Waking up with the sound of the sea in your ears and a big goal for the day

DAY'S DESTINATION IS THE NORTH CAPE

We start a new day in a good mood. Without any complaints. which could possibly come from bear schnapps and get us ready for a great day.

Maybe it's because we slept until 10:00 a.m. We freshen up a bit, the bathroom is really spacious and clean.

Washrooms are generally a big advantage of campsites , in contrast to wild camping. The people are particularly nice, we say goodbye warmly. Luckily there isn't any special schnapps to go with it, so it starts a little late.

Unfortunately, we have to get out our rain gear right away on our big day. It is not raining excessively, but the streets are wet. Now the first thing we do is drive straight into a construction site, which means we have to stop.

As is usual in Norway , you will be guided through the construction site. There we meet friendly construction workers again, who are interested in technology and admire our machines before we continue.

Our first task is to find a good breakfast. We are not yet entirely optimistic that we will be successful with this. First we continue on the E6 towards the north, our eyes wide open for a coffee.

Of course, without our breakfast we can't really get moving!

After 40 kilometers we come into Sørkjosen . The first thing we see is a coffee with a view of the sea.

The name “På Taket Kafé AS” is hard to pronounce, but the breakfast is really perfect.

We are lucky and find the perfect coffee for a good breakfast in Sørkjosen

You can find the location of the coffee on our Google Tour Map . Beautiful with a white rose on the table, it looks really cozy.

Freshly strengthened, we continue our journey and over breakfast we thought about what we wanted to achieve today. It's just stupid that we always talk so much at breakfast and especially for a long time, an hour like that is nothing. We would like to arrive at the North Cape today. Hammerfest is considered the northernmost city in the world, even if that's not entirely true, but you should still have been there at least once.

In terms of time, this isn't a problem, but if we arrive late at the North Cape it would be an advantage. Many tourist buses and mobile homes pull up there during the day, especially when cruise ships Hurtigrute ships dock Honningsvåg But now we're determined to go to Hammerfest first, we want to see the city.

We are on the way to Hammerfest

The Norwegian trucker amazed us when she left with her truck team.

Now we've pulled through, 2 1/2 hours for 175 kilometers and we're making a fuel stop in Alta. The Harleys look pretty dirty, the road dust is really clinging on and you can't even wipe it off. Now we take a selfie at the gas station when suddenly a young, pretty Norwegian woman comes to my side and has her photo taken with me.

A short small talk and she continues walking, there is only a dump truck with a trailer at the gas station and no car, where does she want to go? That's right, she drives the big tipper truck, we were amazed, the Norwegians are pretty tough. We continue a little distraught, it's still 140 kilometers to Hammerfest, which we can certainly do in just under 2 hours. We experience a beautiful landscape, sometimes a bit sober and suddenly everything is green again behind the next mountain.

Breakdown: Ernst has a problem with the circuit

This can happen, the screw on the gearshift lever has become loose, we have to tighten it again first. It's the moment when we realize how dangerous it can be on the side of the road, the trucks show no quarter here and stop.

We are well equipped with tools, if necessary we can dismantle the entire oven on the street, little things like that won't stop us in our project. It won't be long before we can move on.

Ok, not exactly far, the screw has a defective thread and the rocker switch is about to lose. When we stood for the third time, the problem was solved with cable ties (which are mandatory on a tour), which lasts forever and it did.

The first reindeer run into us

You don't have to expect polar bears in Hammerfest.

We are getting closer and closer to the island where the city of Hammerfest is. warning about reindeer Breeding herds roam freely on the island, as in the rest of the country. They can and do appear anywhere in the North. It even happens that they walk in tunnels, they always have to be reckoned with. The only stupid thing is that you can't see them very well, they are very well adapted to the environment.

There is a herd of reindeer in the middle of the construction site

As soon as we drive over the bridge, we come to a construction site and right in this construction site a herd of reindeer around relaxed. These are beautiful animals, but we want to move on and a little further we see the next sign that makes us think for a moment.

The sign says that we are now in the Hammerfest municipality , but why is the polar bear with a red background on the sign? In any case, it doesn't mean that there are polar bears running around here, the polar bear hunters used to set sail with their boats from Hammerfest to Spitsbergen.

In front of us, Hammerfest appears behind a mountain, the fog lies over the harbor , the weather is pretty rough but it's barely raining.

There is an offshore supplier and a few smaller boats in the harbor. The city doesn't offer much, we actually want to sit somewhere nice and finally eat something, we haven't had anything apart from breakfast and it's already 7 p.m. again.

I have no idea where we left the time, but darkness isn't an issue here, it seems like we're relaxed about it. What we don't see is relaxed, we can't find a restaurant , either they're closed or it's not something we like. Luckily we find a Chinese guy, that's always possible, and the food isn't too heavy on the stomach.

The menu at Dickson Kinesisk Restaurant is good, we are really lucky. What particularly struck us in Hammerfest is that we hadn't seen any migrants or refugees before, maybe it was because they all live in Hammerfest. The sun will be over here in the fall, so you have to deal with that for now.

Well fortified, we now head to the North Cape

You only recognize the reindeer very late!

It's clear to us, we've been here now and now we're off again! The next destination is the North Cape, we should get there by midnight. We are in a hurry to get back down from the island, the fog hangs low over the gray city and the weather can only get better.

The further we go, the more it loosens up a bit, sometimes the surroundings even become green again, it's really strange, it gives you the feeling of driving through four seasons.

Suddenly the sea eagle comes flying over me

Suddenly the sea eagle appeared above me

After the green landscape it slowly becomes more monotonous again, in front of us comes the 6.87 kilometer long North Cape Tunnel , which connects the island of Magerøya with the mainland. Behind the North Cape Tunnel the environment and the weather quickly change again, we see snow on the sides again, mountains and the rough sea.

We went to the island of Magerøya , at the tip of the island is the North Cape . sea eagle appears above me, within reach . It is truly a powerful, beautiful animal. He passes over me over to the North Sea and flies a little bit next to us at my height. The moment had something mystical about it, because I wanted to go to the North Cape with my friend Lars 30 years ago, unfortunately he can't be there anymore today and we have I used to always observe sea eagles.

Don't put off your dreams!

That's why you shouldn't keep postponing your dreams and that's one of the reasons why we're heading to the North Cape now. There's actually nothing here, it's a rough area, rain, cold, fog, but there's still something special about it. It's purely a matter of your head when you make your way to the North Cape.

We are getting closer and closer to our destination and the route is really breathtaking again, the vast expanses open up before us, the road disappears somewhere in the valley, just great. My navigation shows me that we are almost there, now we go up the mountain and we have arrived at the North Cape parking lot.

We arrived at the North Cape on our Harleys and it was as bright as day.

And we're lucky, it's midnight and none of the staff that normally collects and regulates who is allowed to drive through is there anymore. We can go directly to the globe and take a look at the sea from the North Cape . Overjoyed and a look at the odometer tells me that I have driven 4892 kilometers on the tour so far.

We meet a few other bikers, not Harley riders, but that doesn't matter at the moment. All the BMW GS drivers go here, I would almost say that everyone who drives a GS drives up here. At least they probably sign in their purchase contract that they have to drive their GS to the North Cape at least once. Because we really saw a lot of them driving up here. I'm probably one of the first with the new Milwaukee-Eight engine on the North Cape. That's something too!

We are camping with our Harleys near the North Cape

We've been drunk here for another two hours, but now we have to find our camp at some point. I booked a cabin at Midnatsol Camping . Although only at the last minute, the key should be ready for us. Now we have been able to tear ourselves away from the North Cape and drive the few kilometers to our intended hut. Well, the key box was empty, either they thought we weren't coming anymore, or someone just helped themselves here.

Ok, it got pretty stormy, but somehow we managed to get our tents set up. At least we have access to the bathroom and washrooms, which is really good. It's now half past two in the morning, it was an exciting day, we've covered a lot of kilometers, experienced a lot again and somehow it's cool that it's still light. Good night, the last one turns off the lights!

Accommodations:

Midnatsol Camping

Further accommodation in the North Cape

Thank you for the kind support of our tour partners, Visit Norway , Color Line , The Rokker Company and Tallink Silja Line .

More pictures from part 8 of the tour from Olderdalen to Hammerfest and the North Cape

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