Day 17 12 August Honningsvåg

The area was first settled as early as 10,300 years ago with the sea providing the main food source. The original village was named after the old Honningsvaag farm and means "the bay lying beneath the mountain Hornungr." It is the most northerly town in mainland Norway with a population of 2,245 (2023). The ice-free ocean (part of the Barents Sea) provides rich fisheries. Any trees only grow rarely to 3 to 4 metres tall.

Our tour guide Robin in the morning was a Norwegian and we had his American wife take us back in the afternoon.

The best photo so far of a reindeer. No wonder David Attenborough is not returning my calls.

We travelled through the tundra to approach Nordkapp (North Cape), the most northerly point of Europe. 

The clouds looked like waves crashing onto a beach. Honningsvåg currently hosts about 250,000 annual visitors.

Nordkapp

We were so lucky with the weather, fine, sunny and not especially windy. Our afternoon tour guide said she has never had such good weather as this before, and she has lived here for 9 years.

The Visitors Centre, when classic bunker meets weather station.

Not alive but at least I saw some puffins. In the Visitors Centre they have a reasonable 30-minute film to watch which compliments their huge gift shop.

A rather blurry Osprey or at least I think it is all from a moving bus.

Another Reindeer and at least you can see its face. All the reindeer here are owned by one Sami family.

This statue is of a St Bernard dog called Bamse, who became a mascot for the Free Norwegian Forces during WW2. His name means "(male) bear", "teddy bear" or "big boy". His ship escaped the German invasion and was converted to a mine sweeper.

He saw active service but died (aged 6–7) in July 1944 in Scotland. He was buried with full military honours and was posthumously awarded the Norwegian Order of Dogs in 1984 for his war service, and in 2006, he was also awarded the PDSA Gold Medal (sometimes known as the "animals” George Cross”) for gallantry and devotion to duty, the only World War II animal to have received this honour. The statue of Bamse at Honningsvåg faces south-west towards Scotland..

"Bamse lifted the morale of the ship's crew and became well known to the local civilian population. In battle, he would stand on the front gun tower of the boat, and the crew made him a special metal helmet. His acts of heroism included saving a young lieutenant commander who had been attacked by a man wielding a knife by pushing the assailant into the sea and dragging back to shore a sailor who had fallen overboard. He was also known for breaking up fights amongst his crewmates by putting his paws on their shoulders, calming them down and then leading them back to the ship. One of Bamse's tasks in Scotland was to round up his crew and escort them back to the ship in time for duty or curfew. To do this, he travelled on the local buses unaccompanied, and the crew bought him a bus pass which was attached to his collar. Bamse would wander down to the bus stop at Broughty Ferry Road and take the bus down to Dundee. He would get off at the bus stop near his crew's favourite watering hole, the Bodega Bar, and go in to fetch them. If he could not locate his friends he would take the bus back to base."  (Direct quote from Wikipedia)

We had a lovely meal at Manfred's. This desert contains no calories.