Maria's Sami experience

I have received another informative email from Maria about her travels - my own travels ended on Sunday with nothing new to tell you about - it was horribly cold and raining in the morning and it was a pleasure to climb into the car and turn the heater on for our long five hour drive back home. Warm at last! I really loved what I saw on Fraser Island and would jump at the chance to go back again. It would be lovely to see those "beauty spots" in sunshine! But I have Maria's story to share with you so here it is. . .


Yesterday (Saturday 22) we did not have a guide on our bus tour going to North Cape (Norway) and what a difference that made to our enjoyment of the trip ... no where near as interesting as we were left to our own devices and I got lost several times while looking for the highlights... and time was awasting!!  Sadly I missed out on seeing the Observatory but got to see most of the other things.

I decided to play with the ISO on the camera as the sky and landscape was darker than 'normal' and even though the pictures looked good on the camera's LCD screen it was a different story when I got home and looked at them on the iPad.  YUK!!!  Typical touristy mistake, not practicing before leaving home.  I met a guy the other day while waiting to get back on board after a day's outing and he told me that he only brought one SD card, the reason being is that he was depending to download his photos onto his tablet but something went haywire and now he was in trouble.  Not a happy chappy!

What can I tell you about North Cape?  Firstly let me take back a comment I said in my other email about North Cape being the world's most northern land point as I am not so sure anymore because the Captain of the Ship during his daily greeting to the Guests said it was the most northern point of Norway.

North Cape.  What does this world famous and dangerous place look like?
The Dream.  I thought I was going to be doing it tough like some Arctic explorer struggling through snow, hail, gale force winds, fog, hunger, ice and sub zero temperatures and come home a hero telling John of all my super human endeavours.

North Cape. The Reality.  Jammed packed with campervans/mobile homes & tourists to start off with.  And on this itty bitty dusty and unpaved road, we almost collided with four toll booths.  I was astounded.  The next picture to unfold was the grey landscape, no footpaths or 'roads', uneven ground covered in gravel and really, really, really dusty.  What else was there to see?  Miles and miles of grey skies and ocean.  In amongst of all of that there were a couple of sculptures that are photographed by the thousands each summer day.  See below.  Never-the-less still loved the experience.

Today (Sunday 23) I went along on a tour called the "Sami Experience" which John once again thought there was a better photo opportunity by walking through town.  Once again, John was right and he managed to take some stunning photographs.

Anyway the Sami Experience was unforgettable as we sat in a Sami hut, all 62 of us, some on benches and some on the Reindeer skins on the ground. The huge fire was warm and cosy, the Sami Leader told us about their culture in a slow and easy style, "sang" the unique Sami song, the cadence is more like a person in a trance while were served smoked samon and smoked reindeer meat with tea or coffee.

 The hut (completely covered by soil with grass growing out of the soil, excellent insulation) soon filled up with smoke even though it had a "chimney" and the embers from the fire filtered down onto all of us.  I had to laugh when I noticed where I was sitting on the Reindeer skins that the hair had come off and was all over my jeans.  As I said, it was an unforgettable and delightful experience. 

I forgot to tell you that the weather changed within seconds.  When getting dressed this morning it was 18 C at 8.00 so I thought it was going to be a scorcher and got dressed accordingly.  Well it was something that had to be seen to be believed.  During the outing the fog rolled in and the temperature dropped drammatically.  Amazing and  quite frightening that it could happen without warning.  A regular occurence I was told.

I got back on board by 2.00 pm and the harbour within an hour was fogged in.  We set sail about 6.00 pm and we have been fogged in ever since.