Our next student organised field trip was coming, so British Tom, Rob, Laura and I decided to go to the Lofoten from the 29th of April until the 6th of May. Lofoten is a group of islands in the northern part of Norway.
We started our trip on Sunday early in the morning from Kristiansand and drove to Oslo where we flew to Evenes a village close to Narvik/Harstad by airplane. From there we rented a car for the whole week to make it easier to come to all the places we wanted to see. We arrived in the early afternoon and started to drive to Henningsvær three hours away from the airport. Henningsvær is a small fishing village located at the southern coast of Austvågøya. As it was raining we only went for a little walk around the village and had a look at the stadium located on a rocky islet surrounded by mountains, open sea and sheltered bays. On our walk we saw and smelt a lot of stockfish which is unsalted fish, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks. It won’t be the only stockfish we will see on this trip, they were all around Lofoten. We slept in an old and cosy fisherman’s cabin in the village.
On Monday we hiked up the mountain peak of Festvågtinden which was 541 meters high. The weather was perfect with blue sky and sun. For the way up we didn’t choose the marked way. So it was quite a bit of scrambling and climbing. This wasn’t always easy as there were some wet rocks from the melting snow. On our way up we also saw some white-tailed sea-eagles flying above us. Once we were up the peak the lookout was stunning. After the hike we drove to Unstad which is famous for their surfing school. We set up our tent at the beach and ended the day with having a campfire and playing board games. I went to bed around midnight and it was still bright outside which was quite weird getting ready for bed and there is no need for wearing a headlight.
The next morning I started my day early with reading at the beach and watching two surfers trying to catch waves. After we packed everything together we did another hike from Unstad to Eggum and back. Eggum is a radar station built by the Germans during World War II. It is a nine-kilometre trail with lakes and mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. After the hike we drove further to Utakleiv which is in the northern part of the Island Vestvågøya. We chose to camp at the beach again. The beach was surrounded by beautiful mountain peaks. As it was already really windy and the weather forecast for the night was even more wind, we decided to put stones on the outside of the tent to protect ourselves from the wind.
On Wednesday I woke up early again and went for a little walk along the beach before the others woke up. Then we drove to Nusfjord, one of the oldest and best preserved fishing villages. We walked around the village for a bit and then had a cafe next to the harbour. After that we drove to Ramberg at the Island of Flakstadøya. There we went to the tourist information to ask about the snow conditions at the higher mountains. In there we tried the Stockfish, it wasn’t as bad as expected but apparently it also was a lighter version than the traditional one. From a local fisherman we got the information that there will be a fisherboat with fresh fish coming in around six thirty in the evening. Therefore we went for another hike up to Volandstinden (547 meters). The outlook from the peak was amazing. After we came down from the mountain we went back to the fisherman and he gave us a big fresh fish as a present for dinner. For this reason we had a barbecue with fish and vegetables at the evening at a beach a little bit out of Ramberg where we set up our tent as well. Moreover we tried whale sausage which Rob bought in Ramberg. It tasted a little like deer I would say.
On the next day we drove to the direction of Fredvang. From there we hiked up Ryten (543 meters) and from there down to the Kvalvika beach at the West coast of Moskenesøy. At the beach Rob went for a little “swim” in the ocean. But as there were clouds coming up after we finished our lunch at the beach, we decided to hike back to the car. Back at the car we drove all the way to Å located towards the southern end of Lofoten. At the end of the E10 we parked the car and walked a little bit further on some hills next to the ocean where we found a nice spot to set up our tent. As the weather changed now to rain we cooked dinner in the tent and just relaxed the rest of the evening in it.
After four days of sunshine, today the weather was grey with a little bit of rain, so we didn’t feel like hiking again. Rob bought a fishing rod the other day, therefore we asked some locals for a good fishing spot and went there (in Reine next to the lighthouse). We spent the whole afternoon fishing and walking around. At the end of the day Rob caught a little fish we brought back with us to the car. For tonight we booked a AirBnB next to the beach.
As the weather was worse than the day before we started to drive back to the direction of the airport in Evenes. We wanted to make stop at the Viking museum but the entrance fee was not student friendly, so we decided to keep on driving to our last stop 50 minutes away from the airport at an another Airbnb. On our drive we saw a moose family and some elks.
On Sunday we had to go to the airport in the morning to catch our flight back to Oslo and drive back to Kristiansand from there.
All in all Lofoten is definitely worth a trip and I’m sure I will come back either a little later in the year when it’s possible also to do the higher mountain peaks by hiking or climbing or in winter times to do some skitouring there.