The view is awe-inspiring and unmatched by any elsewhere. On a clear day, you see different shades of blue from the sea, sky and lakes, and icicles hanging from cliff faces like Daliesque chandeliers.
Along the 1800km route from Finland to Norway and back, the scenery changes from endless fir forests that seem to typify the northern Finnish landscape to the white Sahara that is sub-arctic Norway.
And every so often, you spy in the distance a sprinkling of brightly coloured houses standing literally in the middle of nowhere. If there are roads leading to them, they are buried. Once in a while, you see a snowmobile or a dog sleigh, and you go “ah so, that’s how they get to the houses”.
The most breathtaking scenes are of those mountains, with their craggy and relentlessly steep slopes. Some look like misshapen pyramids in the way they rise abruptly from the horizon.
The white expanse also evokes a sense of solitude and peace, and it would have been easy for drivers to slip into a meditative state if not for the challenging terrain. Oh, and the playlist from the phone that is paired with the SQ7’s hi-fi via Bluetooth.
Tromso is the biggest town among the hamlets along the route. It is a town blessed with generous sightings of the Northern Lights. A post-dinner stroll rewards some participants with that ghostly green. It is the second sighting, with the first being a faint glow on the first night when the entourage lands in Kittila.
And there is a third, on the final night at a Finnish forest resort in Saariselka. The defroster-equipped glass ceiling of the cosy chalets provide a good view of the starry night, and a guest appearance by the aurora.
The next morning, participants encounter the coldest temperature since arrival – minus 24.5 deg C. Just being in the bright and bitingly cold outdoors is an experience.
But the most memorable moment must be in North Cape itself. The nearest point you can get to the North Pole on land, North Cape is just 30 kilometres from the port town of Honningsvag, which is surrounded by rugged mountains. If not for the extensive tunnels, going to and from Honninsvag would be impossible by land.
The drive to this port town is a little scary, as the snowy road winds its way across a serpentine stretch flanked by imposing cliff faces on one side, and a sheer drop into the dark depths of the Atlantic on the other.
At dinner in Honninsvag, the group is told that access to North Cape might not be granted should the weather turn foul. Almost on cue, snow begins to fall – heavily.
But it is bright and clear the next day. When the convoy nears North Cape, it stops at a gantry. Hearts sink. Then, suddenly, a snow plough roars from the back of the queue, and the gantry lifts. Jubilation.
The massive truck with a giant shovel in front leads the convoy in the final ascent to North Cape. The drive up is like a drive into nothingness – snow everywhere, even in the air, from the wake of the plough.
Then all of a sudden, North Cape. It is like stepping into a wardrobe and arriving in Narnia. It must be the loneliest and loveliest place on earth.
Look out to the sea and it just goes on forever in every direction. Snow is falling from the clouds into the waves about a kilometre out. The wind is howling faintly. A short stroll from the group is all you need to be absolutely alone.
The emptiness is actually lovely. And I’m thankful it is not thronged by tourists this time of the year. There is just snow. And sea. And more snow.
A resident guide tells us that in the summer, grass returns, followed by a herd of some 4000 reindeer. This is also a place where a dramatic sea battle ensued in World War II. In summer, bunkers are revealed, and so are plane wreckages in far corners of the cape.
But winter is oblivious to the past. As it is to the present. After staring contemplatively into the blue yonder, it is time to get back into the blue wonder that is the Audi SQ7.
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