Hiking Alone on Lofoten Islands
Warm welcome from the driver on the bus no 400 from Bodø airport who considered the ticket into the city centre is “very expensive” and said I should just jump in. Thanks!
The clouds above Reine, not so welcoming but pretty.
Weather forecast for the first day and following night and day was good so I thought I would do the big trip and if I break my feet on any of the other trips at least I’ve done the important one. The only detail I should have paid attention to was the cloud ceiling height forecasted to be same as most of the terrain and below the tallest of the peaks.
My original plan was to hike to Munkebu Hut and half way to Hermannsdalstinden Summit, find camp for the night, then get to the top of Hermannsdalstinden and back to Sørvågen the following day. That was me sitting in front my laptop dreaming. In the real world, if a fresh dry baselayer will not make me continue with the original plan then it’s time to turn around.
Hiking 9.444 Miles Alone to Munkebu Hut
Brush off the half failed first hike and continue on with the sun bright in the sky and cloud ceiling at 9100m. Should allow for some great hiking and decent views and so it turned out with addition of a giant sea otter sighting. No more moody landscapes, just impressive views.
Hiking 6.835 Miles Alone to Kvalvika Beach
I have to mention at this point that most of the hikes in Lofoten are hard or incredibly hard. It’s only been two days and I already cursed a sign post pointing at a vertical rock face and I found that a 2km hike it's not actually a walk in the park.
On the third day I discovered one of the 800 cinnamon rolls made every morning by hand and baked in the old stone oven from 1878 at Bakeriet I Å. I bought two at the time every day for the rest of my stay, I'm actually having one writing this blog. Surely I’m now fatter than last week.
Rainy day calls for a visit to the Norwegian Fishing Village Museum Å.
Rainy day is for editing previous days and planning the following days.
On day four I’ve been reminded how hard it is to move across this landscape. The view I would often find when searching “Lofoten hike” on the wide web is from Reinebringen.
The hike starts in Reine.
Good idea is to get there very early. Another good idea is to take it slow. From the bottom of the hike to the first view of the village there are an unimaginable number of stone steps, they are not even, most are not level and some not flat, can be slippery. Almost vertical climb in places. Once on the top I was not prepared for scrambling, free climbing and bouldering. No built up steps. Got to a point where I thought is not worth the risk of wandering on my own and I stopped.
Hiker from Sweden asked me if it’s worth dragging the camera gear up there. I did curse my days on the way up but the newly released iPhone 14 Pro would never be able to reproduce what I experienced. Big camera with big lenses barely do.
That said, if I were ultralight fast packing I could have gone to Munkebu and Hermannsdalstinden Summit from this point. Maybe in the future. Good weather, a 20ltr pack with some warm layers, dry salami, a water filter, some fresh legs and it could be done. (dreaming in front of my laptop again).
I stared at the view for more than an hour. I did not move until my bum went numb. It really is as impressive as they say.
With two of the hikes successfully completed and another one just about, I stuff my face with some more cinnamon rolls and plan the last day. I could not leave Lofoten without seeing a typical fishing village and the UNESCO Heritage’s choice is Nusfjord. I thought they must have a good reason.
The original building from 1877 where blacksmithing was done for all fishermen in the village.
To wrap up the trip with another surprise, the walk on the road from the E10 into the village, which I was expecting to be quite boring actually looked like this.
