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NORDKAPP
Driving north on the E69 in my vehicle of air, I see that it is April. Despite this, snow covers most of the ground and what is uncovered is bare, a ruddy brown tundra. On either side, there are views of distant cliffs and the Barents Sea deflects equinoctial light. The sky behind me - I apply my 360-degree vision to it - is almost metallic in its pale blues and pinks. Despite its fascination, I keep going and there is not a trace of life in sight, no hare, no ptarmigan, no midge. I pass through the checkpoint, beyond the superfluous speed sign that fixes my velocity, by law, at seventy kilometres an hour - in fact, I am going much more slowly anyway, the speed of the connection is holding me back and, as I advance, the landscape blurs into jagged pastel shards and Turneresque washes. Beyond the checkpoint whose red and white barrier is as incongruous here as an orange grove, playing Terje Rypdal’s 'Rolling Stone' through my headphones, I register the cold with my eyes but not my skin. Impasto icings layer the landscape and wheel-tracks pierce them like sastrugi - up ahead, the Vilfred Pettersen hut is a flattened pagoda and the raised sphere of the Nordkapphallen is the captured moon of another planet. Here the road ends, even though the music persists and Svein Christiansen’s delicate drumming, all cymbals and syncopation, under- and over-scores Rypdal’s guitar as the obelisk shines mutely and, on the entrance to the hall, the exact latitude of 71 degrees 10 minutes 21 seconds north is displayed in white on deep yellow. I stand there for a moment, lost in contemplation of the uncountable miles behind me. I register the cold with my mind and not my skin, but it still exhilarates with its chill. |
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