‘Special kind of tourists’ in Europe’s far north

Press, 2 July 1985, Page 24

‘Special kind of tourists’ in Europe’s far north

By

Chris Mosey

at Mageroya on Norway’s North Cape

The Norwegian air force Fl 6 jet fighter screamed past this, the northern-most tip of Europe, and disappeared in the general direction of the Soviet Union into an ominous bank of ,black cloud, welling up over the Arctic Ocean.

Cormorants and seagulls wheeled into the air from the rocks below. Two sea eagles soared high into the rapidly darkening sky. The 100 or so tourists sitting in the North Cape tourist centre looked up, startled, from the postcards they were writing. Just behind the centre a N.A.T.O. listening’ station automatically monitored the Fl6s flight as part of its constant vigil over a wild, desolate, and beautiful stretch of sea, through which the Soviet navy’s huge submarine force, stationed at Murmansk on the Kola peninsula, must pass on its way west. N.A.T.O. strategists say World War 111 could start in this windswept, stormtossed place. Mr Ragnar Dammen, aged 41, who runs the tourist centre and the North Cape Hotel in the nearly fishing village of Honningsvag, toasted the flight of the Fl 6 in the specially bottled • champagne he served to newly enrolled members of the Royal North Cape Club. I had just become number 1803.

“There has been a lot more military activity up here in recent years,” he said. “I don’t mind. There’s plenty of room up here for everyone. It’s all good for business.”

Business is booming. Dammen and Scandinavian Airline Systems (S.A.S.), which owns the centre and the hotel, plan to turn the North Cape into "one of the world’s most exotic tourist attractions.”

The increased strategic importance of northern Norway, following the Soviet arms build-up on the Kola, is grist to their mill. Tourism has increased rapidly in the last 20 years as sea, air and road connections to Mageroya have been improved, mainly for defence purposes. Today it stands at around 100,000 visitors a year; all of them hoping to catch a glimpse of that elusive phenomenon, the midnight sun, from the middle of May until the end of July. Fog, cloud, sudden rain storms, even snow, can obscure the object of this exercise.

“We had a party from the British embassy the other day,” said Mr Dammen, beaming. “They’d been visiting the radar station. Most of the tourists are German, some Americans, French, Italians ...”

The trip is not without its perils. Last month, an American journalist from

California, who was testdriving a Swedish Saab 900 on the company’s annual “North Cape Run,” hit a patch of ice in a violent snow-storm and overturned a luxury car that retails at around $20,000 ($NZ45,000). He escaped unhurt; the car was righted and continued its trip to the very top of Europe. Such dangers mean little to Mr Dammen. He will soon be offering winter holidays and special New Year’s Eve parties at the North Cape. “We shall bring them in by snow tractor,” he said optimistically. He admitted that the complete absence of daylight from the end of November until the end of January and, temperatures that can sink to minus 51 degrees centigrade, might put people off. “We are looking’ for a special kind of tourist,” Mr Dammen explained. “We want a tourist who is not really interested in tourism in the ordinary sense of the word. We don’t want what I call plastic tourists here. We want people who are fed up with normal tourism and are looking for something different.”

To the hardy who make the trek, Mr Dammen promises first-class cuisine based largely on locally caught fish and reindeer meat, but he confesses that the wine list may be a little truncated because all sup-

plies must be flown from Hammarfest on the mainland, 200 kilometres to the south. As compensation for the midwinter darkness, there will be the Northern Lights, an incredible heavenly firework display visible on clear nights. Mr Dammen admits they are none too common. Increased tourism has brought with it some unwanted phenomena from civilisation. Many of the rocks of the 350-metre cliff face are now stained with spraycan graffiti. The drop has claimed so many tourist lives that a fence has been put up around the edge. “Of course, you can’t stop them if they really want to climb over,” said Mr Dammen philosophically. “One or two people actually come all the way here to commit suicide.” Copyright, London Observer Service.