When you can't have adventures outside your own country it's lucky to live in a beautiful country with fantastic nature. Norway was under a pretty strong lockdown the winter of 2020-2021, not as strong as other countries though, I guess living in a big country with fewer people has it's advantages too. After not really being social for about four months, and barely having left my county for 6 months I was going incredibly stir crazy and my soul needed a little adventure. So in March I took a chance and booked a trip for May, and then just crossed my fingers hoping I'd actually get to go, and I did. Norwegians slowly started travelling within the country in May and I was one of the lucky travellers. I went on a nearly two week adventure, and I have so much to share that I have to devide it into two posts. So hope you'll enjoy this first one.
My destination was Lofoten, a beautiful set of islands in northern Norway, with a stop in Bodø on the way there, and on the way back. I started my journey on a Thursday morning and flew to Bodø for a night there first. Bodø isn't a big city and the airport is only a 30 minute walk from the city centre so I strapped on my backpack and walked, and geocached a little, and took in the scenery. I had some time before check-in at the hostel so I took my time but decided to check for the key a little earlier than the listed check in time and the key was in the mailbox (several places do self check in and such now).
So after dropping off my backpack in my room I headed out towards a park-like area I had noticed on the map; Nyholmen. You have to go through an industial area that isn't very nice to get there, but when you get there it's totally worth it. Nyholmen skandse is an old fort and they've done a lot to preserve the area, and there are picnic tables and bins placed out around the park area. The view of Bodø is pretty nice from this spot too. After walking around taking photos and finding a geocache I started the walk back to the city and after a little rest in my room I was out again for a hike. I had decided to walk up to a lookout point to hopefully see the sunset. There is a road going all the way up to Linken (which seems to be a popular name for spots like this in the Norwegian mountains). From Linken you can see all of Bodø to the south and you have a beautiful ocean view to the north. The sunset wasn't too spectacular unfortunately but the pink colour over the city was still pretty great, and I managed to get some pretty cool photos playing with the little sliver of colour coming from the sun going down.
The next morning I was up super early, it was time to get to Lofoten and I had booked an early morning flight. A flight that wasn't exactly full. There was only one other passanger on the small propeller plane ready to take me to Svolvær in Lofoten. Lucky for me it was a really nice guy and we chatted for a while before boarding, and he had a rental car waiting in Lofoten. There are no buses from this very small airport so I knew I'd have to get a taxi, but this man was kind enough to drop me off in Svolvær as he was heading past there.
When arriving in Svolvær I made my way to the hotel I was staying at, only the door was closed and I didn't see anyone around. I have to admit; my heart did start pounding a little. I looked at the confirmation e-mail I'd gotten, went to the website and called the number listed on the website. Turnes out the hotel I had booked wasn't open and they'd had a mix up so no one told me my booking was moved, or was supposed to have been moved. The receptionist was struggling to find my booking but told me to come to the other Scandic hotel and we'd sort it out. Luckily Svolvær isn't big and I had a backpack, moving around like this is so much easier with a backpack than with a suitcase. By the time I got to the other hotel she'd figured out the problem, I was so relieved. As it was really early I wasn't expecting to get a room right away, I was just planning on leaving my backpack, but I guess because of the mix up, and the fact she needed to find an available room anyways she was nice enough to let me have my room right away. So I ended up being checked in before 8 am. And I was really pleased with the room, such a beautiful view.
The only reason I'd booked the other hotel was the price, getting to stay slightly more central with this beautiful view for the same price really wasn't a problem for me.
My plan for the day was to go to another town, Kabelvåg, to visit the aquarium there, but I had some time to kill so I explored Svolvær and geocached a bit before getting the bus to the centre of Kabelvåg. From there I trusted google to give me directions to the aquarium and I was pleasantly surprised by the route it gave me. A part of the route was a lovely little path by the water, it was just so beautiful. Arriving at the aquarium I was sort of expecting there to be a lot of people, despite it being a friday and a school day, they had been open for half an hour already. I was wrong however, I was the first visitor that day and had the whole place to myself. By feeding time there was a family there too, but I only saw a couple of families while I was there, so it was nice and quiet. The seals were active and one of the otters was being super cute so I had fun taking photos of them, and checked out the tanks with fish and other sea creatures inside too. If I were to compare this aquarium to the others I've been to in Norway I'd say I think the pools are a little too small, especially the seal pool. However, the animals did seem active and happy. And I had a great time observing them.
When I got back to Svolvær I relaxed a bit before heading out to find some food. As this was during a pandemic with restrictions, especially about serving alcohol, a lot of places were closed. I sat down at «Du verden», they didn't have room inside so I sat down outside even though it was a little chilly out. I ordered and paid for my meal and a glass of wine through their website, which really was quite nice and easy to use. I was lucky as a nice couple sat down a couple of tables over, there really weren't many people sitting outside at this point because the sun had disappeared behind the mountains to the west. I had a lovely chat with the couple while enjoying my meal, making me feel a little less alone.
The next day I had a lovely early morning walk in Svolvær before breakfast. I geocached a little, took loads of photos and had some fun with my tripod along the way. I really like the quiet of an early morning, there is a magic in the calm water and the morning light. Then it was time for breakfast, I was quite surprised to learn they did a buffet, they weren't allowed to serve alcohol unless it was with a meal and not after 10pm, but a buffet breakfast where everyone walks around each other and touches the same stuff was allowed. After breakfast I made my way to a bus again, this time to Henningsvær. I met a nice couple of older guys at the bus station, I helped them with the bus app and we talked all the way to Henningsvær. They got off in the town centre while I took the bus all the way to the end of the busline and started my exploration and geocaching from there.
Henningsvær is a small, charming place spread out over a few islands. I spent a few hours geocaching and taking photos before reaching the town centre where I sat down at a cafe for a bite to eat. Henningsvær has quite a few cafe's, unfortunately the cinnamon bun I got wasn't good, it was hard and somewhat difficult to chew. I walked around a little more after the cafe visit and got a bit cold so I decided to try another cafe, one I'd seen online previous to my trip, for a hot chocolate. This wasn't any better though, it took a long time to get my beverage and when I finally did it tasted like bad instant cocoa with too much water, and they'd put canned wipped cream on top, the whole thing was just really bad. So although Henningsvær is charming, the cafe's unfortunately didn't measure up.
When I got back to Svolvær I relaxed in my room for a few hours before deciding on an evening walk. The weather forecast did say it'd get windy so I had that in mind and set out towards Linken just outside Svolvær as my first goal for the hike and then I'd assess the situation. Walking to Linken from Svolvær is a fairly easy walk, you start on pavement and then the «trail» going up is actually a gravel road. And there are geocaches along the way. Some of them aren't really suitable for a short geocacher like my self on a solo trip but I did manage to log a few. As I got up to Linken, at around 10 pm, the wind picked up and it became clear I wasn't going to hike further up. I guess I'll have to come back some day to go all the way up to Tjeldbergtind. I got a good nights sleep and then got up fairly early and headed out for another hike after breakfast on this lovely Sunday. First I found my way up a hill in the middle of Svolvær for a geocache, it was not fun trying to get around on this overgrown hill top, and I was about to give up on the geocache, but found it at last. And then I could finally head towards the trail I'd decided on for the day. It was a beautiful trail that quickly took me up above the town. My goal for the day was to get up to a small lake and then make my way back down towards a bigger lake and possibly around it. The small lake was actually still partially frozen, which was pretty cool. I tried taking a couple of underwater photos but my underwater camera hadn't been charged in a while so the battery ran out. On my way down I walked along a small but rather wide stream/waterfall and had some fun with long exposure photos. I followed a path along a big lake, and past a smaller one where I found swans and a heron.
Parts of the trail was planked, I encountered a lot of that on this trip and it does often make the hike a lot easier. It was a beautiful day and I had a lovely walk, the walk was cut a little short though. I was planning on walking accross the lake on a bridge at a narrow point, but the bridge was hanging on it's side, so I had to go back the same way instead. I didn't have to go all the way up to the frozen lake however, the path connected with a road at the bottom of the stream. When I got back into town I had lunch at Du verden before heading to my hotel room to start repacking my backpack and then relaxed for a few hours before heading out for a midnight walk. I walked out to an island on the outside of the town so I'd get a nice view, and beautiful views on the way out there as well. The sun had disappeard behind mountains earlier in the night, but the sunset still cast soft colours on the thin veil of clouds and I got some nice photos. The sun didn't stay down long though and by the time I was back at the hotel, just before 2 am, there was a real morning vibe hanging in the air. It was time for me to get to bed though, I had a big day ahead of me.
I checked out of my room around noon and had a couple of hours to kill, so I got an ice cream and sat down on a bench at the town square. It was a beautiful day, a monday but also a bank holiday so there were families having ice cream all around the square.
I arrived in Ramberg round 4pm and after setting my backpack down in my home for the night, a small cabin right by the water I went for a hike. Nubben isn't too hight at 240 meters, but it was my first steep hike of the trip and I could feel it. And the wind didn't help, although I probably would have said it was too hot without it.
The wind meant I couldn't set up my proper tripod at the top either, but I managed to find a spot for my grip tripod for a few mobile photos. Have to get the "distance selfies", as I call them, as proof I was actually there, and it's nice to have some photos with me in them, not just scenery photos. I looked for a geocache at the top and almost gave up but I found it eventually, I also found a field puzzle cache on the way down. I was unsure about even bothering to find that one, but luckily I solved it quickly. When I got back to my cabin I relaxed for an hour or so before heading out for a midnight walk with some camerafun and geocaching. I had a lovely walk, and had a lot of fun taking photos, I took so many. And as this was one of the last nights with a sunset before the midnight sun I made sure to have a nice view of the sunset. The sun set around 1:30 am, so it hadn't actually set at midnight, but it did disappear below the horizon for about an hour. I headed back toward the cabin before the sun came back up, but by the time I went to bed at 2 am the sun was back up, I couldn't see it as there were buildings to the north though. I could see that it was getting lighter again though, and it was beautiful with the orange sky reflecting in the water and the almost full moon hanging low on the pink sky to the south.
I was moving on again the next day, to Reine. But as mentioned above; I've decided to split this trip into two blogposts, as I've also done with other longer trips. The next post will also be a little longer, but this was a natural place to split the story. So Stay tuned for more hikes, and photos from some iconic Lofoten sights.
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