July 19: Nordkapp It Is!
Howling wind, fog as thick and heavy as a wet wool blanket, frigid temperatures, and incessant rain – not normally a ride I would look forward to. But somehow battling the elements made the trip up to Nordkapp today that much sweeter. After all, what’s the fun of saying you made it to the northernmost point of Europe accessible by vehicle if you didn’t have to fight for it a bit?
When I made my reservations for last night’s lodging a few days ago, I envisioned an easy ride from there to North Cape. After all, it was just a little over two hours away and the roads were paved. How bad could it be?
What I didn’t realize is that most of the route from Olderfjord to Nordkapp runs along the edge of the Porsanger Fjord, an inlet of the Arctic Ocean, allowing strong ocean winds to sometimes sweep across the pavement and up the plateau on the other side.
I’m grateful that my time riding in Iceland helped me to learn a few tips about dealing with the wind, fog, and cold. I kept the Adventure Baby in fourth gear and traveled at about 44 miles an hour, giving me just enough momentum to push against the wind but not so much speed that I lost the necessary friction with the road. The wind combined with the already below 50-degree temperatures made for frigid conditions, but my electric gear took the edge of off.
For dealing with the fog, I flipped my face shield all the way up, pulled my goggles away from my face a little, and swiped my finger across my lenses as often as needed, sometimes every two or three seconds. One side benefit to this strategy is that whenever I got thirsty, I just needed to open my mouth and the wind would blow water inside.
Despite the severity of the weather, there were some fun moments to the ride. A couple times the fog lifted enough for me to see the water of the fjord and in one case I was able to capture a picture of the striking light blue color of the sea water with the fog looming over it. The road also took me through a 4.3-mile-long undersea tunnel, as I traveled to and from the mainland to the Island of Mageroya where Nordkapp is located. I absolutely love driving under the ocean and in this case the tunnel was particularly welcome as it provided a respite from the wind.
About 15 miles before I reached my destination, I lost my navigation, something another biker had warned me might happen. I wasn’t worried about which road to take as I knew to continue on route E69 until it ended. What concerned me is that I needed the navigation to know which way to steer the bike as I truly could not see more than a few feet in front of me.
After quite some time, I made out a sign on the side of the road notifying me that the entrance to Nordkapp was 500 meters away. Then suddenly, out of the thick mist a ticket booth materialized, an almost surreal appearance amid nothingness, making me wonder if I was a participant in a horror movie film about a wrong turn gone bad.
Walking through the well-lit, warm building to get to the iconic globe monument behind it, I experienced a sense of jubilation that I had made it this far, not just on today’s ride but on my summer journey overall. Even though I had left home less than a month ago I felt like I had already experienced a lifetime of adventure. It was all worth it to work so many hours this year, figure out how to buy a new bike and ship it to Iceland, get all my new adventure gear dialed in, and battle through a brain tumor diagnosis in time to catch my plane to Reykjavik. God is good.
