Ships and helicopters!

Saturday 21 September 2019

0924hrs

Up at 6 to the sound of sleeting on the van roof. Looked out of the window to discover I had camped next to a large ship. It doesn’t look like fishing boat but it is working at something. 

Honestly, it wasn’t there when I went to bed!!!

After breakfast set off to photograph the mountains just up the road, looking moody with sleet and cloud. 

Super landscape to spend the night in

Drove past Sjøtun and got a picture of a house with a fishing boat and the mountains behind. Looked typical Norway. 

Just so Norwegian.

Then continued in the direction of Sommarøy island. Stopped in a rest area just before the bridge to get some panos of bridge and nearby islands. 

Such beautiful modern bridges

1020hrs

A bit of excitement when an air ambulance landed at the Sommarøy Hotel together with a road ambulance. Patient taken away by road. 

Brought back a few memories of a previous career

Brought back a few memories

With the excitement over I headed south to a small bay and got pics of the distant snow covered mountains of Kvaløya   

1130 

Took some shots from under the Sommarøy bridge with boat passing under, but the light was rubbish so they’ll probably go in the bin.

During planning about 6 months ago, I had seen a place called Oteren and I decided now would be the time to go there as it is more or less on the way to Lofoten and I’ve decided that I will spend a few more days exploring the Lofoten islands before I begin the journey south. 

1500

I can’t find anywhere to park the van to get good shots of the mountains around Oteren, so I’m going to find a place to stay for the night and make some detailed plans for the rest of road trip. 

1630

I’m now back at a place I camped at about 4 weeks ago called Lullefjellet Naturreservat at Skibotn just off the E6. It’s in a forest, surrounded by high mountains and very quiet. This’ll do! 

The best cinnamon buns in the world!

Tuesday 10 September 2019

(Most of this post written by FIONA Illingworth, whilst enjoying her well deserved holiday with me here in Norway)

We spent a peaceful night, along with a number of other miscreants in a range if mobile homes, camper vans and tents in a place where it says “no camping”. There are Germans, French, Spanish and Italians here. The large group of French young people played volleyball on the beach. We thought they might be rowdy later on but not a bit of it.

The weather looks good this morning but it is due to rain later. So our plan is to have breakfast and then set out for Myrland.

2.50 pm
Bitty day stopping at lots of places. Watching surfers at Unstad. Called into Unstad Arctic Surf for coffee and very expensive cinnamon bun in the cafe. Very nice place. Gorgeous buns! £21! Their tag line is “The world’s best cinnamon buns!” I think they’re right 😁

Definitely the world’s best cinnamon bun!

On the way back southward we called in to a beach we missed near Flakstad. Just stopped to take mist over the mountains and some cormorants. Hoping they would spread their wings but no joy.

The beach at Flakstad is right next door to a carpark and loo we’ve used before. The waves here are pretty good … hard to believe that surfers would find the cold bearable but they seem to think it is worth it.

6.25 pm
We have driven down a small road to Nesland, which feels like it is at the end of the world. We were hoping to camp her overnights get but the place we are parked up (and where we had had dinner) is not the best. We are on a slight slope and even with the wedges under the rear tyres we are still sloping downward. It is a shame but I do agree that it is a bit precarious and we don’t have any kind of view. So it looks like we will move once we have had our coffee and a John has downloaded his photos.

After coffee we moved to a fantastic spot just down the road and having got the van all set up we were treated to the most gorgeous evening sky lighting up the fjord. We were perched on top of a cliff and the view was just tremendous.

What a place to spend the night and what a glorious evening sky we had.

We have driven around much of the Lofotens in the past 4 days. Given the weather, we have probably not spent as much time in some places as we might have. We are wondering if it might make sense to explore somewhere different in my last week. I would be up for that but the big question is where? I have no idea about where we should be going. John thought we would take much longer to drive down to the bottom of the islands; he hasn’t got a plan B in his back pocket. So we are looking at an empty canvas. The danger is that we will waste this time and neither of us want that. So it’s not an easy choice!