Category: Norway

After delivering the car back to Moskenes, we decided to put our tents above the lake in Sørvågen for the remaining few days. From there we had access to everything we needed: hiking path leading to Munken, Å and ferry in Moskenes.

After spending last two days comfortably in car and cabin, we were a bit lazier than in the beginning. Also, after not very reasonable shopping on the way back to Moskenes, we were quite loaded with ‘souvenirs’, which needed storing in the shade.

We managed to find a perfect location for the camping spot, that included even a fireplace area with benches – yeah, let’s increase the comfort level!

Views on the way to Munken: Tennesvatnet

Summer vacation in Norway = expect some snow

On top of Munken. In the background Kjerkfjorden and Helvetestinden in the clouds

We decided to pay a visit to Å on our last day of Lofoten adventure.

The ferry back to Bodø was departing at night, so we had the entire day to enjoy.

Å is a scenic fishing village located literally at the end of E10 road. It is full of red Rorbu cabins standing on wooden pals in the sea water. Until end of 1990s cod production was the main  economic activity. Nowadays, many of the Rorbu converted into lodges used happily by tourists coming to enjoy Nordic summer.

There are two fishing museums located in Å:  Lofoten Stockfish Museum  and the  Norwegian Fishing Village Museum. Our choice was to visit the first one – Tørrfiskmuseum in Å: http://www.lofoten-info.no/stockfish.htm

The owner of the museum (Steinar Larsen) is definitely the highlight of the place. He speaks multiple languages (which he has tought himself on multiple trips) and is very keen on giving the history of cod fishing and production based on his own experience. He also offered us coffee and cookies which was very much appreciated :D.

The initial idea wa to hike towards Stokkvika beach, which is 6-8h hike both ways. The mood of the ‘goodbye’ and beautiful sunshine made us more lazy than usually and we ended up setting a sunbath + picknik at the Ågvatnet lake.

Before jumping on the car, we still had time until the evening to explore Reine and its surroundings. Reine is a beautifully located town, very charming for pictures. It also felt like a real hit of civilization – after 4 days in a tent we could have coffee and ice cream!:)

To spend the day ‘our way’, we decided to climb the closeby peak – Reinaknuten for a better overview of the area.

The climb is short (ca. 1h) but very steep with a lot of loose stones, so need to be careful and watch the steps (and heads).

Getting the car required an evening trip to Moskenes. I scheduled with the car rental the time to pick up ‘Sunny’ and went with Gustavo, leaving Ania and Gregor with backpacks in Reine. As soon as we arrived at Moskenes, the long promised rain has arrived.

Switching to 4 wheels freed us from sticking to one island only, so we decided to make the most of the next two days and go in the direction of Svolvaer. The plan was to sleep the first night in a tent as far as we get, then explore the area of Henningsvaer and Svolvaer and go back through Viking Museum (Borge) to the Rorbu in Sund.

The main lesson learned very soon: mosquitos also like cosy spots covered from rain and the wind…

We decided to stop for the night close to Henningsvær, in a sheltered valley next to the road. About a million blood-sucking beasts decided the same, so pitching the tents was a real race with time. Even after closing the zipper I had an impression that they try to sting through the walls!

Day 6 brought the main weather breakdown. And washed the mosquitoes (yupeee!). The clouds that came would have made our stay in the mountains completely miserable but at the sea level, they appeared quite picturesque.

Following our plan, we packed to the Sunny car and drove to Henningsvær. This trip was cut short, as the rain wouldn’t stop. Going forward to Svolvær had to be cancelled if we wanted to have enough time for Viking museum.

Located in Borge, the Lofotr museum is a reconstruction of the largest known Viking house, excavated in the late 1980s. The visit to the museum is an interactive journey through the long forgotten world. You can see, touch and experience the daily-use equipment, clothes and furniture. After seeing the inside of the museum, you can go out to stroll through the farm areas and get to row the Viking boat! 🙂 More info about the museum can be found on the webpage: www.lofotr.no/

After the leap into the history, we headed towards civilisation – Rorbu. This meant few critical things (numbers 1 and 2 took over as the biggest desires):

1. We can have a warm bath!
2. We can wash and dry our used clothes
3. We can cook a big common dish in big pots
4. We can stand straight while doing all of these
5. We can watch the rain and clouds from warm inside of the wooden cabin
6. We can sleep in beds

I have to admit, that this one night, even though not planned before, changed a lot our Lofoten experience somehow making it fuller. Rorbuer are, in the end, a must-do in here. Also, having still few days of hiking ahead (and some more behind), it felt REALLY good to refresh!

Day 3 woke us up with beautiful sun… and 2 jet planes passing just above our heads: entering the beach from the sea and crossing over the col we were going  to pass through.

We started slow, as the ferry goes only few times a day, and we decided upfront that we won’t make it for 11am. The next one was at 3pm, which gave us plenty of time to refresh in ice cold river crossing the beach, pack and slowly walk towards the ‘port’ (see timetable here: http://www.reinefjorden.no/rutetabell.htm). After few stops for coffee and sunbathing, we caught our ferry ride to Vindstad.

The path from Horseid to Bunes beach is not marked through the mountains and the main route goes through the sea. Some people manage to pass, but the peaks are very sharp and fissile, so you need to be prepared for a challenging climb.

Bunes beach is probably the easiest to reach from Reine and the main road and we could feel it by the number of people and tents (it’s only about 1h walk from the ferry terminal). It was not very easy to find a good strategic spot for our Camp 3. We chose the hill over the beach, just to avoid unnecessary climbing with our full backpacks, especially that we were determined to catch an early ferry the next day.

Instead, we dropped the excess of load in the tents and went down just with our cameras to touch the sea.

On the way to Helvetestinden. View towards Vindstad and Reine.

View from Helvetestinden.

On day 1 we woke up inside a cloud – great beginning of the trip in a wet tent. ’Luckily’ we were tired after the travel and managed to sleep half of that day through the bad weather. But you just can’t stay in a tent forever, can you? So we decided the rain was not going to melt us and moved out to face it. The interesting thing is that when you look from inside it always seems worse than it really is. Even though soaked all over, we managed to enjoy a trip around to neighbouring cliffs over Sandbotnen.

Waking up on day 2 was not much better than on day 1, but we came all the way there to walk a bit rather than stay in a tent just over Fredvang. 🙂 So we packed the backpacks, collected our wet equipment and started the hike. Since the first day was not very productive, we had a great idea to catch up on the second one (because the days are long, so we can!). We faced a moment of hesitation after a cozy stop for lunch at Selfjordhytta, but somehow managed to leave the temptation to stay there and went ahead.

What makes a difference for the hikes on these latitudes: you are released from the pressure of waking up early in the morning to use daylight and can live on your own clock. However, this may be very deceptive and can encourage you to walk for 15h just because it happened to be sunny…