Day 8: Alta to the North Cape
Distance: 220km
Weather: Cloudy, rainy morning, sun later
Temperature: Still colder than yesterday
I'm very sorry this is late. We had only a very short time between the
banguet at the Cape and the departure of the Coastal Express. I valiantly
stayed up all night, but there was no chance of finishing. The three days
on the Coastal Express I was incommunicado from the rest of the civilized
world.
Daily report:
Having come into the arctic regions of Finnmark, todays leg of the
rally promised long, empty, sweeping roads through areas with little
vegetation and low population. The road was never far from the sea
as we travelled under, over and by the side of mountains.
The sun made a welcome appearance and, although it was around 6 degrees
celcius outside, all convertible cars took the opportunity to feel the
wind in their hair.
Finnmarks main products are fish and reindeer, no small wonder that
we passed rack upon rack of stockfish and hundreds of grazing reindeer.
Luckily the smell of the stockfish was not noticeable...
To our amazement the police made another appearance near Magerøya, the island
with the North Cape. We met them on the road at the same moment the
Gordon-Keeble caught up with us, a stroke of luck. The Keeble-boys didn't
even notice the police and quickly passed us in their quest to do todays
regularity at double-speed, something they managed to a 100 point score.
The final ferry before the Cape was a 45 minute voyage out to the Magerøya
island. Spirits were high, with the Cape itself only 30 kilomtres drive
away. Time to stock up on souvenirs!
The view from the deck of the ferry was magnificent. Looking past the
island we could see nothing but sea on the horizon.
