NORDKAPP.......Top of the World.

"It's All Downhill From Here".

The first time I ever heard the name Nordkapp being mentioned, the very sound of it conjured up images of a Shackleton-esque like expedition, scraggy men with beards, in big thick puffy Arctic subzero (sounds better than cold weather) anoraks with fur lined hoods, icicles hanging off the ends of their mustaches, sounds of a dog sled pack yelping, their howls and yips being carried across the icepack by a whipping wind that feels like a thousand needles hitting you in the face all at the same time.
Many people think that Shackleton was English, but in fact he was Irish, born in Kilkea in Co. Kildare, 55 miles away from my home town of Bray in Co. Wicklow. 

Shackleton's mother Henrietta's family hailed from the same city as my own mother, Cork. His father Henry's family was English, and at the age of 10, Henry Shackleton moved the family from Ireland to Sydenham in the suburbs of London partly because of his unease of their Anglo-Irish ancestry following the assassination on May 6th, 1882 by Irish nationalists of Lord Frederick Cavendish, the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, in an event known famously as The Phoenix Park Murders. 
Ironically, it wasn't Lord Cavendish that The Irish National Invincibles were after that afternoon, Cavendish just happened to be in the company of the man that they WERE after, Thomas Henry Burke, the Permanent Under Secretary. 
See?. My mother always told me it's all about the company that you keep.  

Ireland has had more than a few intrepid explorers in her day, the great Tom Crean was another, and, like Shackleton, an Antarctic explorer also hailing from Co. Kerry. Nicknamed "The Irish Giant" Crean was a member of Captain Robert Falcon Scott's 1911-1913 Terra Nova Expedition. After Terra Nova he joined Shackleton on his failed attempt to cross the Antarctic and was a central figure in the rescue of the Endurance's  crew after the ship became lodged and destroyed in the polar ice in 1915. After Endurance sank, Crean was a participent in a dramatic series of events including months spent drifting on ice, an open boat journey of 800 nautical miles (1500 km) from South Georgia to Elephant Island in Antarctica. This solidified his reputation as a tough and dependable polar traveler and earned him a total of three Polar medals.
A remarkable achievement in the days when men were men and life was tough.

Zermatt, Switzerland. Dec 1977.

My own first "Continental" voyage of exploration was at the age of 15 when I hoisted a backpack on my back, hitched a ride to Europe with a truck driver friend of my fathers, and ended up in Germany where I promptly bought myself a Eurorail pass and for the next month explored the cities and countries of Europe by day and by night figured out that if I jumped on a train that had a travel distance of around 6-10 hours I could sleep on it, thereby avoiding having to pay for a room in a hostel and also ending up in a new city in a new country every few days. If only I were that smart now.

It seems I got the wanderlust bug early, and upon reflection like Crean and Shackleton, I seem to like my travel destinations a little bit on the cooler side too. On the Zermatt trip I bumped into a group of climbers in a cafe that evening and got invited to go with them to climb the The Matterhorn the next day, which I did. And I still have my original Meindl Boots that I went to Europe in, and they still fit me too.

My Meindl Boots, bought in 1977, all original except the laces.

Since Nordkapp is the "Top of the World" in a way, I got into a very reflective moment I guess and took a look down from the top at a lot of the things that happened that helped to get me to this point in my trip and my life. A penultimate moment in my travels, Nordkapp turned from fantasy into reality without me really planning it, it was more of a blind leap of faith, I honestly just pointed myself in the direction of Nordkapp, and momentum and help from some really great people carried me the rest of the way. I was hoping I would get there and reach the globe, but I honestly didn't think I would make it given the time of year I chose to travel. As it turned out, it wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be, and certaitly nowhere near as tough as any of Tom Creans exploits.

After arriving at the gate and the last 9 km of road that leads up to the Nordkapp Visitor Center, I felt a huge wave of emotion come over me.
I started to reflect on all the events that led me up here to begin with and all of the people I met along the way that had, in their own way, contributed to me finally being able to reach what I once considered a fantasy or in my case, the folly of the solo Adventure bike rider. I took it all in, the vast emptiness, the silence, the remoteness of being up there all alone, and for a while wished I had gone up there the night before and camped out at Nordkapp. It would have been a challenge as the weather gets very inhospitable up there. A challenge for sure, but not impossible. Nothing that Tom Crean hadn't done before in the early 1900's when they didn't have GPS, proper maps, or tents made of high tech lightweight materials and MSR compact camping stoves. If I thought it would have been challenging now, I can just imagine what those guys went through in discovering the Antarctic and the Poles with none of the comforts and high tech gear that are available to us and todays travelers and adventurers.

So, when you get to the gate at the bottom of the road leading up to Nordkapp, in Wintertime anyway, you will end up with a view something like this, minus my bike of course. 

Jonas (the rear convoy driver) and I spoke, he asked me had I spikes in my tires and then went over to check with Rune, master of the snowplough and the boss of the road.

Jonas: "Hey Dad, there's a guy on a sidecar wants to go up the mountain".

Rune: "Why?".

Jonas: "Haven't the foggiest".

Rune: "Ok, his funeral".

Jonas and Rune.

Minders of the mountain pass to Nordkapp.

The snowplough driver Rune and his son Jonas, who follows in the back, are the ones who decide who goes up and who doesn't. They're the ones responsible for getting you unstuck should you get stuck to begin with, so they make sure that you're vehicle and you are able to navigate the uphill and twisty road to the visitor center. If I didn't have spikes in my tires, I wouldn't have been allowed to make the trip up.

Children of the Earth Monument, North Cape, Norway. Jan 2013.

Before you get to go inside to the Nordkapp Visitor Center, if you look over to your right you will see the Children of the World Monument.

In 1987, Simon Flem Devold, a Norwegian writer suggested that North Cape be used for a symbolic value beyond the borders of Norway. He thought "Why not bring children of different nations and cultures and let them create a lasting expression of youthful cooperation unhibited by national, racial, religious or political boundaries". In June of 1988, 7 boys and girls from as many countries converged on the cliff and created reliefs of clay reflecting their emotions.

The 7 youngsters demonstrated the congenital desire of children everywhere to have a good time and be friendly toward each other.

The children stayed with families in Skarsvåg on Magerøya. At North Cape they spent a week creating motives in clay and all 7 children had great fun and experienced no linguistic or other barriers whatsoever.

They were: Jasmine from Tanzania, Rafael from Rio de Janeiro Brazil, Ayumi from Kawasaki Japan, Sithidej from Bangkok Thailand, Gloria from Jesi Italy, Anton from Murmansk Russia and Louise from New York City USA.

From the very beginning they were called "The Children of the Earth".

In 1989 The Children of the Earth Prize was awarded for the very first time. Inger Harrington of Ålesund, Norway was awarded 100,000 Nk or approx $16,500 who has since been working with street children in Brazil.

Children from all the schools in the community of North Cape attend the annual awards ceremony and the North Cape School of Culture provides a locally inspired program.

Nordkapp Visitor Center. Nordkapp Norway. Jan 1st, 2013.

Inside the visitor center, which I omitted to take photos of, I had another of those wonderful moments that my trip is chock full of. Special moments with special people.

Michael, whose name I found out later, was at the desk, so I approached with a newspaper in hand containing a center page article about me and RideAwayCancer and asked about the possibility of riding the outfit around the back to the globe to take a 'few shots'. Well, I got the green light for that, Michael said to just go around now, take your shots and ride back out as there were 2 tour buses coming in and it would get a bit busy. "No problem" says I, "I'll be quick, just a few shots is all I need Michael thanks".

Half an hour later and I was still out back at the globe, chatting with the tourists, they're taking photos of the outfit, they're sitting on the outfit and taking photos and generally a good time was being had by all. So out of the corner of my one good eye I see Michael walking down from the visitor center toward me and I think to myself "Uh oh". Well, I didn't have to worry at all, he was just coming down to check if everything was ok and that I was getting the shots I wanted and if I needed any help. After a couple of sentences from him my ears pricked up. I could of sworn I heard the sound of an Irish accent. "Where are you from?" I asked him. "Lithuania" he said. "Oh, never mind then, your accent just sounds a bit like....". "Well, I lived in ireland for 8 years before coming here to Norway" he blurts out. Well,that explained it. From then on it was off to the races, we were best buds. Michael couldn't have been any more helpful to me if he tried.

As we're chatting Michael asks me "Are you going to come back here to Nordkapp again?". "Well yes", I said, "I'll probably be back again tomorrow to take some more photos and I would really like to come back up again next year too". "Ok" he says, "let's go inside, I have something for you".

Michael, bless his heart, made myself, DriveAwayCancer and RideAwayCancer lifetime members of The Royal North Cape Club. Technically, membership is only available if you come to the North Cape personally, it can't be bought online, but I made a special request for John Nikas and Grace and all his hard work with DriveAwayCancer which Michael seemed to understand.

Members of the North Cape Club have free entry to the North Cape Plateau for the rest of their lives.

Michael, if you're reading this post thank you so much for your wonderful gesture, it's very special and means the world to me, especially given the importance of my reaching Nordkapp in Winter.

At this point I would like to extend a very big heartfelt "Thank You" to all of you who played a part in helping to get me up here to Nordkapp, I absolutely could not have done this without all of your help. Each and every one of you played a part, and the sum of all the parts has me sitting on 

Top of the World right now, so I would like for you all to share in this moment with me.

Murph.

NORDKAPP.

 MAGERØYA, NORWAY.

Dude!!. Where's my sidecar?.

Top of the World. The northernmost part of Europe. Right?.

The road to Nordkapp, Norway .

Well hold on, not so fast. 
That's not technically correct since Nordkapp is on an Island, the island of MAGERØYA in Norway. It's not part of mainland Europe, but for this post, it's the most northerly point I have ridden to on my trip so far. And that's good enough for me...........at least for the moment anyway.
And, due to it being the most northerly point in Europe that you can drive or ride to, I kind of, well no, I did intentionally set myself up in advance of actually making it up there, albeit in being originally planned for arrival in October and not December or January because I knew that (a.)it was probably going to be a cold and difficult ride, and (b.)it wouldn't allow me to back out if the going got tough since I already advertised that I was going to do it. I would have to see it through no matter what.

Bunkers MC, Alta. Dec 26th 2012.

I know myself quite a bit by now, and I was a little nervous about the whole 'unknown' factor of it all, so my reasoning was that if I announced my future travel plans as an article on my blog, then I would have no other alternative or choice but to follow through with those travel plans, lest I lose face with myself and also my readers and followers of my trip here on my blog.
Self doubt and insecurities abound sometimes, and I'm certainly not immune to them, especially since choosing to travel alone like I do. I don't have or use an iPod while riding to take my mind off things, so I'm alone in my helmet with my own thoughts all the time with nothing but myself to paint the picture. 
It's like I'm on ALL the time. 
For the most part, I like it that way. I've made friends with myself after drinking myself broke and come to understand a lot of what's going on inside of my head. And, I also get to feel, 100%, the whole meaning, IMO, of what being a motorcyclist is all about since I have no other distractions other than whats happening as I ride, how cold it is, how hard it's snowing, how my right foot is starting to get a little numb, how I really need to pee but at the same time I just want to keep the momentum going and finish the last 60 km to my destination. How amazingly beautiful it to actually BE up here in Sweden and Norway, riding on an awesome 2 WD sidecar outfit and be able to see what I'm seeing, how much money I have left and how far I have to actually travel on it, how much I love winter and how much I really don't like riding in the heat very much at all.
All sorts of thoughts go through my head as I ride, I talk to myself a lot on my rides.


View Larger Map

It was only a ride of 4000 kilometers from Rotterdam in Holland to Nordkapp in Norway. Thats provided I did it without making too many detours, but yet it took me almost 4 months to complete the journey. 
However, the one thing that last years leg of the trip has taught me is about time management. 
Don't try to manage it if you don't have to.

When I left LBS Sidecars in Elsendorp in the Netherlands in Sepember of 2012, I had what I always say that I don't like to have, and that was a plan. A time sanctioned itinerary of where I had to be and roughly when I had to be there. The reasons for this were twofold.
First, I had already for a 3 month visa for Russia which started on Nov 15th and ended on Feb 15th, so until I arrived in Stromsund, that was foremost in my mind and seemed to me at the time to dictate how much time I allowed myself to spend at a given place or town.
I mean, for a while after I left the Netherlands it seemed like my travels were becoming rush rush rush ride to each destination. As soon as I got to one town a day or two later I had to pack, hurry up and start moving on the next 400k to the next point on the planned route. It was becoming like a checklist, Town A, check, Town B, check, Town C, check. And I wasn't too happy about that.

The second reason was an invite from the Black Bears MC in Yaroslavl, Russia to attend their winter rally on Dec 5th, so my intention was to get to Nordkapp in the middle to end of October and be down around the Helsinki area of Finland by mid to late November. Plenty of time, right?.
As it turned out, I didn't even make it to Nordkapp by the end of November.
In fact I didn't even leave Stockholm until November 2nd due to a rear shock issue and a clutch/ driveshaft bearing issue that delayed my departure from Stockholm by nearly 10 days. 
Meeting Margareta and Birger in Ljusdal, Sweden was the first defining moment for me after leaving Stockholm and it had to do with a comment that Margareta made over breakfast that morning. Over breakfast she was asking me about my trip and about RideAwayCancer so asked me if I intended to visit the hospital in Umea, Sweden. Since my route was not taking me east to the coast road but north to Kiruna I replied no, I probably wouldn't have time. So Margareta replied "You don't have time?. You're on a 7 year Round the World trip and you don't have time?". Well, knock me over with a feather. That was when I started to re-think the whole "I have to be in a certain place by a certain day" schedule that I had given myself.

Then of course there was my extended stay in Stromsund. I think it was my time in Stromsund that made me slow down quite a bit and start to realize that it really didn't matter IF I got to my intended destination at all. Had I not been forced to stop in Stromsund in order to get spikes in my tires I would have never found out about the Stromsund MC, never had the chance to do all the repair work to my outfit there and never had the chance to meet all the wonderful people there that I came across. Stromsund was one of those  defining moments of my trip also. Great town and some great people in it. I had the chance in Stromsunds MC to relax, take some time for myself, work on the bike a little and get to meet most or all of the members of the club.

Bunkers MC, Alta Norway. Dec 26th, 2012.

After Christmas Eve dinner at the Reirsen's I had fully intended to go back to Bunkers, pack up the outfit and leave out early the following morning for Nordkapp. But again, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
On Dec 27th, the morning of my departure my intestinal/stomach gremlin reared it's ugly head and just laid me out flat with abdominal cramps and vomiting. I could hardly move the cramps were so bad. It really took it out of me this time. By the 29th I was a little better but also determined to make it up the last 240 kms to Nordkapp, even if I had to crawl up there throwing up all the way. Having a look at the weather and the storm rolling in all across the north of Scandinavia also meant I had no choice but to leave out that morning, sick or not, otherwise the two mountains I had to ride over to get to Nordkapp would probably be closed. At least one anyway, as this storm was bringing quite a bit of snow with it.

Alta Fjord, Alta Norway, Dec 2012.

Alta Fjord, Alta Norway. Dec 2012.

E6 north of Alta, Norway. Dec 29th, 2012.

When you leave Alta for Skaidi, Norway you take the E6 north for 85 kms and you'll come to a T-junction. If you turn left on the E6 going west and travel 55 kms you will arrive at Hammerfest, a small city on the north west coast of Norway. If you turn right and travel north up the E6 for 23 kms and then take a left onto the E69 for another 97 kms, you will then end up in Honningsvag on the Island of Magerøya. From there you are now only 33 kms from the cliff with the big globe on it, otherwise known as the Nordkapp Globe.

Skaidikroa, Skaidi, Norway. Dec 29th, 2012. Timestamp: 3pm.

Now, as soon as you turn right at the T-junction in Skaidi, immediately to your right you will see a Statoil gas station and a big wooden A framed building that inside houses the Skaidikroa restaurant. So I figured this would be a good stop #1 for me since I knew there wasn't going to be any more decent sized gas stations between here and Honningsvåg, even though it was only 100 km away, but it was a barren, cold and treacherous 100 km of ross up along the coast.
Even though it was only 3 pm when I got to Skaidi it was already dark outside, like it was 9 or 10 at night. "It's gonna be a dark ride to Honningsvåg" I thought. Pity, I'll bet there's some terrific scenery up along the Fjords I'm going to miss out on photographing.

Anyway, inside the Skaidikroa was Eva-Marie Lilja, a Swedish transplant now living in Skaidi. I really only wanted a coffee or hot chocolate, but I saw someone eating a tasty looking plate of food, so of course it made me hungry. So I asked Eva-Marie could she whip me up an omelet. "No problem" she said. So Eva-Marie made me the best Swedish omelet you can get in Norway, trust me on this. And no, no food pics here, thats what Instagram is for.
Ok, I was fed, warmed from the coffee and happy from the food. Time to get back in the saddle and do battle with the Nordic Storm Gods on the winding, cold, icy and dark E69 to Nordkapp.

23 kilometers north of Skaidi, the E6-E69 junction.

Honningsvåg was my destination for the day, or night as it would seem.
Again, the image looks like it was shot at night, but the timestamp is a little after 4 pm.

One of the mountain pass gates on the E69 to Nordkapp. 
The moon is up and it's not even 5 pm.

These guards to the road leading over the mountain can be either open or closed, depending on the severity of the storm. I was hoping I was going to make it through to the other side before either of them closed. Even though the picture looks like it was taken at night, it was actually taken a little after 4 in the afternoon.

The 2 larger tunnels that you go through on the E69 on the way to Honningsvåg have gates or garage style up and down doors. Both are automatic. They're anti-freeze doors, designed for winter to avoid freezing of the leaking water inside the tunnel. Once you get inside the tunnel with the doors closed behind you, it's a warm and humid atmosphere in there. My mirrors and the lens of my camera started to fog up almost immediately.
During the summer the gates are left open permanently.

Honningsvåg, Norway. Jan 2013.

Honningsvåg Church, Honningsvåg, Norway. Jan 2013.

Honningsvåg Church 1945.

Honningsvåg Church was the only building that was left standing after the war ended in 1945. It was built back in 1885 and is the oldest building on the island of Magerøya. As the Germans were evacuating Norway when the war ended they had orders to burn everything in their path as they left, but the commander was, according to how the story was relayed to me, a man of faith so he himself went against his own orders and told his men to leave the church standing. He apparently didn't have the heart to burn down a church.

After the war the Norwegian government wanted to move the location of Honningsvåg back to the mainland but the residents worked hard and were determined to rebuild their town in it's original location, so they established camp in the church and began the long arduous task of reconstruction. The church even had a bakery inside and the pews doubled as beds at night. Barracks were built so more townspeople could return and help with the rebuilding of Honningsvåg. And of course thanks to those stubborn few back then, around 100 I believe, Honningsvåg is where it was originally intended to be today, on the island of Magerøya.

When I left Bunkers MC in Alta for Nordvågen there was a storm coming in from the north west. I should have left a few days earlier but I was bedridden with stomach cramps. By the time I got to Nordvågen the wind had picked up considerably and was blowing pretty good. Fortunately for me I had a place to stay there.  

At the Bunkers MC Christmas dinner that I was invited to on Dec 24th by Mama Bunkers, Eva Bjorkli, I was chatting with some of the club members that evening and got talking with a guy called Erling. He was asking about my trip and I mentioned that I was heading to Nordkapp after I leave Bunkers. We chatted a bit more and left it at that for the evening, but last thing before Erling hit the sack he came over to me and gave me a card with his number on it and told me "If you need a place to stay in Nordkapp I have a house in Nordvågen you can use. My daughter Ronja lives in the big red house at the end of the street, she will give you the key". Well, that was an unexpected Christmas present for me. I really thought I was going to have to camp out in Nordkapp. I wasn't looking forward to camping out up there, I could do it if I had to. But it would have been a real challenge. So Erling's offer of the use his house in Nordvågen just made the Nordkapp trip less of a challenge for me. Now it didn't matter if it was stormy or not, I knew I had a place to safely hide out if it got really bad. Which it did the first night I got there.

Sideways snow, Nordvågen Norway. Dec 29th, 2012.

Nordvågen, Norway. Dec 29th, 2012.

A few days later though and it was a different story. The wind had calmed down and it was absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful colors in the sky, a real peaceful feeling to the day. This was why I wanted to come to Honningsvåg and Nordkapp in the middle of Winter. To see and feel the one or two hours of absolute beauty that you can only see at this time of the year up here.
By 3pm that afternoon it was dark and cold and I was back in Erling's house with a log fire burning, the smell of the wood floating through the living room and going through the pictures from the day.

The timestamp on theses photos of Erling's house in Nordvågen is 12:05 pm.

This is as bright as it gets up here in Winter, at least up until the end of January when the sun comes back above the horizon, a little at a time. When I initially planned this trip to arrive up here around the middle to the end of October, for the most part I got the same reaction from people, and that was "Why"?. "You should go to Italy, Greece or Spain in Winter" they said. "It's warmer and brighter". "It's going to be dark all the time up there". Yep, it was too, but I wanted to see for myself exactly how light it was or how dark it was, I wanted to experience a place that really no one goes to visit on a motorcycle in Winter unless it's just for a week or so for the Primus Rally or the Krystal Rally. I wanted to just go and see for myself and meet the people who live up there and see what they get to experience. And I did, and I really enjoyed it. And want to go back again this winter and spend a little more time there, as I felt that I was a little rushed in trying to allow the time to get to Russia before my Russian visa expired.

Looking across Botn to Nordvågen.

Google map the actual spot HERE.

January 1st, 2013.

The first day that the weather looked good enough to head up the mountain was January 1st, 2013. New Years Day. I was hoping it was going to be open and that I was also going to be let in the convoy to go up to the Nordkapp Visitor Center. 

About 10 km out from the Visitor Center there's a closed road that in Winter can only be accessed in convoy (if you do it legally that is), the snowplough goes first, then the cars, usually no more then 10 or 12 and then the convoy

sweeper or the rear driver, keeping a check that no one slides off the side follows in the back of the convoy.

It's a twisty, icy and difficult road at this time of year and I was told that when I get there that the snowplough driver is the one who decides who is allowed to join in the convoy. "They may or may not let you go" they said, "it depends on the weather". "If the snowplough driver feel like it's unsafe for you to go up, he won't take the risk and allow you to join the convoy". Yea but......

Well, I made it to the lower gate, I was the first one there, ahead of the snowplough driver and everyone else.

Weather looks......well, stormy to be honest. Now I have to wait and hope I can charm my way up to the Nordkapp Monument. I didn't come all this way to be told I can't go up.

Murph.