Blogging from the top of the world

Monday & Tuesday, 23-24 July

So after  a week of fairly intensive driving, we reached our most northerly campsite in Olderfjord. We had a rushed dinner comprising almost excusively of meat (seriously, 4 packets of BBQ pork belly, 2 boxes of frankfurty-sausagey things and roughly a million chicken limbs) , and then began to prepare for a night of frivolity on the top of the world.

We decided that the occasion warranted the inclusion of a theme, with "tight, bright and trashy" the winner. The ladies of 18D (my cabin) went all out, with 80's style topknots, pyjama pants, high socks and smudged make-up which made for some very classy photos.

The drive out to Nordkapp was long, but beautiful and frequently interrupted by herds of reindeer ambling across the road. The tunnels over here are insanely long, and are a bit nerve wracking to drive through, or as one of the girls on the bus put it,  "I don't trust tunnels that you can't hold your breath through".

Nordkapp itself is just a really big paddock, on the edge of a cliff with a visitors centre selling overpriced merchandise and some spectacularly tacky knitted jumpers. There is a fenced area, but a few of us decided to live dangerously and venture out towards another point in the paddock which was fence-free, where we then proceeded to throw rocks off the cliff, trying to hit the ocean (upon later inspection, it turns out that the part that we were throwing rocks off actually had a fairly gentle slope down to the ocean which means that we had, at no point, ever been remotely close to hitting our target).

Me + the end of ze world. 

Ugly clothing you say? I want 10. 

There was a thick band of clouds hovering on the horizon, so I can't say for certain that the sun definitely did not go down, but I'm assured that the sun won't set here for a few weeks, so I'm counting it as a conceded seeing of the midnight sun.

Midnightish sun

Driving back from Nordkapp at 1:30am was the strangest feeling. The sun was already quite high in the sky, so it felt like midday, and despite being awake for over 20hrs, I didn't feel tired at all. And then I woke up 2hrs later, with absolutely no memory of even falling asleep. That has happened to me a bit here - the constant brightness means that I don't seem to feel sleepy or tired, so my body crashes every now and again to catch up on the sleep I've missed due to my feelings of invincibility.

Thankfully, today is a rest day where we have nothing to do and all day to do it in, so I slept in until 10, skyped my parents (who even had Barnaby there so I could see him - Thanks!), have done some much needed laundry (and yes, I did have to pay for it, grumble grumble, and no, I don't think it is ever going to dry properly), and am contemplating going for a hike on one of the tracks around the campsite.

On the topic of the campsite, it is a... Character building experience. There are about 20 of us staying in a cabin in which there is one toilet and one shower. In the same room. Without a lock.

Tomorrow we start heading back down south to Helsinki, with a few stops along the way. Most excitingly, we are going to Lappland aka Santa's house! Even more excitingly, hopefully it will get warmer as we go south, so I'll be able to feel my fingers again.

Oh yeah, you can buy dead WOLF FACES as souvenirs. 

A lucky reindeer hoof?