Assignment #10
What: Self-Organized Hiking Trip
When: May 16-May 21
Where: The Lofoten Islands

Half of the class had been planning on this trip for a while now. We had all booked plane tickets back in March. If you didn’t know, The Lofoten Islands is one of the major places Norway is known for. In fact, since it is so far north and off Norways coast a bit, it is part of the Arctic Circle. A very popular place for climbers, backpackers and roadtrippers, Lofoten has something for everyone. This was definitely one of my favorite places I’ve seen since being in Norway.

Day 1: As popular as the island is, it is not the easiest to access…especially if you’re on a budget. We had an early start at 6am Wednesday morning, having a friend pick us up and take us to the small airport in Kristiansand which is only a 40 minute flight to Oslo. From there we had an hour before getting on the next flight taking us to Bodo. The flight was less than 2 hours but once landing in Bodo we had about 4 hours before catching the ferry that would take us to the islands. We spent that down time walking around the city center in Bodo, buying food and gasoline for our next few days as we didn’t know where the next grocery store would be since the island is so secluded. 5 o’clock came around and we hopped on what I thought would be a smooth 3 hour cruise. I was mistaken and halfway through got seasick and had to run for the bathroom (along with over half of the other passengers). Around 8pm we were in Moskenes-Lofoten has many small towns (and by small I mean less then 300 people per town). We then rented two cars as we were a group of 9. We drove into Reine and made dinner in our storm kitchens at the side of pier next to gorgeous mountains. After dinner we drove about 1.5 more hours before reaching Svolvaer and picking an area to set up camp for the night. We all pitched tents, bivvyed or slept in cars that evening. We knew that because we were further up north the sun set much later but we were astonished when we realized it was 11pm and the sun was still out. So.Cool. We were exhausted from our long day of travel so pretty much pulled out our sleeping bags and passed out.

Day 2: We found out the next morning that it never actually gets dark out this time of year, which is so amazing. I slept in the car with my buff over my eyes to try to get some darkness. We all woke up pretty late. Today was the 17th of May and in Norway it is one of their biggest National holidays. We stayed in Svolvear that day because it’s the biggest town on the island consisting of 4,500+ people. We had a nice 45 min walk into town where there was a little parade. We met up with the other guys at this point and were now a group of 12. The weather definitely wasn’t the best this day as it was rainy and cold off and on. We heard there was another parade later on around 5pm but we didn’t wanna just wait around in the city while being in such a gorgeous place. We decided to split up, some went climbing the mountain side, some went hiking and 3 others and myself hopped in the car for a mini road trip of scenic views. We headed East and stopped at Luakvik, Fiskebol and Trollfjorden. The drive was marvelous as you always had great views to look at. We did scenic stops along the way and took plenty of pictures. It was extremely windy in some places but that didn’t stop us from venturing out to the coast. Before we knew it it was 4pm and we were about an hour out of Svolvear so headed back just in time for the parade. We had met a Canadian girl and 2 American guys in the city earlier on who invited us to come hangout at their cabin after the parade. They had a cute little A-frame cabin right on the water with a gorgeous view. We ended up spending 6+ hours there getting to know each other, drinking beers, playing games, laughing and being our weird selves. 6 hours and 15 people in a small cabin whilst pouring rain outside tends to bring out the weirdness in everyone. Before we knew it, it was almost 1am and we all thought it was earlier since it is ALWAYS light outside. We left and headed back to our camp from the previous night.

Day 3:Forecast said to have not so great weather but the day started out sunny so ill take it. We never knew what we were looking for or what to expect and everyone was pretty indecisive so I acted as the “tour guide” for the majority of the trip, looking up places to visit, hikes and other stops basically planning our day-to-day itinerary. The plan for Friday was to start heading South more to explore and try to get in a good hike. Lindas friend had recently moved to Kabelvag which was just 20 mins from us so we dropped her off and headed down to Henningsvaer a cute little town on a very small island consisting of only People. I was looking up hikes and saw there was a short one right on the edge of the town. Was said to be 1.5 hour hike round trip but we can be pretty speedy. It started on the base of a mountain and was a mixture of steep rocks, scrambling and dirt trails. We got to one peak and decided we weren’t high enough, we saw a wall of clouds blowing in so Frankie and I ran to the higher one to try to beat the clouds, get a good view and of course some pretty pictures. After some lunch we hiked back down and drove onto Hov. There, we saw a lighthouse in the distance so we parked and did I pretty good walk to the harbor where you then can cross over rocks and splashing waters to get to the peak where the lighthouse stood. We also found (what we think was) a whale skeleton. We hung around just a bit before walking back. We had to walk under the hanging fish that is everywhere in Lofoten hanging up to dry before being filleted and sold. (there was one on the ground I decided to take and try to boil later on). Following Hov, we did a couple more stops before stopping to fill up on gas as there’s not too many petrol stations on the island so its better to be safe than sorry. We then headed to Unstad where wed pitch tents for the night. Unstad was like a tiny little surfer village right on the beach with huge rocks and pebbles instead of sand. We chose Unstad because Brad (our Aussie surfer) heard it was a good spot. They had done some surfing and climbing previously so we met up with them there for dinner. I attempted to boil the dried cod after dinner and to my surprised it worked (and no one got sick!) We messed around near the beach til about midnight and Brad and I shared the bed of the rental car to sleep as we couldn’t be bothered putting up tents.

Day 4:It rained and was extremely windy through the night shaking the car, but we all seemed to have a pretty well rested night. In the morning the rain and wind had really picked up so we decided to just have a quick breakfast before gathering up everything and heading to the next stop. All day was pretty crap weather but we tried to make the best of it. I led us to a place called Uttakliev where there was little walk from Uttakliev around the side of a mountain to Haukland. It was super rainy but everyone besides 3 decided to go for it. The walk was wet but oh so beautiful. On the right there were high mountain peaks and to the left was the beautiful ocean side. It maybe took less than an hour to make it around the bend to the beach where the others were waiting. We all took a mini rest, had some lunch and headed to Ballstad and Ramberg both known for their fishing villages. We were hoping Ramberg would have some fresh fish we could buy since we didn’t have dinner stuff but unfortunately the season had just ended. Thankfully there was a food shop just buy the pier. We also tried whale meat(delicious but deer is still better). From Ramberg we drove straight down to a very talked up place-Kvalvika. Instead of going into detail, If you haven’t watched the documentary called North of the Sun give it a watch and you’ll learn a little more about this popular beach. We wanted to camp on the beach but it is literally on an island between mountains and in order to get there we had to park our car, pack our kit and hike up a steep mountain side that took about 1.5 hours to get over. It was well worth it as we finally started to approach one of the most breathtaking beaches I’ve ver seen. The most turquoise water, white sand, grassy planes and high mountain tops. We all scattered checking out this amazing place. There was a swing overlooking the water, many fire pits, a hut and toilet in the rocks, and many trails for hikes. that I definitely recommend watching! The forecast for the night was to have fast, strong gusts of wind starting at 3am and tripping its rate by 12 the following afternoon. We did our best to pitch tents and bivvys behind bigger rocks to try and avoid this. After some more exploring and pitching of tents we gathered nearby to start dinner. I love our camping dinners because we all gather and just chat and laugh for a while and really enjoy each others company while making great meals. We had the resources here to finally start a big fire as well. Frankie went for a swim so I started our dinner (which was my favorite thus far). It consisted of sweet potato, different veggies, fish burgers and a fish soup sauce. Super filling and tasted great. After dinner we all agreed to hike up the highest mountain top we could see. Took about 2 hours of pretty steep and muddy terrain. We were told by others it was super windy at the top but to our surprise it was calm and warm. We took loads of pictures and I have no words for the views. We spent a good amount of time at the top before heading down to the bottom once again (where of course I twisted my ankle). At the bottom there was a nice stream of fresh water where I filled my bottle up. Nothing beats fresh Norwegian glacier water that doesn’t have to be filtered or boiled. Our surfer was keen to catch some waves at this famous beach so around 1:30 am we were all out on the rocks watching him do his thing. We just couldn’t get over that at 2am there was 100% visibility and that the sun never fully sets. We were all fine with getting no sleep as the next 2 days were just full of travel. The forecast said there was to be huge gusts of wind so the plan was to wake up early and just pack our kit and head back up the mountain to the other side as it would at least take an hour to do so.

Day 5 & 6:
Nothing too extravagant for these next two days as we had to return our rental cars by 2 and get on the 3pm ferry so we just found a cute café at the end of the island for a while before heading back to Moskenes and catching the ferry to Bodo. In Bodo we had to sleep overnight in the airport which wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought it would be. From Moskenes to Kristiansand all in all it took over 26 hours of traveling but it was all well worth it! I’ll skip over the boring travel details just to say I am beyond lucky to have these amazing experiences and see what I have in the last 22 years of life. Cheers to many more adventures to come!

Next up…Trolltunga!

xx, Abby