By boat into the Arctic Circle - Norway Feb 22

 An unexpected ending...

Theoretically, the MS Nordlys has a capacity of about 450 passengers. This afternoon, barely 100 have assembled in the ship's conference for a hastily convened mandatory briefing. Last night, the seas were rough enough to dump bedding unceremoniously on the floor and during the day, the winds have, if anything, strengthened. The two LCD screens in the conference room are already displaying enlarged weather maps of the Norwegian coast, showing a huge pink mass heading our way. The meeting is good humoured but brief: there is a storm coming straight at us which could cause waves of up to 16 metres tonight. While the ship is built to withstand this, passengers and tonight's dinner are not. The rest of the tour itinerary is cancelled, the Captain will try and find a safe haven to anchor and weather the storm, then full steam ahead tomorrow for the remaining 450 or so miles back to Bergen. Not quite the trip we had planned, with visions of stunning scenery under crystal blue skies and the northern lights dancing over snowfields, but it is winter in Norway after all. Wind back ten days to see if it was worth it after all.

A snowy start

Big wheeled suitcases are not designed to work in the snow, so dragging a couple the short hop from a Bergen hotel to the Hurtigruten boat terminal is a bit like operating two snowploughs simultaneously.  Still the snow and the weather set the scene nicely for a 12-day cruise into the Arctic Circle and the very far north of Norway. Hurtigruten ("fast route" in Norwegian) is the scheduled service of regular daily boats up the coast from Bergen in the west, over the North Cape, to Kirkenes, virtually on the Russian border. At any time, there are six ships heading north, a day apart, and six heading south. These are working boats, carrying food, supplies, post and even cars between scores of isolated towns and villages strung along the rugged coast and fjords. They are not cruise ships as such, but can carry around 400 passengers each along for the ride. Thus the schedule is designed around supply operations rather than catering for tourists.

So day one definitely carries a whiff of adventure. There is a fair accumulation of powdery snow on Fløien hill near the centre of Bergen, enough to make it worthwhile trying out newly purchased crampons for the hour-long slog to the top (the funicular is out of action) for a coffee and the stunning view down the fjord. The temperature is a few degrees below freezing. Even at these modest latitudes the views are starting to look exhilarating and expectations are high for the arrival of the ship this afternoon. An airline-style terminal check-in, safety briefing and hurried snack then all aboard to find cabins on the 8pm express to the Northern Lights

For the first couple of days, everything has the novelty of a new job or first day at school: the rhythm of arriving at and pulling away from a port in the middle of the night, the daily lectures from the on-board Expedition team, the endless cycle of three-course meals. The atmosphere on board is "reserved": there are no families with children, no background music, few loud conversations. In the bar of an evening, the loudest sounds are the clack of dominoes and Scrabble tiles. None of these are bad things: this is unlike any  holiday we have taken before, but it is ultimately very relaxing.

The Hurtigruten has its aficianiados, even  devoted followers. Various social media groups swap the latest gossip and updates fron the ships, deal with queries from newbies and share plans for the next return trips. There is a palpable sense of new excitements ahead: stunning scenery, crossing the Arctic Circle, picturesque ports of call and hopefully the Aurora. The first night takes us a couple of hundred miles north in calm waters and the snow is noticeably thicker for our first main stop at Ålesund, where a climb up the hill called Aksla is more or less compulsory. 450 increasingly slippier steps to the top and the cafe was shut. Any icy shuffle round the Art Nouveau town (the original burnt down in 1904) then back aboard for the first three-course lunch.

Into the Arctic

Bergen is on roughly the same latitude as the Shetlands. Even so, the passage into the Arctic Circle seems to pass surpringly quickly and after less than 60 hours at sea, at 07:30 on day four, we cross 66'30 degrees north, passing a sculpture of the globe installed on a tiny islet. Crossing is marked northbound by the ice ceremony, whereby the "god" Njord (probably on a break from the engine room) tips a bucket of ice over passengers' heads in return for a certificate to mark the occasion. Southbound, less than a week later, a dose of cod liver oil buys you a souvenir spoon. Oh how the flavour lingers.

There are a few calling points en route that are worth a visit of themselves: Ålesund for the hill and Art Nouveau architecture, Trondheim for the cathedral and riverside (and first Vinmonopolet: see below), Honningsvåg for the North Cape and Kirkenes for the Russian border. And probably Tromsø, though we missed it in order to go dog-sledding. Thereafter most of the calling points are no more than small towns which represent the commercial centre for the surrounding dispersed population. So just a couple of streets off the harbour with a supermarket or two, maybe a restaurant and a local museum and, of course the Vinmonopolet. In Norway, supermarkets can only sell beer up to 4.5% alcohol: everything else has to come from the state-owned monopoly shops. Prices on board are steep: typically £9 for a beer and £45 upwards for a bottle of wine. Onshore, a decent bottle of wine comes for around £12, so it seems a fair bit of smuggling and illicit drinking in cabins goes on. So apart from stocking up supplies, there's not much to do immediately around most of the harbours. The ship runs a full programme of excursions to points of interest further away but these are "ambitiously" priced  typically £90 for a guided walk up to £230 for an hour's dog-sledding or snowmobiling. 

The northernmost couple of points, Kirkenes and Vardø really do feel like the end of the world. Kirkenes is just 15km from the  Russian border and is visually notable for two reasons. Spring is still a long way away and it is impossible to determine exactly how thick the snow is lying: certainly several feet and vicious looking icicles hang from all the eaves and gutters, glittering in the bright winter light. Secondly, there is literally not a building standing older than 1946. The Germans occupied Northern Norway without much incident in 1940, but when they started the campaign against Soviet Murmamsk from here in 1941, Kirkenes became one of the most bombed cities in the world. To finish things off, when the Germans retreated in 1944, they imposed a scorched earth policy, leaving nothing standing. Even the church in Kirkenes, a handsome if utilitarian wooden affair, dates from 1954.

And speaking of which, it isn’t just the picture postcard streets on the harbour at Bergen or the older streets of Oslo which are made up of wooden houses, they are everywhere. Concrete and steel are the weapons of choice for newer commercial buildings, but pretty much everything else is made of wood, much of it brightly painted. The almost universal colour, which I thought was brown, is actually a deep red, made from fish oil, blood and iron oxide (iron ore is very common here). This is the default for “poorer’ properties (farms, barns, fishing huts), with whites, yellows and blues marking more affluent residencies.

Just across the sound from frozen Kirkenes and as Arctic night is falling, Vadsø is even colder, literally and metaphorically. This is where 97 witches from the area, who were burned in the 15^th century (almost 10% of the population) are commemorated with a memorial on a wind blasted headland. Tramping through snow several feet thick, in the dark and in the teeth of a gale, feels totally otherwordly. This is surely only the merest hint of what conditions might have been like for Polar explorers at the very extremes of climate. For us, a half hour trudge through it was enough.

Apart from the (more or less) daily trips ashore, days are spent much as they might be in a hotel on land. Food therefore assumes a massive significance with mealtimes setting the anchor points for each day's other activities. And the food is very good, with several choices at each (generally three course meal). Table service is occasionally replaced with a buffet, which is dangerous as all notions of portion control go out the window. Seafood salad or soup  or hot dish of the day or a sandwich or all four on the same plate. I’m sure I saw an elderly Italian lady putting ratatouille on top of a carrot cake but perhaps she got a bit overwhelmed by it all. Apart from eating and the daily lectures and briefings laid on by the on-board crew, the main attraction is just to grab an empty armchair on the viewing deck and watch the panorama shift gradually from the gentler tree-lined coasts in the south to the more barren and dramatic snow, ice and rocks of the far north. Also the occasional submarine (we saw three or the same one three times, hopefully all Norwegian).

And so back to the weather, which deteriorated sharply on the way back south. As well as tourists making the whole round trip, it seems quite a few locals and others join the boat just for a stop or two, perhaps as part of a shopping trip or whatever. As it has become clear there is going to be some disruption to the service, one or two of then will present themselves at Reception to confirm that “we’re not going to dock at such-and-such, are we?” and stoically making alternative travel plans.

A spring ending

As promised, the ship anchored overnight in some calm open water for the sake of a good night’s sleep. Then set sail with the warning that for two hours, conditions would be difficult and passengers should put all breakables on the floor and take sickness pills of they have them. It was certainly dramatic with lots of bangs and crashes and a rapidly rising, falling and tilting horizon. Then it stopped as quickly as it began. Bumping into the Captain on the stairs afterwards, he said that was as stormy as they would chance it, with mostly 10 metre waves but a few up to 13 metres. When the stats were published later that day, the wind speed had peaked at 30 metres/ second, which is Beaufort 11 or "violent storm". And we didn't even spill a coffee.

Our ship is called NordLys ("Northern Lights"), seemingly one of the most ironic cases of nominative determinism as there appears to have been more chance of seeing the Sahara desert in the past week. Boats to the north and south of us have reported seeing the Aurora pretty much every night but for us, the cloud cover has remained resolutely stubborn. On the upside, the terms of the cruise offered by Hurtigruten means we get a free one way trip next winter to try again.

And while we have been away, Spring has arrived. Day 1 in Bergen started with the tramp through the snow to Fløien. On day 12, we are cruising up the Bergen fjord in bright sunshine with all the snow having disappeared from the lower levels. Bags have been collected from cabins and will be waiting in the terminal building at Bergen ready for the train to Oslo and flight home.

Top tips if this trip sounds of interest to others:

1.  1. Go to as many of the on-board lectures, gatherings and Point of Interest talks as possible: they add a lot of interest to the journey.

2.  2. Choose excursions carefully: they are fiendishly expensive.

3.  3. Ålesund, Trondheim, Tromsø, Kirkenes and others are good for self-guided tours. Maps are usually available on board the day before.

4.  4. Coffee from machines on most decks is free. Barista-type coffees have to be paid for.

5.  5. Wine for on-board meals is cheaper if bought as a package: typically £40 – 45.

6.  6. Every stop has a Vinmonopolet (closed Sundays) for other supplies.

7.  7. It’s warm on the boat: T-shirt and jeans is fine, with a jumper and coat on hand for nipping on deck for photos.

8.  8. Wifi is available on board at a cost: phone coverage seemed OK throughout if your data roaming package allows.

9. 9. Tap water in cabins and elsewhere is fine to drink (chilled and filtered): don’t waste money on bottled.

1110. Be prepared for weather: layers for the cold and tablets if required for seasickness: we had quite a lot of bumpy nights.