The North Ca­pe

The last mi­les on the is­land of Ma­gerø­ya

reindeers Who on­ce ma­de a trip so far will know that it is al­ways dif­fi­cult to ex­plain what it means to re­ach the des­ti­na­ti­on. You do not know whe­ther you get there un­til you get there. And then you find your­self on the last mi­les of this in­cre­di­ble trip. Your he­art full of pri­de as you see one of your dea­rest dre­ams co­me true ...

the last miles Who ever ma­de a jour­ney to the north of Nor­way knows that the sun seems to shi­ne fo­re­ver. But if you are up he­re in au­gust it is al­rea­dy too la­te to see the mid­night sun. The light is ve­ry broad any­way but the sun sinks un­der­neath the ho­ri­zon for an hour or two. I call this ap­pea­ran­ce the «mid­night sun set».

Nord­kapp - North Ca­pe - 4.8.84

The North Cape I have re­a­ched the des­ti­na­ti­on of this tour, the North Ca­pe. There are ma­ny tou­rists he­re by bus from Hon­nings­våg. But in 1984 the place is not too crow­ded, may­be be­cau­se it is too la­te to see the mid­night sun. And there is no toll to pay to get to the ve­ry north of eu­ro­pe. There are ma­ny of us who went all the way by bike. And so it is a ve­ry short night in which the mid­night sun­set ta­kes place be­hind the ti­ny rib­bon of clouds lay­ing ma­ny mi­les from he­re low abo­ve the sea.

globe at the North Cape I lift my bike on­to the ba­se of the mo­nu­ment that car­ries the glo­be, tel­ling eve­r­y­bo­dy whe­re he is. I ad­just my ca­me­ra on the tri­po­de and have the self-timer ta­ke a love­ly pic­ture of me and the la­te night sun...

On my way back to the hos­tel I meet so­meo­ne from Würz­burg (Ger­ma­ny), who  «ma­kes» the ca­pe wi­thin four weeks. He has to go all the way through Fin­land be­cau­se there is no ti­me to loo­se. Poor guy. He has to do 140 km a day and is now hur­ry­ing back home. He «ma­de» the Mat­ter­horn and now it is the ca­pe. He doesn't de­scend at the sa­me speed I do, so we part.

At the hos­tel I meet Da­ve for the last ti­me. Da­ve was on the road again for 24 hours and 120 mi­les. There is a lot to talk about and the night ends so­me­what about noon.