Honningsveg and Nordkapp

Today's quest was to photograph whale blows in the distance I do get a few but it's so hard to see them. As we are getting up we are still sailing towards Honningsveg an announcement is made to say there are whales around the area. Ignoring breakfast, we get dressed and go out to have a look. It is freezing possibly less than -5. The number of whales together is sufficiently invigorating to forget about breakfast. There are dozens. Unfortunately it is so cold that taking pictures is really difficult when I take my glove off. Some of the whales, they are fin whales, come very close to the ship so close that we can see their back and dorsal fin

I do manage to get some breakfast and then go back outside it seems even in the freezing cold I just can't get enough of what is out there. Eventually I give in to the cold and come back inside for hot chocolate to warm up. Back in the room on the balcony we have a very good od view and it is much warmer because there is the shelter of the ship and our room behind us. Much to my delight we see a small flock of puffins. Because they sit on the water from higher up it would be difficult to see them. Black and white small round bodies that seem to have a great difficulty in flying. They either sit in the water or they come out of the water briefly flapping their wings madly but not going very far. I'm optimistic. Bob has some good pictures. I failed.

My next quest is to see if I can take a picture of a fulmer against the backdrop of the cliff at Nordkapp. Standing on the balcony with the occasional flake of snow. I think I managed to get a couple.

Our excursion takes us to Nordkapp a peninsula in the far north of the island. We drive through what looks like a white desert, no trees, no vegetation, no wildlife of any kind just rolling hills of white. It is quite an extraordinary landscape, we can see the ocean and at times frozen rivers, the sides of which are just starting to melt. The path takes us to the side of the cliff, over the cliff is the ocean. Although there is some blue sky, there is a fierce wind which whips up the snow. It looks like white sand being blown across the landscape. I can't say it was a particularly pleasant walk as we were buffeted by quite strong wind. In my mind we spent far too long in this place, after our walk there was an opportunity to buy souvenirs which the cynic in me suggests was the main point of the exercise.

The excursions have generally been good this one's the only one that I felt less enthusiastic aboutRead more