Last night we both explored the Nordkapp peninsula, mosied around the visitor centre and retired to Basil to wait for the arrival of the midnight sun. People kept arriving by car, motorbike, motorhome and even bicycle. Several tents were erected on the moor land surrounding Nordkapp. The car park got fuller and fuller until people were parking any which way. This was truly an international gathering. We saw vehicles from most European countries and even a van from China! As far as we could see we were the only one of two vehicles from the UK. The Germans, as always, had the largest non-Norwegian presence – they are an adventurous lot.
Come midnight crowds thronged to the globe sculpture on the headland and the fences around the cliff tops were covered with spectators. In the hour prior to midnight heavier cloud had threatened the phenomenon but there were sufficient breaks for the sun to be clearly seen above the horizon and at this latitude not just above the horizon but substantially higher in the sky than I had imagined. It was almost a party atmosphere and one group burst into song.
Midnight Sun – Nordkapp
The spectacle itself looked much like an approaching sunset anywhere else in the world, but in this case the sun got no lower and from 0020 hrs onwards the sun started to rise again! Another interesting observation is that for the last few hours of the day the sun “appears” to be moving from west to east, which of course never happens in lower latitudes.
Sarah at Norkapp at 0030 hrs
We returned to Basil at 0100 hrs and tried to get to sleep in bright sunshine. Surprisingly the dogs’ sleeping patterns do not seem to have been affected by these light nights. I suppose Melek would sleep 24 hours a day given half a chance, so in his case it’s not surprising!
When we got up, a little later than usual, the car park had substantially emptied. Once breakfasted we started our long, inexorable, journey south. We were retracing yesterday’s steps through reindeer filled moors and down the bank of Porsangerfjorden. Team Basil now has no particular targets to meet and so travel pace slowed considerably, with us stopping just to take photographs and on one occasion for Sarah and the dogs to romp in the remaining snow.
Snow brings out Sarah’s inner child!
A pattern began to emerge to Basil’s intermittent airbag fault. On each of the three occasions when we got an alert today we were deep in one of the three long tunnels. Outside temperature today has been a balmy 20 degrees celsius, but inside these tunnels the temperature drops to 9 degrees. It would seem that the fault is linked either to low temperatures generally or rapid changes in temperature. I will keep an eye on it. We are now only two or three days from a Fiat garage.
Porsangerfjorden
Tonight is our fifth wildcamping night in a row, a record for our trip. Basil is perched on a rough area of land, next to a gravel track, overlooking the fjord, with glorious mountains in the distance and lovely little coloured houses dotting the shoreline (70.411601, 25.184620).
Basil’s overnight spot