Hurtigruten; Monday, 30 April, 2018

Life on the Hurtigruten assumes a routine very quickly with a continuous conveyor belt of stunning scenery, ports stops and regular meals.

After breakfast the ship docked at Havøysund for a short time before continuing the journey north.

At the next stop at Honningsvåg I was supposed to go on a tour down to some fishing villages near the North Cape, but it turned out that only a couple of people had booked onto that tour so they had cancelled it. Despite the best efforts of the expedition team to extract money from me I declined their polite offer of a sea eagle safari for just an additional £100 and instead opted to have a wander around the town instead.

Everyone else had grabbed early lunches so they could go on the tours that were running and so I was able to have a more leisurely lunch in an almost deserted restaurant before heading out into town for a wander.

I headed up to the small church above the town to have a quick look around, and to take in the views from it’s elevated position. The church is also symbolic as it was the only building in the town that wasn’t destroyed by the retreating Nazi’s as they laid waste to Northern Norway towards the end of WWII.

Having looked round Honningsvåg I headed back to the ship and then once the tour parties had returned we set off again.

A brief, but always spectacular stop in Kjøllefjord punctured the late afternoon before dinner was taken at the same time as a stop in Mehamn.

We continued north towards the last port of the evening at Berlevåg, though we were slightly late arriving and consequently had to wait outside the harbour for 15 minutes as the southbound Hurtigruten had gotten there first. As it was getting dark we watched the stop in Berlevåg from the comfort of the bar before turning in for the night.

Weather

Sunny Sunny
AM PM
Mild (0-10C, 32-50F)
4ºC/39ºF