NORDKAPP 2023: We Reached NORWAY'S NORDKAPP By Motorcycle But Was It Worth It?

Good morning from the north of Norway. We are just 13 kilometers away from the North Cap. It's 4am. We've got up bright and early because we want to make sure we get our photo. So let's go and finally reach the top of Norway. Let's go to the North Cap. Let's go to the North Cap. Come on. Well, there's no one else on the road, which is a good sign. It is a good sign. Everyone is having a lovely sleep. Except for these two. Maybe we could have gone up later, but we don't know. It was very light when the alarm went off. I think it was three o'clock or half past three that it was sunrise today. A rugged road, isn't it? Good morning, guys. Good morning, guys. They're still up. It's like the reindeer. They're coming home from their wild night out. It's a bit up here, too, don't they? There are reindeer everywhere. North Cap. Can hardly see anything. That's the bit where you pay. Oh, OK. You can see some camper vans. Not many, though. No, there's not. I mean, that was full on the webcam, wasn't it? Yeah. It's behind here, isn't it, I think. Is that it there? Is it huge? No, that's not it. This is the North Cap visitor's centre, isn't it? Visitor's centre, yeah. I think it's behind the centre. No, no, that looks... Is that it over there? No, that's the little thing. This is officially dangerous now. Oh, it's not dangerous, don't worry about that. Isn't it on the edge of a cliff, though? Oh, no, it's railed off. I thought it was here. I think it's over there. Oh, there it is, there it is. Oh, wow. Holy f**k, it is so blue down there. I know. Here we are, end of the road. Sure are. It's a chilly, misty morning here in the North Cap in Norway, but we have made it, Em. What an accomplishment. Yeah, it's awesome to finally be here from Switzerland to the North Cap. Two weeks, 5,000 plus kilometres. It's been an incredible journey to get to this point. It has been an incredible journey. It's a cliche to say, but the journey is really fantastic, isn't it? This is just a destination, but the things we've seen and the places we've experienced so far on this trip has been out of this world. I think Norway really took us by surprise. They did, yeah. What an amazing country that it really is. And it's been amazing the fact that in the space of one year we've been to the bottom of Gibraltar, the bottom of Europe, and now we're at the top of Europe. It's been such an incredible achievement and accomplishment to be here. And it has, hasn't it? And we've had so much fun along the way. Yeah, thanks for riding 15,000 kilometres with me. Thanks for being the perfect pillion, Em. Thanks for documenting our trips together. Yeah, it's overwhelming to be here, isn't it? It is, it is, yeah. It really is. The ride in last night as well was quite emotional, I think, as well. It was so beautiful. The reindeer were out, the ocean was calm, the sun was setting. Yeah, the sky was a million shades of pretty. It was just so amazing. And then to wake up this morning and only have five, ten kilometres to ride. It almost felt too easy just riding up this morning after all that journey. And then to get here and nobody is here. It's just me, you and a shadow. And the globe. Nowhere to next, hey? Oh no, we've headed north now. We can't really get much north than this at the moment. It's going to take a few moments to walk around, Em. Yeah. I appreciate the silence. We're going to come back a little bit later on and hopefully the sun will be out and we get a nice view around there. We can explore the area. The visitor centre will be open as well. We can have a look inside there. But for now, we're going to head back to the hotel, maybe get a couple more hours sleep and we'll be back again soon. I'm glad we looked at this place on Google Maps before we came. Otherwise, I wouldn't have found the monument in this mist. No, I was concerned when we were riding in that we were going to just ride off the edge of the cliff. The visitor centre almost looks open and it's like six o'clock. I don't know if they just keep the lights on. Oh yeah, the lights are on. All right, our cabin is nice and warm to get back to. Yes. I might even make us a coffee. Oh, that sounds good. But, uh, no, that was great. Fantastic. Congratulations, Sean. Oh, thanks. You two, I think the exit was somewhere around here. I think the exit is this way. We're just riding around in circles. This is why you have to be so careful on these roads. He just appeared from there. Now that we're back at the hut, this is where we stayed last night. It's a really cool location. These tiny little huts here, they've got one bunk bed in, so two people can stay in there. They're really small, but I think we paid about £40 for this one for the night. We've got showers over there and toilets over there as well. But the location is in a really cool place. And just down the road there, where we went, is just the turn off for the North Capstone. It's really convenient. We've also got some reindeers up top there. Plenty of place to park the bike. So it's about seven o'clock now, 7.30. I don't think I'm going to go and have another sleep now. I think that's a bit of a waste. We had four hours sleep last night, so it should be enough for us to get through today. I think what I'm going to do, I'm going to start and grind up some coffee and we might even cook breakfast here. And then we'll go and check out the visitor's centre in a bit. Em's decided that she wants a second sleep, so she's tucked up in bed. And I'm going to try and make breakfast. We've got some plant-based patties left from yesterday, which we didn't eat. And I'm going to try to set up a little stove here. It's quite windy today, but the wind deflector is working quite well. So we've got that on there. We've got some gluten-free pita breads for Em as well. So I'm going to wake Em up again. It's going to have to be with food. It seems to be going OK. It's getting rather cold and it's rather windy. It's a little battle with the wind here. But the burger is cooking up quite well. Using the baking paper sheet underneath to stop things from sticking. Really happy with this. This is doing a great job. I'm going to put the pita breads on in a minute and get back into the warm because it is freezing out here. We have success. They actually look pretty good. They smell pretty good. I am pretty hungry as well. Just letting the stove die down there. And now for the hard bit to entice Emily out of her bed. And into the new day. You going to get out of bed again? Second time today Em? Maybe. You with that Em? It's so good. I think anything would taste good right now though. Yeah, anything. What's the plan for the day? I'm not really sure. We're at the North Camp now and that was the purpose of this trip. No plan from this point on. Obviously we're going to head back down to Finland soon aren't we? Whether that's today or what? We're about four hours from the border. We're about four hours from the border and what is really cool, this region now from the North Camp to Finland is the most activity for Northern Lights. Oh really? And we also have the clearest week from this point on. So I think we should concentrate on having like maybe slightly later days in the evening so we get that evening light. It's a nice time to ride. It's really beautiful. So I think we head up now to... Visitor Centre. Visitor Centre, pack up everything, get ready to go and then whatever time we decide to leave then there we just make our way and we'll just find our hotel along the way. You don't need to rush the Visitor Centre because I think it is worth it and it's quite expensive as well so I don't want to rush it. So that's my plan. I might have something else as well to eat. So we are just arriving back at the North Camp and we've just gone through the barrier the official way with the guard and he's let us know that it's 27 euro per person to enter inside the building but parking is free and if you want to stay around the outside and just see the Globe Monument that's free but if you want to go in it's 27 euro which seems steep. It seems very expensive but hey-ho I think we're gonna do it but we need to find parking first. Okay so here we are on the Google Maps to show you the proof we're actually here at the North Camp and now we're gonna go inside the Visitor Centre which is 27 euros per person. That's pretty steep. It's steep, it's steep. So we're gonna see if it's actually worth it and we'll tell you an honest review. I'm not sure it's gonna be worth it. I'm not sure. We might get a shoulder massager in there, don't we? Come on then. Do we get a North Camp Visitor's Pack t-shirt and cap? How much are we reckoning the sticker's gonna be? That's what I'm interested in. I should hope you get the sticker for free. You're not gonna get a sticker for free. The average patch price around here has been about six euro. That's it? Yeah. I didn't mention that before. You know, I thought they were like two euro. Well, the fog has not lifted. I think it's here to stay all day. It's made me feel better about it to be honest. It was actually better this morning at 4am which kind of justifies our four hour sleep. Yeah, so it's 11.05 now and it opens at 11. So hopefully not going to be a queue because I also read that there was queues to get in here. It doesn't seem many people here at all at the moment. No. There's a few people camped up. It's an interesting building. It's got like a golf ball on the top. It's not the most aesthetic. Well, I'm glad we drove all this way to see the golf ball on the top of this building. It does though, doesn't it? It looks like a golf ball. I'm guessing it's got a telescope in it or something. All right, here we go. How far in are you allowed before you have to pay? Oh no, payment on the outside of it. Oh, it's warm in here. It is, isn't it? That's lovely. Oh, it's very nice. Oh, there's a film. Hello. Was it 300 kroner was it, I think? Uh, yeah, 350 or something. It's valid for 24 hours, so you can visit as many times as you like. Within 24 hours. Well, it's good for the campers if they want to come in. Yeah, I guess so. Well, you've got a sticker. Yes. So, we'll preserve that one. Do you feel all special in your sticker? I feel like it should have been an enamel pin. Yeah. Right, we're going down here, are we? Yeah. Good collection of old photos here. Yeah, they're nice. What before it was built upon. I think there was originally a, yeah, there's the original statue that was replaced. That's cool. Because the actual, yeah, the actual like globe is only from like 1977. Oh, okay. It's fairly recent. And that's, yeah, them stood there before anything was even there. And then we have the unveiling. Of the Oscar monument. The Oscar monument. That's a great shot, isn't it? And then we actually just went down and watched the movie. It's on every like 30 minutes. It's only 15 minutes long. And it's just like beautiful photography and drone photography of the different seasons that pass through the North Cap. Yeah, it was quite good to see North Cap in the snow. Yeah, it was quite cool. Quite a different world, wasn't it? At least I didn't know it was here throughout. No, I didn't. Going quite deep into the rock now. You can feel the cold coming from the walls. We should have left our jacket. Oh, here we've got something. 1664. So as you walk down into the Grotto area, it's like depictions in model form of different events that's happened at the North Cap. Reconstructions. Reconstructions, yeah. We are entering the Cave of Lights. Oh, it's six minutes. So we're outside now at the King's View. And the fog has cleared a little, but I think we're quite a lot lower down than the Globe Monument. So you can just see out to the sea. Not a bad view. The time has come. Oh, is it gift shop time now? It's gift shop time. There's the entrance. It has an entrance to the gift shop. It looks a good one to be fair. Oh, they're right there. Beeline. Oh, yeah. One stop action sticker. They're stickers, not patches. But they're nice. We finished our visitor centre experience, haven't we? We have. It's been interesting, but we'll go into more details about that maybe a bit later. Just having a coffee before we head off. But somebody here wants to show you what souvenirs she got from the gift shop. I'm not a big souvenir person. Like, I'm not. But I do like to get a patch. I think that that's cool. So we got a patch. And also on the way out, they had the national tokens from Norway, which has the map on, which I think is a really cool, like, token to put in like a memory box or something. So I picked up one of them, as well as some postcards for our families back home, which is cute. They're a nice idea because they have a post box here as well. So I think they stamp it to say it's been posted from the North Caps. So that's a nice touch. It is nice as well. You can even send one to yourself. Are we doing that? No, we're not. We've got views of the globe and the sea, and I got an oat milk latte, so I'm very content right now. The mist has actually started to clear as well. So you can just about see out there. But as the mist has disappeared, people have arrived. Yeah, I'm really glad we came early and had that experience to ourselves and then came back to the visitor centre. It's been such a great journey to get here. And it's been such an amazing few days. Seeing this area in its entirety, but I'm looking forward to getting back on the road now. Yeah, time to see some of Finland, which we've been to Helsinki once, but the actual in-between bits we've seen nothing of really. Very briefly on a train, but not much at all. So it'd be nice to experience that properly from the top to the bottom. So this morning was all a bit of an emotional blur for me, and I want to explain a little bit why. So on Sean and I's first date, when I was 18, I asked Sean what his next big trip was, and he said that he was dreaming about going to the Nordkapp and he wanted to do this motorcycle trip, and he told me all about it. And this trip we had planned and started talking about since then. So when we were dating and then life happens, doesn't it? And we went on other trips and there's other places we wanted to see, and this trip just kept getting pushed back. So arriving here this morning was literally a dream come true for the two of us. And I know for Sean as well, being here with me and after he kind of planned it as a solo trip, it was just overwhelming. We've spent all morning here just absorbing the place and taking a moment to really appreciate where we are and how far we've come in the past six years of being together. So I am super emotional today and I can't quite believe that we're here. To some people it's just another dot on the map and I kind of agree. However, it's a very special place for us for a different reason and it will always be kind of that anchor point that was always the goal. It was like, let's get to the Nordkapp, let's do it together. And now we're here and Sean's flying a drone around the top of it and I'm vlogging to a camera. It's just amazing how things can happen. And when you reach these milestones and reach these achievements and goals, it really makes you like think about it and take note of the progress you've made and how far you've come. So that's what we're going to do right now. I am super, super emotional and I am so thankful that I've had Sean to literally ride me basically around the world. And he is such an incredible rider and I am privileged to not only be his wife but be his travel companion. And I'm feeling very emotional. So I've wanted to ride to the Nordkapp for many years. It's been on my to-do list but never got around to doing it. It's a special place indeed and I wanted to wait until I had enough time. Having four weeks to do this trip was a perfect amount. It seems to be like a destination to reach and a cliche to say but the journey to get here was absolutely amazing and far better than I ever imagined. Last night I think was the best ride I've had in my life. We turned off the main road, I think about an hour and a half away from the Nordkapp just as you get to that last peninsula of the Nordkapp. And it was absolutely amazing. It was coming up to 10pm, it was still light as well. The colours of the water were beautiful, the rocks, it's so clean. And then the reindeer everywhere else. It was such a spectacular ride. I'm really proud of everything Em and I have accomplished this year. We managed to get to the southerly point as well of Europe and to the northerly point within a few months of each other. It's been really good and I'm really proud of Em and the way she records and documents these trips. And it's, yeah, really really happy with everything that's turned out. But it's a bit strange now that we've ticked this one off because now I have to think about what the next trip is going to be. And I'm not sure if it's going to be in Europe or a bit further afield but that's something we're going to have to think about and perhaps talk about as we journey back home over the next two weeks. So speaking of which, it's time to get suited up again. We're going to head in the direction of south now. We're going to head to Finland from the drop down there and take the boat over from Helsinki. But the ride back is also going to be really cool. It seems like we've reached our pinnacle here of the trip but it's only halfway through. So it's going to be a great couple of weeks as we ride back home. I'm going to head off now. I think Em is already at the bike so I best catch her up. Right, we are finally leaving the Nordkapp and the Nordkapp visitor centre. What's the verdict Em? Was it worth the 30 euros per person? Absolutely not. No, not at all. No, don't do it. Well, I get it if you want to do it because you're here and it's like, no, I've made the effort. I want to go in. I get that. But there's nothing actually to do in there. There's some photos. There's a film. There's a nice cafe. There's some random puppets and stuff. But I think, yeah, 30 euros is pretty steep. They say that there's a viewpoint but it's not that good of a viewpoint. The king's viewpoint. It's just 10 metres lower than the top viewpoint. But you don't need to pay the admission to go to see the globe and walk around. And car park is free as well. Yeah, so don't, on our verdict, don't waste your money. You'd be disappointed. Go and have a nice dinner somewhere. To get two more tanks of fuel and go ride around the island again. Yes, that I agree with. But I am melancholy about leaving. I'm super excited for Finland because that's where we're heading now. However, I feel that after goal, after achievement, so the next thing for us is to finish Europe which will be the next part of this, next chapter of this series really, isn't it? Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia. Yeah, what an amazing, amazing day. So catch us in the next episode as we make our way to Finland.