When the opportunity arose to go on a roadtrip in Norway and visit the North Cape in May, we obviously said yes. We like travelling, and while we didn't have "North Cape" on a bucket list, it definitely would be a cool location to check off a list of visited destinations, right? And Norway would surely make for some great landscape photos!
While I wasn't wrong thinking like this, I wasn't prepared for how Norway would blow my mind and completely knock me off my feet. How this our neighbouring country would make for one of my absolute favorite holidays despite it being cold and spent mostly in a car.
Everyone who asked me about the upcoming trip in the week before, would hear me vent for 10 minutes about how the weather forecast said -8°C for the North Cape and how I was not prepared for taking a lot of photos or even leaving the car in -8°C.
Luckily, we stocked up on woolen and outdoor clothes and thus the temperatures only irregularly presented a problem. However, during our trip they didn't go as far down as -8°C and we could always easily retreat to our car when it started to get a bit chilly during our breaks.
While I expected beautiful landscapes, I did not expect what impact these landscapes would have on me. They were vast and they were everywhere. The whole of Norway is just landscapes!
I've seen beautiful landscapes before, especially the tropical and warm types In Madeira and Greece were exciting and exotic to me. In contrast to that, Norway was calming and soothing - the fresh air and fewer people added to that sense of quiet as well.
Maybe the type of our holiday added to the different vibes as well. We flew to Alta, then drive to the North Cape to then turn around drive all the way down to Oslo. Something I barely ever considered in my life: Norway is looooong. And the Arctic Circle reeeeaaaally is a long way north. So we had quite a distance to drive and mainly only "explored" and photographed the places we stopped for breaks. Apart from that we mainly only admired from the car. This took some pressure of the need to experience and let me appreciate more what I was looking at right now. (Not to lie though - having a bit more time would have been nice!)
Apparently, spring was late in Norway this year. During our trip, we experienced small snow storms and houses completely surrounded by deep snow and only accessible by snow scooter to water from the thaw streaming and dripping down in waterfalls anywhere to the green forest and sunny weather around Oslo. It almost fell like being part of a nature documentary.
While it was windy, but sunny when we were at the actual North Cape, the weather was supposed to get worse. After we had our most Northern lunch, most Northern pee and most Northern photos we therefor decided to drive back down to our accommodation for the night to not get stuck on a narrow, steep road far away from civilization. The camp site had only opened two days before, water was still partly frozen in the pipes and during the evening we experienced our first little snow storm. Welcome to the North Cape!
Our car was 4x4 with studded winter tyres and didn't give us any issues at all!
There were some tourists travelling out of season like we did. As the population density is quite low that far north, the tourists cannot hide that we'll. But overall it was very calm and not busy at all yet.
The Norwegians also fulfilled all our expectations: chill, relaxed, friendly.
Flying the drone became a bit of a puzzle as there are a lot of small airports in Norway. Yes, also in places where you wouldn't expect. So check your maps before you go flying!
This is a snow scooter that everyone north of the Arctic Circle seems to have because otherwise they can't get ot their houses.
This is taken in the restaurant on the Arctic Circle - the snow outside is as tall as a person.
Is visiting North Cape on your bucket list, or have you maybe already done it?