In the afternoon, we said our farewells to Trond, and he thanked us for being his guests. I cannot thank him enough for enabling us to approach this natural, cultural, and historical landscape. After he dropped us off at our hotel in Vardø, Mom and I explored Vardø once more and went to the Tourist Information booth to organize the trip to Hornøya. This tiny island, situated in the rough sea a quick boat ride off Vardø, is a protected nature reserve and temporary home to 80,000 seabirds such as puffins, Common Guillemot, Kittiwake, and Razorbill. Again, this trip was excellent as one rarely gets to experience that many seabirds all at once, not even slightly scared of humans. We have already noticed that the weather report for the next day forecasts high winds and a very rough sea. So consequently, we got a notice from Hurtigruten that the vessel we were booked on wouldn’t be able to come to Vardø and pick us up.
Hurtigruten refers to a Norwegian public coastal route transporting passengers that travel locally and regionally, as well as cargo between the ports along the long coast of Norway between Kirkenes and Bergen. Besides going from port to port, it is a popular trip for cruise ship passengers looking for something different. If you book the whole passage, it is quite a pricey endeavor. But if you book passage from port to port and stay less than 20 hours on board (and therefore won’t need a cabin), it is an exciting and budget-friendly option to experience the coastline and get to places along the shore. Mom and I originally booked a passage from Vardø to Honningsvåg (to explore the Northern Cape) and from Honningsvåg to Tromsø.
With the message from Hurtigruten, our thought-through plan fell apart. We had to stay another night in Vardø, and we would hop on the ship we were planning to take from Honningsvåg to Tromsø. Many ships are covering the route 4-5 times a week. So, unfortunately, our trip to the Northern Cape got canceled. But we were lucky enough to get easily booked on the other ship and were granted even a cabin on the boat as now we would have to stay more than 20 hours on board the vessel through no fault of our own. After we dealt with all the changes in our bookings, Mom and I visited the witch memorial again and also visited the town’s fortress. For the rest of the day, we hiked towards the northern tip of the island Vardø sits on, and we were thrilled when we suddenly spotted the spout of several whales. We scanned the horizon and the ocean for a long time, constantly squeezing each other’s arms in astonishment when spotting yet another blow from one of the seemingly many whales roaming the waters off Vardø and Hamningberg. We had to return to town at some point as we needed to get some provisions for the boat trip later today. On the way to the supermarket, we saw yet another whale and even the grey back and fin of it. Mom very happy as she wished to see whales on this trip.
We made our way from the hotel to the port and boarded Hurtigruten after it signaled its approach by blowing the typical Hurtigruten horn a few times. Happily, we moved into the cabin that even had a window and were looking forward to a very comfortable passage to Tromsø. Slowly making our way out of Vardø harbor and along the coast towards the West, even more whales were showing their massive backs and fins. This was very exciting, but at some point, we started to feel the deceleration and laziness of being on a comfortable boat. A couple of stops were on the way, but never long enough to embark the vessel. Only in Hammerfest we had roughly 90 minutes to explore.
After having left Hammerfest – considered to be the northernmost town, home to a chain of the Struve Geometric Arc and yet another bastion of German soldiers during WWII – we made our way through the truly dramatic landscape: snow-capped mountains and majestic fjords cutting deep into the land. It felt like we were threading through the shattered northern Norwegian coastal scenery. Highlights were to experience the midnight sun, passing other Hurtigruten boats on their way up to Kirkenes, and eventually, we made our way into Tromsø.
