ARCTIC OCEAN
9th – 12th March 2023
I have to catch the boat early this morning, so I miss out on the buffet breakfast. It’s a shame as this hotel, as well as the usual buffet items, serves a selection of fish, and I’m enjoying the novelty of having toast with salmon, herring and crab for breakfast.
The dock is only a short walk from the hotel – on the island rather than in town. I’m expecting a proper terminal but it’s literally just an open dock and you walk up a gangplank onto the boat. I don’t see any staff until I’m on the vessel. My ship is the Havila Castor, Havila being the name of the company. It is part cruise ship and part ferry, and it sails between Varanger Fjord in the north and Bergen in the south, right over the ‘top’ of Scandinavia and along Norway’s famously elongated coastline. Passengers can do a full cruise (either the full route or shorter sections) with cabins, meals and excursions, or it can be treated as a ferry to carry people between the many ports it visits along the way. It also carries small amounts of cargo between ports. I’m boarding at 7am, staying on board for one night, then disembarking in Tromsø just before midnight the day after, so I’ve treated myself to a small cabin.
I settle in and have a look around the many decks. There are three restaurants, two bars, a gym, a sauna, and numerous viewing decks on various levels, one of which has two Jacuzzis. All the decks are covered in snow and ice. I am heading north again, but first we go south across Varanger Fjord to the town of Kirkenes. On the way I see at least three seals and a pair of Harbour Porpoises – the only cetaceans of the trip. This area has good numbers of Orcas in the winter, but I’m about a month too late for them. The water around Kirkenes is frozen and there is a large amount of floating ice in the channel leading up to it. The warming effect of the Gulf Stream barely reaches this part of Europe.
Once docked I get some shore leave, despite having only just boarded. We are here for three and a half hours so I get off for a look around town. There isn’t really much to see, but I visit the Soviet Liberation Monument (Kirkenes was the first part of Norway liberated during World War II, six months before the rest of the country – Kirkenes is only 9 miles (15 km) from the Russian border), and the church (which is closed). I have coffee in a nice café and a hotdog in a kind of newsagent/tobacconist/betting shop/café hybrid before walking slowly back to the boat. I add Feral Pigeon to the bird list and see a few breeding-plumaged Black Guillemots.
In the afternoon we sail north, back across Varanger Fjord to the town of Vardø on the eastern tip of Norway. We are so far east now that we are on the same longitude as Cairo and further east than St Petersburg, Kyiv and Istanbul. As with most port stops now we’re not here long enough to disembark, and it is now dusk. There is a large seabird colony on an island off Vardø, which includes Brünnich’s Guillemots in one of only two European breeding countries (the other being Iceland). However, it is either too early in the season or too late in the day to see any new seabirds around here.
A large Diver species flies by, not far from the boat. White-billed Diver is the most likely species here, and it would be a lifer for me. Frustratingly, I don’t get enough on it to rule out Great Northern Diver.
Having been on the deck for a while, my hands and face are numb with the cold, so I go inside and have a beer which costs me the equivalent of £12. As night falls we head north out of Vardø and into the Barents Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean. As we leave the shelter of the fjord for the open sea the boat is really starting to rock. I don’t mean it has a great party atmosphere, I mean it is literally rocking in the now much rougher sea and I’m starting to feel seasick. So now I’m freezing cold and nauseous, and I’ve just spent £12 on a beer – follow me for more masochistic vacation ideas!
The bar is right at the front of the highest deck, which is probably the worst place for motion sickness, so I decide to retreat to my cabin on the lowest deck. I haven’t even started my overpriced beer when I gather up my stuff and head off. My hair, which is long overdue for a cut, is now looking wild and unruly from being out in the wind. I look like a madman and I get some suspicious looks as I stagger around the rolling ship trying to steady myself, my stomach, and my full glass of beer. I make it to my cabin just as my stomach gives up on me, and the little I have eaten today goes straight into the toilet. I drink some water and lay on my bed, which instantly makes me feel better and I drift off to sleep.
When I wake up it is only 8pm. I feel fine now and the boat has stopped rocking. The map screen on my TV shows that we are now in the shelter of a fjord approaching the town of Båtsfjord. With my stomach now settled, I finally get the opportunity to down my pint, which has been waiting patiently by my bedside like the loved-ones of a coma patient. Because my stomach is empty I feel the beer-buzzy benefit of every one of those £12 and, doing my best impression of an idiot who doesn’t know when to quit, I head back up to the top deck to see Båtsfjord by night. While I’m there I have another £12 beer before going to bed.
I wake up at 2am and put the route map on the TV to see where we are. I’m still awake half an hour later when we pass the most northerly point of the voyage at 71° 8’ 53.9” N. This is the furthest north I’ve ever been by surface transport. At roughly the same latitude as the north of Alaska, the only land north of here is Svalbard, realm of the Polar Bear, Walrus, and Beluga Whale, and beyond that the North Pole.
Next morning it has been snowing and the decks are covered in a fresh blanket. The sun comes out by mid-morning and the sea is calm as we pick our way through the sheltered waters of fjords, and between islands and headlands. Kittiwakes are fairly abundant, and I see good sized flocks of Common and King Eiders, and add European Shag to the bird list. We are invited onto the outdoor bar for a bowl of bidos – a warming Sami soup made of Reindeer and vegetables usually served at weddings – and by midday we arrive in the town of Hammerfest.
I had hoped to get off here for a look around, but we are running an hour and a half late so there is no time to disembark. I spend the afternoon relaxing and at around 4pm we stop briefly in Øksfjord. This area has the most spectacular coastal scenery of the trip, with tall, snow-covered hills surrounding the town and along both sides of the fjord in which it sits. Slartibartfast has done some of his finest work here. While we are docked, an immature White-tailed Eagle flies by close to the ship, pursued by Hooded Crows.
In the early evening I’m in my cabin, laying on the bed and reading, when a member of staff bursts in and is surprised to see me there. Fortunately I’m not naked, but I might as well be – I had stripped down to my last two jumpers, am wearing only one pair of trousers, and both of my hats are perched at a rakish angle. Socks, gloves, binoculars and cereal bars are scattered seductively around the bed. She must think I’m a right floozy! Apparently, I was supposed to vacate the cabin at midday and it was now 6.30pm. I pack my stuff and find a quiet part of the ship to wait out the final five hours to Tromsø. To be fair, the whole ship is very quiet, chilled and civilized. Outside it is snowing again so I stay in and sleep a little. At 10.15pm there is a tannoy announcement that the Northern Lights are showing, so I go outside. They’re not very spectacular, just some vague green glows in the small areas of clear sky between the clouds, but it’s nice to see them for a fourth and final time. The wind is blowing strongly now, and it’s very cold. Just before midnight I go out again and they are showing a little better.
We dock in Tromsø at half past midnight and I make my way to my accommodation. The cheapest hotel I could find here was £150 per night, so I pre-booked into a hostel for £52 per night. The three other guys in the dorm are already asleep, so I get into bed as quickly and noiselessly as I can.
Tromsø is known as ‘The Capital of the Arctic’ and it certainly feels like a big city compared to all the other places I’ve been to on this trip. I’m surprised by the number of tourists here – they’re everywhere. A Hurtigruten cruise ship is docked in the harbour and there are tour groups all over town, often in identical red coats, as well as numerous independent tourists.
It is snowing hard when I go out sightseeing. I have only one day here and, after a general wander around, I visit the Polaria aquarium, which is ok but doesn’t have a lot there for the price. The Bearded Seals are cute though. Much better is the Polar Museum that I visit in the afternoon. It has displays on Norway’s history of sealing, whaling and Polar Bear hunting, for which they seem to be giving themselves a pat on the back, and lots of stuff about Nansen and Amundsen. In fact, just outside the museum is the harbour from which Amundsen took off in a sea plane on a rescue mission and was never seen again.
Late afternoon I walk across the long, hump-backed bridge to the mainland (Tromsø is on an island) in snow and strong winds to visit the Arctic Cathedral, getting there 15 minutes before it closes at 5pm.
For lunch I go to Burger King and wonder if it might be the World’s most northerly branch. Looking it up online, I’m thrilled to see that it is. I then go down a ‘furthest north’ rabbit hole and find that, according to Wikipedia, Tromsø is also home to the World’s most northerly… university, planetarium, escape room, comedy club, tango club, symphony orchestra, squash centre, kung fu club, football arena, ice rink, 18-hole golf course, mosque, nunnery, aviation school, traffic light, auction house, fertility clinic, psychiatric hospital, skate shop, antiquarian bookshop, Harley Davidson retailer, 7-11 (Ooh! I went in there), vegetarian restaurant, tea house, falafel buffet, Irish pub (at the airport), glass factory, strawberry field, rose garden, botanical garden, television studio, cat show and, last but not least, aquarium (which is where I went this morning). Other ‘most northerly things’ are scattered all over northern Norway – I’m slightly upset to have missed the World’s most northerly ice cream van in Vadsø.
As it’s a Saturday, and the last day of my trip, I spend the evening going round a few bars. In one I overhear a French woman mixing cocktails and complaining about the length of a solo shift she had to work. “That’s long enough to fuck five times!” she declares. This isn’t an SI unit I’m familiar with, but it seems like a uniquely French way to measure time.
I walk back to the hostel in heavy snowfall. Is it bad that I’m starting to feel Christmassy? Through a window at the hostel I see three separate people slip over on the same patch of ice across the street.
The following morning I fly home as the snow continues to fall. Tromsø airport is surprisingly chaotic for a small airport in one of the World’s most orderly countries. Quietly and politely chaotic, but chaotic all the same. Once through security, my gate number is called and I find it’s in a totally different building and I have to come back out and catch a shuttle bus. The bus drives around in a big loop and comes back to a different building about 100 metres from the building I just left. I then have to go through security again before being crammed into a crowded gate along with passengers going to both Luton and Longyearbjen in Svalbard. The one saving grace is that I get to spend the last of my Krone at O’Leary’s Irish bar. I hear it’s the most northerly Irish pub in the World!
WILDLIFE LIST
Birds
Mallard (Anas Platyrhynchos) – groups of 2 to 25+ seen every day in Norway.
Common Eider (Somateria mollissima) – groups of up to 100+ seen every day in Varanger Fjord.
King Eider (Somateria spectabilis) – small groups seen every day in Vadsø, and a group of c40 from the ferry. Lifer.
Steller’s eider (Polysticta stelleri) – small groups seen every day in Vadsø. Lifer.
Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis) – good numbers seen every day in Vadsø.
Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator) – 2 males in Varanger Fjord: 1 at the western end, 1 in Vadsø.
Willow Grouse (Lagopus lagopus) – seen three times in groups of 2, 3 and 4 in Finland.
Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) – 1 female on the road in Finland.
Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) – up to 10 seen every day in Norway.
European Shag (Gulosus aristotelis) – at least 2 seen from the ferry.
White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) – 1 seen in western Varanger Fjord and 1 seen in Øksfjord harbour.
Purple Sandpiper (Calidris maritima) – seen every day in Varanger Fjord and from the ferry. 100+ around Vadsø.
Kittiwake (Kissa tridactyla) – small numbers in Vadsø. Very common from the ferry.
Common Gull (Larus canus) – up to 10 seen most days in Vadsø.
Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) – common everywhere in Norway.
Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) – common everywhere in Norway.
Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle) – 2 seen in Vadsø and small numbers from the ferry.
Diver sp. (Gavia sp.) – 1 seen from the ferry near Vardø. Either White-billed Diver or Great Northern Diver.
Feral Pigeon (Columba livia) – c7 in Kirkenes and 60+ in Tromsø.
Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) – 3 to 10 seen or heard every day in Finland.
Great Tit (Parus major) – common in Finland and 2 seen in Kirkenes.
Blue Tit (Cyanistes caerulens) – 5+ near Ivalo.
Willow Tit (Poecile montanus) – 1 or 2 always around the feeders in Finland.
Siberian Tit/Grey-headed Chickadee (Poecile cinctus) – 3 to 5 always around the feeders in Finland. Lifer.
Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) – common every day in Finland and 1 or 2 seen in Norway.
Eurasian Jay (Garulus glandarius) – 1 to 3 seen occasionally in Finland.
Siberian Jay (Perisorius infaustus) – up to 4 always around the feeders in Finland and 1 or 2 occasionally in the surrounding forest.
Hooded Crow (Corvus cornix) – common everywhere and seen every day.
Northern Raven (Corvus corax) – 2 seen almost every day. Always in pairs and always flying over.
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) – 4 to 12 seen almost every day.
Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) – at least 2 seen near Vadsø.
Common Redpoll (Acanthis flammea) – 3 to 8 always around the feeders in Finland.
Arctic Redpoll (Acanthis hornemanni) – at least one seen every day around the feeders in Finland.
Eurasian Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) – 2 to 4 always around the feeders in Finland.
European Greenfinch (Chloris chloris) – 1 to 12 seen or heard almost every day, especially around the feeders in Finland.
Pine Grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator) – 10 to 20 always around the feeders in Finland. Lifer.
Mammals
Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) – 1 to 5+ always around the feeders in Finland.
Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) – 7 along the road in Finland and 1 in Vadsø. Semi-domesticated.
Seal sp. (Phoca sp.) – 1 to 3 seen on three days in Vadsø and from the ferry. Probably Harbour Seal (Phoca vitulina).
Mountain Hare (Lepus timidus) – 1 in Vadsø. Tracks seen every day in Finland.
Harbour Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) – 2 near Kirkenes.
Vole Explosion 
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