THE NORWEGIAN FJORDS WITH HURTIGRUTEN
The vast coastline from Bergen to Kirkenes has long been a busy route for transportation of goods and people. But in the late 19thcentury services were unreliable, infrequent and ships rarely sailed at night, making a journey between north a south, and vice versa, a long and arduous one.
The Norwegian authorities wanted to improve the situation and invited shipping companies to submit tenders for operating an express route between Trondheim and Tromsø, or Hammerfest. Few lighthouses north of Trondheim made night time sailing risky. Richard With from Stokmarknes, where one of the early ships, the MS Finnmarken, can still be seen, bid for the route despite the hazards, and duly won the contract.
In 1893, his steamer, the DS Vesteraalen, was brought into service along the coast of Norway, and a regular sea link was established. The service offered weekly departures, at first from Trondheim to Hammerfest and later from Bergen to Kirkenes, the current extent of the route.
He named his company “hurtigruten” - the “fast route”, I think without irony.
In 1896, Hurtigruten established another route from Hammerfest on mainland Norway to Svalbard, serviced by the steamer DS Lofoten. The company then later extended the list of destinations to Iceland, Greenland, Antactica and recently, as the polar ice has receded, the North West Passage.
So, do they run posh ferries or a “down-market” cruises?
Its undoubtedly a “working” boat, adorned as it is with the word POST on its flag. As it has for 126 years the fleet of Hurtigruten ferries deliver mail, cars and goods to 34 ports along the rugged Norwegian coast.
Most of the passengers treat it as a cruise, but in so many ways it is more a glorified ferry, reinforced by the many local Norwegians who jump on and off at regular intervals at one of the 34 ports of call along the coast.
A quick analysis of the passengers and it is easy to conclude that the locals using it as a method of transport from one remote coastal town to another, are very much in the minority. Most people on this boat, and presumably on any one of a dozen like it, are tourists spending grey pounds in the main, possibly in an attempt to feel they are following an authentic local route to the Arctic Circle.
So, is it a posh ferry? Yes, I suppose in many ways that is exactly what it is. The public areas look much like any cross-channel ferry, although on a smaller scale. A restaurant serving mostly buffet style local fare, three times a day, and a cafe on the top deck near the best observation points, for fresh bread, sandwiches and cakes - and decent coffee. So posh in the sense that the food is a cut above your average cross channel ferry; Hurtigruten make a repeated point that they source their food locally all the way up and down the coast, taking supplies on at most ports. And it is true, the food is generally excellent with fresh seafood featuring extensively in the restaurant and bread and cakes baked on the boat.
Depending on your preference the table arrangements in the evening will either please you (a chance to engage with fellow passengers) or fill you with dread as you will be forced to share the same table with the same group of people for the duration of your voyage. Dinner is the only meal of the day served by waiters and it feels like a nod towards the idea of cruising, a way to make it feel slightly less like the ferry it actually is. Breakfast and lunch has no such restriction, both are buffet style with a mind boggling selection of fresh produce. The boat does supply a small gym to burn off all the calories if you are so inclined, and just walking with the rock and roll of the ship helps. But be in no doubt if you eat all that is on offer on a journey from one end of Norway to the other you will leave it having gained a few kilos unless you work hard at it.
Cabins are functional rather than luxurious, with little space to swing a cat if you have one, but provide all you could need; a decent bed, hot shower and (in most cases) a small window from which to watch the fjords drift by if you want a bit of peace and quiet from the bustle of the public decks. There are cabins without windows, somewhat romantically named “polar inside”, which might not encourage you to linger except to sleep. They are cheaper but not so much that it would attract many of the key customer base. Maybe they are the ones the locals use?
So maybe it is a down-market cruise. In some ways it is this too, but the use of the term “down-market” seems somewhat pejorative and undeserved. For those used to the luxury of Caribbean or Mediterranean cruises on ships with 2 or 3 thousand passengers, it would doubtless seem “down-market”. There is no dressing for dinner, being invited to the captain’s table, wall to wall entertainment or swimming pools with wave machines and the like. But to be fair to Hurtigruten they don’t sell on the basis of it being an up-market cruise. They are up front that it is a working boat. What they do claim is that it is the “most beautiful voyage in the world.”
In 2001 the MS Lofoten was given protected status by the Norwegian Directorate of Cultural Heritage, retaining its original features, but be wary when you choose your ship to travel on. The Lofoten has no stabilisers so in rough sea expect to get sick! Heritage has its place, and as it happens, the route only goes in to the open sea a few times and for only a few hours on each occasion, but those will not be much comfort if you are hoying up over the back of the boat, or confined to your cabin’s less than generous ensuite bathroom! The ships are regularly refurbished and updated - all the information is available on the Hurtigruten website so if you do your homework you can generally make sure you are on a modern well stabilised ship, if that is important to you.
Every day one of the Hurtigruten ships departs Bergen heading north to Kirkenes. The full round trip lasts 12 days and it is a great way to explore the Norwegian coast, its nature and culture. But increasingly I am of the view that, to get the best out of it, it is better to break the journey, possibly several times. Spend a night here and there, visiting a few of the local communities. After all, at whatever time you get off, there will be another ship along 24 hours later! The arranged excursions could be said to attempt to do this, but they are expensive and somewhat touristy.
Check out some of those tiny fishing communities, surrounded by snowy mountains and vast stretches of water. It’s hard to imagine more isolated communities and indeed many are dependent on ferry links for transport of people and goods. At each small port, there is a rapid exchange of pallets of heavens knows what - from food stuffs, to building materials, all efficiently shifted by fork lift trucks zooming in and out of the boat and nearby warehouses, in choreographed efficiency.
Booking a port-to-port series of journeys is undoubtedly more of a faff; in fact you can no longer do it online, you have to ring them. Hurtigruten’s website is clearly aimed at the package holiday maker. The vast majority of passengers are on for the full 12 days Bergen to Kirkenes to Bergen, with flights etc included. Having split the voyage in two and tarried a while in Kirkenes, I am a rarity.
So, is it “the world’s most beautiful voyage”? I suppose that depends on what you like to see. They certainly provide any number of excursions to supplement the time on the ship, at considerable cost, and the scenery is, in places, absolutely stunning.
And, of course I have not taken any other cruise, except one - the MV Australis, from Ushuaia in Argentina to Puta Arenas in Chile, via Cape Horn. And whilst it is much shorter (only 4 or 5 days) I would have to say the fjords are consistently narrower in Tierra del Fuego, the Land of Fire; the glaciers can be seen tumbling into the sea; and the wildlife does surpass the Norwegian experience, including as it does: albatross, skua, penguins, dolphins and whales.
So, whilst I would not claim the Patagonian voyage is the most beautiful in the world, I think the Hurtigruten claim is actually unfounded. Not that it isn’t fabulous - it is. I thoroughly recommend it, but not the 12 day round trip. Ring them up and book a few port-to-port options. Stop at least in Tromso, Trondheim, Kirkenes and at least one of the smaller communities up the coast. You don’t even have to start in Bergen. Direct flights from the UK to Bergen and Tromso, but connections to just about anywhere via Oslo are possible.
Oh yes, and if you are susceptible to sea sickness, make sure you avoid the Lofoten!