When going to Lofoten by ferry, especially during the high season, it is recommended to buy the ticket in advance. But since we didn't have an exact plan on when we would get there, we only looked for tickets two days before. 2/3 of the tickets for the ferry between Bodø and Moskenes (Lofoten) are sold in advance online, and the rest is available for "drop in" - cars that just arrive at the terminal. So when we looked online, all the tickets were of course sold out. We had a bit of a drive to get to the ferry terminal, and because we would pass Saltstraumen - one of the strongest maelstroms in the world - at its peak time, we decided to take our time and then head to the terminal and hope to catch the next ferry.
First we made a stop to do a short hike in a beautiful forest, and after we continued the drive to Saltstraumen. From the parking we could walk to the top of a high bridge and watch the stream from above, rushing and whirling past. We spent only enough time there to enjoy the view and take some photos before driving all the way to the terminal in Bodø.
We were there just over an hour before the next ferry would leave, but there were enough cars and motor homes before us that we didn't make it. The next ferry was supposed to depart at 15.00, just 90 minutes later, but due to technical issues it it was cancelled, and we had to wait until 18.00. If we were to miss that one to, we would have to wait until 22.00. Normally, we would have had a pretty good shot at making the one at 18 since we had a good spot in the queue, but since all the people who had bought their tickets in advance for the cancelled ferry would now get a guaranteed spot at the next ferry, it wasn't sure they would be able to take any cars from the "drop in" queue.
There wasn't much to do but wait and hope, and we decided to do that while exploring the small town. We found some nice street art, coffee and ice cream, enough to keep us busy for a few hours, but eventually we walked back to our car to spend some time reading. Some of the cars ahead of us had decided to try their luck with a different ferry - it would depart at 17.00, but would make a few stops along the way and would take twice as long to get to Lofoten, but could on the other hand guarantee a spot.
As we were waiting, the terminal staff came and told us they had managed to bring in an extra ferry which would depart at 17.30, and after waiting more than six hours we were finally on our way to Lofoten. Four hours later we arrived, and started looking for a tent spot. All places we looked at seemed to require parking fees - and only accepted cash or Vipps (the Norwegian equivalent of Swish) as payment. So with no way of paying, we had to find a spot along the road big enough for the car - this was a recurring problem/solution across Lofoten. Eventually we found a spot by a lake, though we later realized it might have been a bit too close to someone's house. No one kicked us out, though.
The next day we started by exploring the small village nearby, Å. It's famous for its traditional fishermen's cottages, "rorbuer" (some of which has been made into accomodation for rental) and for cinnamon buns baked according to a traditional recipe in a bakery that was first built in 1844. We decided to take a walk around the lake where we spent the night, but again really underestimated how long it would take us. We ended up on the wrong path for a while which was steep, muddy and difficult to follow, and it was very warm, but eventually we got down to the intended path and were able to follow the beautiful route the whole way, and enjoy the scenery. Once back, we of course rewarded ourselves with cinnamon buns.
As we kept driving north, we passed one of the main sights - Reinebringen - a mountain which you can hike to the top to get a beautiful view over Reine village and the archipelago. However, all parking spots, roads, and the entire village were packed with cars that it was impossble for us to stop there. And, seeing all the tourists heading towards that hike, we weren't sure that we even wanted to join them. So we kept driving. A bit further north was another famous spot, often recommended for wild camping - Kvalvika beach. We wanted to do a hike there and potentially set up camp, but again we were met by parking fees we couldn't pay and lack of parking spots. But Kvalvika beach is divided into two parts, Nordvika and Vestervika, separated by cliffs, and doing some research we found a hiking trail leading to Vestervika - the less popular part of the beach.
We ended up doing a three hour hike with all our overnight stuff, which was incredibly beautiful and serene. Once at the beach, there were already four other tents there (and a flock of sheep), but they were spread out across the big area, and wasn't at all like the twenty-something tents on the other part of the beach. We had a really nice evening, and I stayed up "late" to watch the sunset - we were roughly two weeks late to see the actual midnight sun, but a sunset at 23.15 is not too bad either.
The next morning we packed our stuff and decided to walk across the cliffs to the other beach to get a different route back - it was very steep, quite crowded, and in the end we had to walk several kilometers along the road to get back to our car, so we much prefered the hike the day before. On the other hand, the popular Nordvika beach got most of the afternoon/evening sun and also had a trail going up the top of the nearby mountain where a lot of people surely got some amazing photos of the beaches from above.
The next day, we drove past another "Lofoten sight" - the two beautiful beaches Haukland and Uttakleiv, that you can also do a hike between. Having another sunny day, we were up for some beach time but concerned about running into crowds again - which we did. Already a kilometer before the actual beach parking of Haukland beach, there were cars parked along the road making it difficult to even drive, even worse to meet other cars, motor homes, or even to turn the car around. Which we quickly did. And drove past the masses of people that covered the (otherwise indeed pretty) beach. Instead we drove up to Eggum - a small village by the ocean that also had a long, pretty beach. The "parking lot" was an empty field probably used by the local kids to play soccer, but we only shared it with two or three other cars. The beach was almost empty, and we got to enjoy the beach and go for a swim (for fun, not even for "showering") in the cool, salty ocean at this quiet hideaway.
Feeling quite overwhelmed by the amount of tourists in these small areas, and stressed from driving on roads too narrow to handle the amount of traffic and large vehicles, we only spent one more day in Lofoten. We drove to the small city Svolvӕr, which is the "capital" of Lofoten. We stopped just outside of the city for a walk around a lake called Prestvattnet, with an amazing view over the mountain Tjeldbergtind, before heading into the city center to take a walk by the harbor, have a smoked salmon sandwich and a fika, before the clouds started rolling in. They were so low and heavy that all the surrounding mountains suddenly disappeared into the mist, and it almost seemed as if they didn't exist at all.
We found a spot that was actually marked on Google maps as a "tent spot" - even with free, available parking, and with only two other tents in the area. It was overlooking the fjord, and as we were eating our dinner that evening we saw an eagle fly by. As silly as it may sound, to me that felt like a sign that we were now done with Lofoten - a sort of closure, that made it feel like the right choice to get in the car the next day and head towards the Swedish border.
incredibly beautiful...
SvaraRadera