Dopo essere stato a Capo Nord mi sembrate tutti piú terroni

July 18th, 2009 · No Comments

Just some pictures to summarize this amazing experience to North Cape and to the northern point of Europe, that’s not North Cape (or Nordkapp, as the call it in Norvegian) but K nivskjellodden.

The monument in North Cape

First some suggestion if you’re planning to go to North Cape by car o by motorcycle. If you’re travelling through Finland, there are only 2 possibile paths. We made both, one going and the second returning. The first, through Rovaniemi and Ivalo, is the best. For sure, the panorama is beautiful and the road is really nice.

Looking at the midnight sun at Knivskjellodden

There are speed cameras only until Rovaniemi, but I suggest not to go to fast after that because there are very often wild animals crossing the street. We met so many times a lot of reindeers in the middle of the tracks, and they’re dangerous, but not like elks. Every year in Finland there people killed by car crash against elks: reindeers are smaller, but elks are very huge. So take care, expecially after curves or little hills.

The monument of the northern point of Europe (Knivskjellodden) and then, behind, the cliff of North Cape

The second path is thorugh Alta and then Tornio, besides the swedish border. The road is quite boring.

Approaching to North Cape

The best part of the road, anyway, is commont to both paths, and is in norway. It starts at Olderfjord and it leads to the island of North Cape through the route E69. It runs besides the sea, and once again the panorama is amazing.

Road to North Cape

A lot of cyclist every year go to North Cape. The main obstacle for them I think is the long tunnel (approx 6 km) to enter in the final island. It simply goes down for the first half, and then 3 km to climb, sometimes very steep. After that, cars have to pay something to enter in the island. We were 5 but the guy saw only 4 people: 286 Norvegian Crown (more or less 30 euro) to enter, and then other 286 to quit. Then there’s a big village, Honningsvåg, the northern village of the world (not a city, since its population is only 2500 units) where you can find markets and fuel station.

Reindeers crossing the street

Then there’s the camping area a couple of km far from Honningsvåg, where we slept. Going further to north, you can arrive to the monument of North Cape. It’s possible to buy souvenirs and take famous pictures, but as remarked before, is not the real norther point. All people go there only beacuse it can be reached by car or by bus (by car, 5 student like as had to pay 700 Nok, approx 77 euro).

Still some km to go…

If you wanna really fo to the nothern point, Knivskjellodden, you have to come back for a couple of km, until a well signalled parking area. There you have to leave the car and you can start a 9 km long walk, followinf a red T drawn on the stones. The path is not difficult, but quite annoying (more than, for examples, those you can find on Aples) due to the stones. It takes approx 2 and half hours each way, but of course you can’t do it if there’s snow. The last km is on a cliff, easy with good weather, quite difficult with ice and snow.

Entrance to North Cape

A lot of people can say to have been in North Cape, but only few to have reach this northern point. And only then you can be really proud, like we did! LOL…