Nordkaap

so difficult to know what to write today. So many emotions and feelings , all jumbled up and incoherent. So I'll stick to the practical and think about a philosophical post later....
Inevitably I didn't sleep so well so an early start was not an issue... but early morning was cold and overcast- but the hills were clear. Perhaps more fitting to reach the most northerly point of Europe in such conditions rather than the t shirt weather of the last few days?There was only 30km+ to cover but noteably hilly and barren- very reminiscent of Shetland. And the early start meant I almost literally had the road to myself. More reindeer than you could shake a stick at with bells on. After 800m of climbing the broad promontory of Nordkaap appeared in the distance and I immediately had a wee blubber. But as I approached I clocked the size of the camper van-choked parking lot ( someone counted at least 150), the barrier at entrance and the bloke peeing at the side of the road!
Not so different from lands end.inc. However free entry to the super heated visted century lobby- though, of course, the cafe not open 😞
But the early start was also ahead of all the tour buses that meet the hurtigruten and other cruise ships and I had the iconic "globe" pretty much to myself. I have to qualify pretty much as there was one other guy there who appeared to have never seen a smartphone before ( apologies for the photo quality😞) . My timing was pretty good though: within 15 minutes the cloud had closed in and reduced visibility to 20 metres.
I hung around the visitor centre for a wee while, trying to organise my thoughts and work out how to reverse the magnetic attraction of heading further North. Turning South was made more challenging my a head wind and pea- soup fog- -and the campervans and your buses emerging from the mark at regular intervals. I emerged unscathed and reasonably dry and returned to the bussum of my cycle touring buddies in the youth hostel and a celebratory beer 🍻

67 days cycling
78 days total
7692km south to north
71,253m climbing
2 legs

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