Another sea day. The morning started out sunny then clouded over with haze or light fog. After breakfast we spent the rest of the morning in the Crow's Nest lounge up top forward reading and working on our various needlework projects. Eventually the fog cleared and we could see the coastline which is still very mountainous. At noon we must still have been in the upper reaches of the Gulf Stream because the outside temperature, while quite brisk in the wind of our passage, is not really all that cold. I wouldn't want to sit out on deck for a long time, but 15 or 20 minutes I could do it without resorting to a heavy jacket.
It cooled off some more in the afternoon, but hey, we were sailing past the top of Norway at 72 degrees north which is certainly the farthest north I've ever been. By evening as we sailed past North Cape, the fog closed in. While we were at a Captain's cocktail party up in the Crow's Nest, the fog horn started and went on until well after we went to bed. The ocean was kicking up a bit also, but the ship's stabilizers are up to the task of keeping us pretty smooth. Hoping for decent weather tomorrow at Kirkenes, but the official forecast is for lots of rain. We'll see.
Kirkenes
Cloudy, somewhat foggy, cold, and clammy, but not raining as of about 10:30. Thankfully, we are docked instead of tendering. That is a lot easier for me to go ashore. Jill's and my weather luck held pretty well. The local forecast had been for heavy rain today, and we only got sprinkles and some light rain while on our tours instead.
My tour went up the Passvik Valley. The Passvik is a very large river that forms the border between Norway and Russia (before WWII the other side was Finland). There were several scenic photo stops including one at the highest point in this region at 96 meters from which we could see across to the Russian city of Nikel. That city is known for its nickel smelter and for many years under the Soviet regime produced so much sulfur pollution that the average life expectancy there was 45 years. That was because they were processing high sulfur nickel ore shipped in from Siberia. Now they only smelt local low sulfur ore, but the Norwegians monitor the emissions very closely.
Our main stop was at the National Park Centre. This was originally established in the 1950s as an agricultural research center. It still does some of that, but also does monitoring for both the sulfur pollution and for radiation pollution from the Russian nuclear plant to the east which is of the same type as Chernoble. The Park Centre was attractive and modern with a theatre where we saw a nice film about the different animals and birds in the park. Evidently there are lots of animals and plants in the park that are found nowhere else in Norway.
Basically this tour was about four hours on the bus on roads that were about one and a half lanes wide. Despite the narrow width of the roads, the bus and other on-coming traffic seemed able to pass each other without slowing down. As usual, I had a front row seat for any excitement. At one point we came around a curve to find a big orange excavator taking up the entire road and digging a huge hole on more than half of it. Eventually, it deigned to vacate its position to let us creep by.
The most interesting thing for me was seeing the taiga ecosystem. There are over 3,000 lakes, ponds and other bodies of water in the region, and, of course, permafrost under it all. The forests are mostly short birch trees with some short pines, although there are more pines farther up the valley. It is all short because of the climate and short growing season. The pine trees can take 100 years to reach 10 meters tall. We didn't see any moose or other wildlife, but there was a herd of reindeer in one of the fields. Our guide was going to stop on the way back so we could take photos, but by that time they had gone elsewhere. Reindeer herding is the only agricultural pursuit allowed in the park itself, although there are about a dozen farms left in the valley from its original settlement in the early 1900s. Kirkenes itself was only founded in 1906 after iron ore deposits were discovered in the region. Actually, in this photo (which is also one of my famous collection of telephone pole shots around the world) you can see the reindeer herd as little light-colored specks in the far field to the right of center.
The word from the Captain is that there will be three other cruise ships at Honnigsvag tomorrow besides us. There is not dock space for all four, so it seems as there will be some negotiation as to who gets what. I am hoping that, as a Noewegian himself, he has some clout with the harbor master, or maybe that we can get there first. This also means that the Visitor Center at Nordkapp (North Cape) will be packed, but I still want to go there unless we have to tender in rough conditions.
I tried to post this from Kirkenes, but we are way too far north for satellite reception, so it will have to wait.
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