North Cape

I enjoyed a fantastic day yesterday when I joined a small group to go sea kayaking in a fjord close to Tromso. Once I had put on thermals and waterproofs of my own I then had more waterproofing to put on at the site in the form of boots, coat, gel gloves and life jacket - I felt, and assuredly looked, like a Michelin woman! I have never kayaked in my life before and once I had squeezed myself into the front of a two man kayak I soon had to come to grips with the paddle and off we went. Such fun! On the return leg I went into the back of the kayak and was responsible for the steering, which resulted in a few zig zag manoeuvres, specially when I stopped paddling to take a photo.

Today we reached the North Cape and as I had visited it before I chose to go on a bird safari. Once again I donned full thermal and waterproofing gear as it was already chilly before I left the ship. The bus took us across a high plateau of tundra where several groups of reindeer grazed and then down into a small village where we boarded our vessel which was much the size of a small fishing boat. We set off to several islands out at sea and boy, did it get choppy out there and I found myself hanging on for dear life until the boat slipped into the lee of the wind where we could then concentrate on the spectacle ahead. Huge flocks of guillemots, puffins, cormorants and gannets to name just a few. Then, as we watched, the birds flew en masse into the sky looking like a swarm of midges above the high rocks and a couple of white tailed eagles could be seen scouring the rock face for tender morsels for their tea.

This shot was taken from our ship as we set sail from Honningsvard, cruising below the magnificent rock face of the North Cape. You can just see the globe at the top surrounded by a 'fence' which are in fact groups of people watching our departure, but it gives a scale of the grandeur.