August 10, 2024
Evening Sunset Ride to Northcape
A Brutal 13km ride
“We made it to the Northcape.” A phrase we’ve seen in cycle journals, Bike pages on Facebook and heard from those who have also cycled to the Northcape. Today that phrase takes on a whole new meaning. The road from Skarsvag junction and 13km to the cape is brutal.
Even though we have restday tomorrow we decided, if the weather is good, to try and visit the Northcape at night. We hope to avoid some of the crowds and see the cape hopefully under beautiful late light. Patrick did the same when he visited here 33 years ago. We leave our cabin at about 9pm and immediately start a climb. A short downhill brings us to the long steady uphill that takes us to almost 300 meters above sea level. The sun is getting lower on the northwest horizon and throws beautiful light under the clouds and through the grasses. The wind is blowing, but mostly in our favor. Once we reach the high point the work is not done.
First a couple of rollers, then two big down hills followed by two big uphills. After having cycled already 75km today this is tough. Rachel takes a nasty fall, fortunately she is not moving forward very fast, but she lands on her back in a pretty steep ditch. Patrick is riding quite a ways behind because he was taking pictures. By the time he gets to the site a van has already stopped and two people are helping her up. Fortunately she is okay, but this could have been a lot worse.
Only three kilometers to go at this point, but there is one final steep hill down and back up. We can see the Northcape. To the west is a radar station with all kinds of signs about no trespassing, to the east a huge parking lot with a couple of hundred campervans and then the cape visitor center and of course the metal globe frame everybody wants to get a picture with.
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It is busy, but not crazy-busy. We were unsure about entrance fees to the site. There is a 330kr ($33) fee if you want to visit the visitor center including the gift shop (go figure). There is a separate parking fee for vehicles, and then there is a general per-person fee to the site. When we pull up to the window with our 17kr each the guy immediately waves us through: “no fee for cyclists, you have worked hard to get here!”
We walk around the site a bit, haul our bikes up the platform with the globe and ask a guy who has a camera (must be a photographer, everybody else is using cellphones) to take some photos with Patrick’s camera. They come out okay, but it is straight into the setting sun. We get another photo taken from another angle, then hang out and slowly watch the sun set at about 10:30PM. Once the sun is almost below the horizon with only a small sliver remaining we walk around the visitor center and take some photos of the monuments around.
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At about 11pm we head back. We have more downhill on the way back, but the hills we zoomed down on the way over now have to be climbed. On top of that the wind is no longer our friend; a strong crosswind almost blows us off the road. It does not get dark, but we use our tail lights in the twilight.
We get back at midnight and Rachel presents two small whiskey bottles she had planned to pop at the cape but forgot. So we enjoy one now and scarf down some potato chips. The ride there and back left us both very tired and hungry. Good thing we still have a restday tomorrow. Today has been a long day.
Today's ride: 27 km (17 miles)
Total: 2,039 km (1,266 miles)
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