4-Xtremes – Part 7: VIP space at the North Cape for Andrea and Mike

Today we are reporting from the north of Norway, where the countryside shows itself in ever-changing autumnal shades of yellow. We have now arrived in country number eight of our "World Tour". Above all, we have reached the first major milestone of the journey we had been obliged to plan carefully due to corona: the North Cape – which is reached in a typically Norwegian way. 

This stretch of the journey began close to Rovaniemi, Finland, on the Arctic Circle. Bizarre as this "Santa Claus Village" is - we reported on it before - the surrounding region is all the more exciting. By chance, we discovered one of the oldest wooden churches in Finland, in the town of Tervola. The building, dated 1687, is next to a larger church, also of wood, which is almost as old. A friendly neighbour knocked on the parish priest's door, and so we were allowed to view both churches and admire the huge wood-burning stoves.

Non-stop to Norway.

After seemingly endless roads, we drove through the forests of the sparsely inhabited region of Inari. A few days' journey further on, we finally reached the end of Finland and crossed the border into Norway – without being stopped. And we had feared that as Swiss citizens we could not enter the country unchallenged. Maybe the officials had just assumed, quite rightly, that we had been away from our home country for weeks. 

After a night next to a waterfall, we "kept on course" to the Barents Sea. Here in the north-east of Norway, the water is as clear as in the Caribbean. But it is also clear that it's definitely too cold to swim in. The nights are growing cooler too. We'd really like to preheat the driver's cab, but the stationary heating is on strike. We last had it repaired in Russia – it was pretty cold there too.

A place for photos every few metres.

The distances in Norway are not to be underestimated: it's several hundred kilometres from where we first saw the Barents Sea to the North Cape. The further north you go, the wilder the landscape becomes and the less traffic there is. Every few metres there's another beautiful view to photograph. The light changes fast, and the moods of the light are epic.

Our destination, the North Cape, is on an island. The Norwegians are master tunnel builders. So it is no surprise that the route to the island is also via a tunnel. It is just under seven kilometres long. At the lowest point of the tunnel you are all of 212 metres below sea level.

A clear run – just for us.

When we arrived at the North Cape, we only counted another five mobile homes. This place was made for busloads of tourists – and yet we had it almost to ourselves. Sometimes corona has its good points.

We had checked in advance that we would be allowed to drive up to the metal globe which marks the North Cape on a cliff edge. Normally the journey ends at the visitors' car park. But exceptions are sometimes made under special circumstances. So the people in charge cleared away the rocks which normally block the gravel road, just for us.

Full broadside in the night.

We experienced how the traffic increased and the choice of places to stop for the night grew narrower. Unforgettable was a night at a place with a particularly beautiful view of the sea and the mountains, where a storm hit us full force from the side. The Axor rocked so hard that we found another place to park as quickly as possible.

The storm raged for a few more days while we were travelling towards Alta. The exciting thing was: although the gusts in one fjord could be extremely strong, in the next one you hardly felt them at all. We want to be on the Lofoten Islands in a few days – and we really hope the rainy front will have passed by then.

Photos: 4-Xtremes