Honningsvag

We were geared up for a midnight wake-up to see the Northern Lights, but it did not happen. Clearly, the sky clouded over a bit too much.
The voyage commenced northbound, and we passed through beautiful sounds once again, with snow laden cliffs cascading down to the waterline on either side of us. We continue to see isolated houses dotted here and there on the mountain sides. Unbelievable that people live so far north. It would not suit us with winter lasting 6 to 7 months here and bitterly cold temperatures. Temperatures inside the ship are toasty. We covered up considerably to venture outside with our camera as the -5 deg C air temperature apparently would feel like -11 degrees C with the wind chill.
The ship docked at Honningsvag, the port that serves the vehicle transfers to see the Northern Cape.
We strapped on our snow spikes and had a wander around the town and port side area - all very quaint and colourful. The harbour was full of small fishing vessels berthed up for the Easter break. The only shop open (it being a Sunday) was the Christmas shop. We had a good look around the 2 floors of goodies and bought a couple of wooden decorations to take home. The town looked very pretty in the sunlight.
In the afternoon Jo and Karen attended the talk on board about the Sami people. An interesting briefing, informing us of the history and culture of the Samis. Their customs, religion and languages are now recognised constitutionally throughout Scandanavia.
With the skies clear and predicted overnight temperature of -16 deg C, we expect that the Northern Lights may put up a show tonight.
We were not disappointed. Just before 9pm we were informed that indeed the northern lights had appeared. Everyone rushed up to deck 9 and ventured outside to gaze at the night sky. It was bitterly cold - bbrrrr! The lights were amazing, just as we had imagined. Impossible to capture on camera, but we enjoyed the experience despite the temperatures outside.
Leaving port in late afternoon we stopped off briefly at Kjollefjord in the daylight, and overnight at Mehamn, Berlevag, Batsfjord and Vardo.Weiterlesen