the 2 and a half hour walk over rough paths and snowdrifts. We are slow walkers so expected 3 hours. There was a strong north wind against us, sometimes it brought horizontal hail or snow, a few times the sun came out, but not for long. The route was marked with cairns but in a snow storm you had to be careful to get the right path. A party of Norwegian youth strode past and a couple came the other way. Towards the end the route went along the rocks by the sea and we couldn't find any more markers. It must have been about half a km before the end when we realised that we had been going for 4 hours and might be missing are onward bus and frankly were getting quite tired. Further we were not enjoying the battle against the wind and we had seen North Cape from below and had gone further north. We turned back and took two and three quarter hours to return. We could feel the wind blowing us along and, though the sun didn't come out for long, the visibility improved and we could see where we were going.

To some though, neither point should be considered the furthest north of Europe, because they are on an island, albeit connected by an under sea tunnel. There is a point onthe mainland that requires a 25km hike each way. We are not attempting it. Or Svalbard, the furthest north island off Norway. And we are not going there either. Right now we are on our way by boat to Kirkenes, where we start the Iron Curtain Cycle Trail, which in the end is what this trip and this blog are really about!

If I knew how to add photos to this blog from the iPad, I would put on the one of the North Cape (Nordkapp) and also one of reindeer at our camp site. We will attempt to put them on separately from Tom's computer. One day I might meet someone who can tell me how to do such things.

Katherine