Bugøynes, Norway

I thought I'd throw in an older card again. This one is from my parents from their trip to northern Norway about two years ago.



Bugøynes (Pykeijä in Finnish) is a fishing community in the very most northeastern tip of Norway, in the municipality of Sør-Varanger in the province of Finnmark, situated by the Varanger Fjord which is a vast bay off the Barents Sea (a part of the Arctic Ocean), near the border with Russia. The village is situated some 500 km north of the Arctic Circle, with nearly 230 inhabitants.

Before the road was built to Bugøynes in 1962, the main link between Bugøynes and the rest of the world was by sea. The most-visited town in those days was Vadsø, on the opposite side of the Varanger Fjord. Although Kirkenes, on the south side of the fjord, was the local administrative centre for Bugøynes, it did not become the centre for shopping until people could reach it by car.

Now most trade in this part of Finnmark takes place in Kirkenes. Workplaces in Bugøynes include fishing, salmon and other fish processing, the processing of reindeer meat and game, as well as slipway and machine workshops.

I seem to remember my parents mentioning visiting a fishing boat or similar where the catch included HUGE crabs - one of them weighed more than 9 kg!



The stamp on the right is from a set of 2 stamps issued in 2009, under the theme 'Norwegian Year of Cultural Heritage'. The stamp here shows a radio. The smaller stamp on the left is from a set of 3 definitives issued in 2001.