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Published: September 16th 2016
While waiting at Bodo docks for the ferry to take our entourage to the Lofoten Islands, I glanced at the North Atlantic Ocean and observed a smooth and still slate grey expanse – not a wave to be seen. I turned to impart this good news to Wendy the Navigator only to find her ensconced in life belts and guzzling sea sickness tablets. This calm sea was just a front and soon we would be getting batted between huge waves to our watery doom.
Three hours later, after a perfectly tranquil crossing, we arrived at the Islands. A lot has been written about The Lofotens in books, online, in blogs etc… with countless photographs shown and dear readers, they are all true. This small area of the world is special, awe inspiring, magical and more….
Leaving the ferry, Claude took a left turn to a place called Å. No other letters just Å. Our place to stay in Å was a car park on a slope. This was the only place in Å that didn’t charge and so we decided it was a fine spot. Being so far north, it was not a surprise to find drizzle and a
cold breeze as we set out to explore the first letter of the alphabet. It looked stunning in the drizzle, but then the clouds parted, the sun came out and the sky turned a deep blue and our jaws dropped. Each direction you looked was amazing –apart south east where Cusco was scratching the hell out of something in his midribs with accompanying noises. A classy hound.
Our meanderings took us north to Ramberg via a small town called Reine. There was no rain now and for the rest of our travels on the Islands the weather was sunny, warm and occasionally hot. Ramberg was another car park, but this time to Cusco’s delight there was a long and sandy beach. In fact he found two and so your correspondent was reduced to chief ball thrower as he scampered along the sand, occasionally throwing himself in the sea to add a smell of damp fur to Claude. At this stop we sat drinking Prosecco, beer, wine and sat and watched dolphins, whales and an occasional pine marten.
Surrounded by mountains, a lovely beach and stunning views, Wendy thought her dad would like it here, so we built a
cairn with some small rocks and left some more of his ashes. It was a trial leaving that spot as we couldn’t imagine anything as beautiful, but then you just drive round the next corner and there is more.
At the next car park (we were becoming experts at wild camping now) we had an encounter with a rare species for us – fellow British travellers!!!! Wendy had been stalking a poor woman called Sarah on facebook and now she had tracked her down, I was ordered to place Claude across the car park entrance to block any escape!! As we sat drinking and looking at more stunning scenery, Wendy managed to offload all her chat that she had stored up for a poor unsuspecting English speaker. Julie and Jason were also parked up here, we followed their blog and had taken some invaluable tips from it. In the morning before we left, Wendy and Cusco, Sarah and Tabitha (her daughter) Ian, Marit and their twin boys (from the van beside us) climbed a huge hill – I didn’t.
Our plan from here was to slowly travel to the end of the Islands looking at some of the
most beautiful scenery in the world and guess what – that is exactly what we did. This place can never be forgotten.
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Great post and beautiful photos, can't wait to read more!