The North Cape, Norway - Photo: Innovation Norway

Ice cold explorers at the North Cape Photo: Innovation Norway

View from the bus Photo: Innovation Norway

The globe on the North Cape Photo: Innovation Norway

View from Hurtigruten Photo: Innovation Norway

Jacuzzi on the top deck Photo: Innovation Norway

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The North Cape, Norway Photo: Innovation Norway

When standing on the cliff at the North Cape, only the Svalbard Islands separate you from the North Pole. Photo: Innovation Norway

Due to the storm, we had to sail up to the North Cape insted of going ashore. It was great! Photo: Innovation Norway

The storm made the beautiful landscape look more dramatic. Photo: Innovation Norway

Due to heavy storm, we had to drive in a convoy through the mountain passes from Honningsvåg to Alta. Photo: Innovation Norway

The globe on the tip of the North Cape is from 1978. Photo: Innovation Norway

Calling at 35 ports, Hurtigruten/The Norwegian Coastal Voyage is the lifeline along a stretch of the coast. Photo: Innovation Norway

Our explorers enjoyed the outdoor jacuzzi on the top deck of Hurtigruten. Outside the glass partitions the storm was building up. Photo: Innovation Norway

Honningsvåg is a town situated on the southern side of Magerøya island, while the North Cape and its visitors center is on the northern side. Photo: Innovation Norway

Day 8 - Storm at the North Cape

Seeing the North Cape from the sea is just as impressive as standing on the top. Due to heavy storm this day became quite different than expected.

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Nancy van der Woey shares her diary from our stormy day in the county of Finnmark:

Today we woke up in our lovely cabins on the Hurtigruten ship. Marta, Carolin and I shared a cabin and we all had a very good sleep on the boat. After the breakfast the anouncement was made by the captain that there was heavy storm around the North Cape and we were not allowed to go on land.

A view from the sea

Because of the storm, many roads were closed and we wouldn’t have made it to the view point. Therefore the Hurtigruten took another route and sailed up to the view point of North Cape. And really - it was even better.

We loved the stormy weather outside on the deck and we really enjoyed the view of the cliff where the view point is situated. We could see the well known globe and of course we took a lot of pictures with this view. And we were even further north than we normally should have been.

A couple of hours later than planned, we finally reached our destination Honningsvåg, where we had nice waffles and a short break. We there got on a bus that were to take us to Alta.

To avoid the worst storm in the mountain passes we had no time to loose, so we had to travel on as soon as possible.

Driving through the storm

This was a bit of an exciting bus ride. Snow blowing over the roads and the bus shaking from the wind - it was thrilling. For two hours we had to wait for the convoy to bring us safely over the mountains. The weather was really that bad.

But hours and hours passed by and we had to amuse ourselves. So there was this nice bottle of Aquavit again and we passed the bottle until it was finished. While waiting for the second convoy, we were dancing in the bus and some us wanted to try some Zumba.

Because of the lack of space in the bus, we went outside and I did my Zumba lesson like I normally do back home in the gym. Some guys in a car, also waiting for the convoy, were playing music very loud. Luckily, they also had some Zumba numbers. So there we were, dancing in the snow and between the trucks, waiting to go on with our journey. We had so much fun and everyone was dancing.

After a seven hour drive, we finally arrived at our hotel in Alta. We had dinner in a nice restaurant near the hotel and had a few beers afterwards. It was a day full of travelling, on sea and on land. But still it was a day full of fun, lots of food on the boat, lots of drinks in the bus, humour, singing and dancing.