Wednesday August 24 O to Fredvang, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Around every corner there was an amazing view

Norway turned on its best weather for our first day on the Islands, by midday we had blue skies, puffy clouds and warm temperatures, well it did get to 13 degrees and with no wind, it felt a lot warmer.

It was nice to finally slow down and just potter. We wandered down into town this morning, checked out the harbour again, then spotted the bakery that we had read about. It is housed in an old building and they are still baking bread in the original vintage oven…and their cinnamon buns are legendary, so of course we had to buy a couple..and they were yummy.

Visited the information centre as I needed to find out where the nearest ATM machine was, had some Norwegian currency but just wanted to top it up. And we also needed to fill up with fresh water and empty our tanks, all the mundane jobs of living a life on the road, wild camping. She said we could do everything at Reine, only about 10 km’s up the road, so we set off. No chance of doing a high speed as the roads are pretty narrow and bigger vehicles like us, buses and trucks need to pull right over to let cars pass, and even, more fun when you meet another bigger vehicle. But everyone seems to respect the road and we managed.

Reine was picture perfect with the sun shining on all the little red boat sheds and cottages surrounded by very steep mountains. But the money machine wasn’t working so no cash and the next place is some km’s up the coast. But we have stocked up well as knew that everything was very expensive, so shouldn’t need anything except bread and milk.
On a positive note, the motorhome dump site was perfect, sitting at the end of a long road. So we emptied and filled up with fresh water, all ready for a few more days of camping wild. Our lunch stop was in a parking area near town, overlooking the mountains, stunning sights.

We decided we wanted to find a nice spot where we could possible spend a few days unwinding and Ian could do some fishing, so we pottered along, cruising down side roads that took us to wonderful little fishing villages, but really no places to overnight. A number of perfect spots had no camping signs up, I guess the people in the Lofoten’s are sick of all the motorhomes. Anyway it was fun checking out all the side roads. About 3.30 we spotted a perfect place underneath a bridge with a few vehicles already parked there and a guy was fishing off an abandoned jetty. Got chatting as you do. Aristide, from France is studying Geology in Montreal, Svana from Germany had just finished university and was hitch hiking and ended up travelling with Aristide. The other couple, Ralph and Karen, both dentists from Germany were travelling for a month in their VW camperwagon. All could speak very good English and we had a fun time. Aristide is a keen photographer so as you could imagine we got on really well. But the best thing was he told us that he had seen the Northern Lights over the past few days, and we could see them possibly in the next few days. It would be between 12 and 2 in the morning (ouch!) and we have to look a bit south as we are so far north. He is sure we will see them before we leave northern Norway..very excited with that news. So enjoyed meeting and chatting with all these people

They were heading off and not staying the night, but two more campers pulled in so we are not alone! The northerly wind has got up and although it is 10 degrees outside, really don’t want to poke my nose out as it is bitterly cold. Ian went out and did a bit of fishing, piled on the merino’s and the hat and trou but no luck. Nice and toasty inside though. So here’s hoping for a Northern Light show…if I wake up!

Sorry, lots of scenery shots, but can’t help myself and guess it will be the same for a while.And 3 more tunnels today!

Sinfully delicious at the bakery in A

Some jobs just have to be done!

White sandy beaches....quite a surprise to see, but nowhere to camp nearby.

Fellow travellers

Aristide and Svana lit a fire and cooked up some dinner.

Needed the red wine to thaw out after a little spell of fishing.