Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Vardø is a stop on the Hurtigruten coastal ferry route. Buses follow the scenic seaside
route between Vadsø and Vardø (1½ hours) at least twice daily and two services run to
Kirkenes (3½ hours) daily except Saturday.
WORTH A TRIP
HAMNINGBERG
A warmly recommended 88km round trip northwards along the coast from Vardø brings
you to the tiny, semi-abandoned, timber-built settlement of Hamningberg.
The single-lane road runs through some of northern Norway's most fascinating geo-
logy: inky tarns, copses of scrubby bushes clinging to the meagre topsoil for dear life,
flecks of snow even in late July and looming, lichen-covered eroded stone pillars, the rem-
nants of sedimentary layers turned on end. En route, you'll pass reindeer herds and sev-
eral sandy beaches. Save the bucket-and-spading, though, until the return journey when,
7.3km south of Hamningberg, you can walk to the broadest beach through the small
nature reserve of Sandfjordneset , with its protected sand dunes set back from the
shoreline.
What makes the village special is that, being so remote, it was saved from the general
destruction of the Nazi retreat in WWII. Only one house was destroyed - and that by a
Russian bomber. The rest, abandoned in the 1960s except for summer visitors, still stand
as living reminders of what was once one of eastern Finnmark's largest fishing villages.
Here where the road ends, there's a small summertime cafe .
Kirkenes
Pop 3680
This is it: you're as far east as Cairo, further east than most of Finland, a mere 15km from
the border with Russia - and at the end of the line for the Hurtigruten coastal ferry. It's also
road's end for the E6, the highway that runs all the way down to Oslo.
This tiny, nondescript place, anticlimactic for many, has a distinct frontier feel. You'll
see street signs in Norwegian and Cyrillic script and hear Russian spoken by trans-border
visitors and fishermen, who enjoy better prices for their catch here than in their home ports
further to the east.
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