Wendy enjoys some oatmeal and crunchy muesli w/ berries cereal for breakfast. Karl and Mariann loved this area, and plan to stay at Bunes for a longer stretch if/when they revisit Lofoten again...
Just spent the last hour looking for my journal notepad. Scoured all the bags and the car, but no luck. It's gotta be in there somewhere though. Not too happy it disappeared, but at least there's plenty of light to look for it. Using some scratch paper...
The birds were awfully loud last night at Bunes beach. Could have used earplugs, but had left them back in the car. Didn't sleep well, and it was tough to get up, but I rallied when I saw the clear blue skies above. It was nice and cool in the shade of the huge cliffs. Had been used to burning up inside the tent due to the early morning sun each day.
Wendy enjoys some oatmeal and crunchy muesli w/ berries cereal for breakfast. Karl and Mariann loved this area, and plan to stay at Bunes for a longer stretch if/when they revisit Lofoten again...
Close-up of my cereal/oatmeal mixture, as the tent is partially taken down. We left at 9am, and hiked back over the pass, down to the fjord...
We walked down the grassy, flower filled slope to Vindstad, and saw the boat arriving early at the ferry. We got on just in time as it left at 10am, 20 minutes before the scheduled departure time. It was evident that there were so many people wanting to take the ferry to Bunes, that the boat operater was making countless trips back and forth, rather than sticking to a schedule. There were just a couple other backpackers taking the morning boat back with us.
Once again, there were great views from the boat. In the first pic, the pass to Bunes is on the far left, with Helvetestinden (the peak we scrambled up) rising from the pass to the right. In the 2nd pic, we get a preview of the Reinebringen ridge hike we'll be doing tomorrow...
The first pic is a close-up of Reinebringen. We plan to hike up from the back side tomorrow. Man, Reine is so amazingly scenic...
Even though we were right next to the Reinebringen hike, we decided to push that out til tomorrow, since we already done some backpacking, and a big scramble last night. Fortunately the weather looked great for tomorrow too. As for where to camp tonight, we had all remembered seeing a cool looking campground on a beach near Ramberg, and unanimously decided we should camp there, possibly for multiple days as a home base. Before heading back up the archipelego, I proposed driving south for the final 12km of E10, to the town of A (actually "A" with a little circle on top, prounced "Oooh"), located at the south end the Lofoten. I also wanted to stop at nearby Moskenes, where we'd take a ferry to Vaeroy a few days later, and inquire about flexibility in reservations.
We found a campground next to the Moskenes ferry terminal, which we'd plan to stay at in a few days, and I was informed by the ferry officials that I should keep my original reservation for the car ferry, rather than attempt to travel stand-by some other time. We then drove down to A, and took a short walk out to a scenic vista point facing south.
The view from the southernmost accessible point of the Lofoten Archipelego, from the town of A. The island of Vaeroy lies on the left, a future destination for us...
A close-up of Vaeroy with my telephoto. Notice the fog building up on the north side. Karl spotted a cave in the rock cliff. Can you find it in the pic above? (look on the right side, just above the water)...
This area was very scenic, with lots of open terrain. Karl and Mariann wished that had checked out this place when they were looking for a place to camp two days ago. Several tents were scattered out of the way here...
We relaxed out here for awhile. It was a great location to sit and read a book, or just marvel at the beauty of Lofoten...
Wendy took some pics on the way back, of the fishing village A, on the left. Many houses on the islands had grassy roofs, which are good for insulation, and reflecting the heat of the sun...
More pics from the road as we returned to the ever scenic town of Reine...
We tried to have lunch at a restaurant in Wendy's guide book, but they were closed, so instead we stopped at busy fish market where Wendy had a salmon sandwich, and I had a shrimp salad in a cup. My lunch wasn't anything spectacular, but the views certainly were...
I also had to buy some dried cod (~$9 for the bag), since it was hanging everwhere on the islands, and seemed like a Lofoten thing to do. It was like fish jerky; tough and a little salty. Not bad, but took some work to chew up. Cod was hanging up to dry everywhere around here...
Wendy tempts a large dried fish. Lots of fish hanging from the rafters outside the market...
More dried fish around the premises. Kind of scary looking in these pics. Not sure what they do with all these heads...
Karl and Mariann had gone off to pack up their campsite near Nusfjord, and planned to meet up at the new campsite. After ~20 minute drive from Reine, we spotted the campsite by the white sand beach, and set up our tent along the perimeter of area, near the beach. The campground was ~$28/night, the most expensive we'd seen, but it was extremely pretty, bug free, and had good facilities. Soon K & M arrived, and set up their tent next to us. We then decided there was time for a short hike, and I proposed a couple of options near Fredvang, which was a ~15 minutes drive away. We could decide whether to take the easy walk along the shore to end of a peninsula, or climb a ~1000' mountain ridge along the same peninsula with a view down to Stokkvika beach. Both hikes started from the same parking area. When we arrived at 4:15pm, we flipped a coin, and fate led to the mountainous hike.
We followed instructions for the hike up the mountain, towards Stokvika beach, which meant finding a path ~.3 miles down the road from the parking area. I took some pics of some colorful houses on the way...
We found what looked to be the desired path leading up to the gentle ridge, but it was part of a farm's property. Still, this had to be it, so we walked up along the edge of the property, and came to a heavily tied off gate. This had to be wrong. We could see the trail on the other side of the fence, but had no access to it. So we retreated back to the road (see 2nd pic), and walked back to the parking area, planning to try the hike along the shore...
As we took a few steps on the trail, we saw a sign for "Stokvika", and a trail leading back in the direction we had just come from, but on the other side of the farm property. After some consideration, we decided to still make the climb up the mountain. Trail ascended steadily, with a good dirt surface. The 2nd pic looks back from where we parked...
Soon we reached the area behind the farm we had mistakenly hiked across, and followed the trail as it curved to the right, and headed up towards the ridge top. Fine views of the blue waters and white beaches below...
Once we reached the ridge top, the trail flattened, and we had wide views of the grassy ridge, and mountainous coast across the sea. This was turning into a much more scenic hike than I had anticipated...
We kept following the trail out along the ridge. It felt like this part of the hike was "free" given we had already put in the tough elevation gain. I heard my name being called anxiously somewhere, "Maaa-aaa--aaaht!", and looked down the ridge to see several sheep grazing...
We walked a ways out on the broad grassy ridge, but couldn't get a view of the beach below to the left. Karl and Mariann decided to head back, since there was little shade for Darwin, and he was getting hot (black fur attracts the sun). Wendy and I decided to keep walking further towards the end of the peninsula...
A look back at the grassy ridge, with the sun breaking through the clouds. Our campground tonight is somewhere along the beaches in the distance on the left side of the pic...
I was glad the coin landed on heads today, and we ended up on the mountain, despite a 35 minute wrong detour due to bad directions in the hiking brouchure. It ridge was peaceful, relaxing, and beautiful. And the frequent sheep calls added a "Scotland" atmosphere...
Wendy takes a pic of me taking pics from a high point...
We decided to check out the peak on the right as well. Wendy headed over there while I took some more pics, trying out my telephoto lens (see below)...
A couple of pics of the one-way bridges leading from E10 to Fredvang...
The sheep were gathered far from the trail, but their voices carried loud and clear across the ridge...
A handfull of trails crissed and crossed along the ridge, leading to various areas. Wendy takes a fork towards the far peak. At the summit, we found a small hut with 2 bunks, a table, and water cooler inside (but locked). It's pictured on the lower left of the 2nd pic...
There were no views of the beach from the top, and so we made our return back across the broad ridge. I cut over when we reached a low saddle, and caught a glimpse of the beach below. Not as impressive as the Bunes...
As we made our way back along the ridge, the clouds thickened, and I wondered if it might rain...
We made good time on the descent, reaching the small lake, before turn left, and descending back to the parking area...
During the last stretch, we felt raindrops, and hurried even more. Fortunately it didn't get worse than a sprinkle...
At the bottom, the rain had stopped, and so we made a short visit to the nearby sheep. Wendy would have made a great sheep herder back in the day (a shepardess?)...
After a few minutes with the sheep, we drove back to camp, ready for dinner. The clouds still ruled the skies, and some light rain started to fall. Wendy and I were thinking we'd have to head to the kitchen for dinner, but Karl and Mariann invited us into their huge lavo, that they had just finished erecting, which was big enough to house their tent, a table and 4 chairs. Amazing! It was a luxury to have a dry roof and table for dinner, during the first rain of the trip.
The view from inside K & M's lavo. It was surprisingly spacious, and welcomely dry from the light rain. Mariann got it for a good deal on a Norway ebay-like website. The table and chairs made for a quality late evening dinner (8:15pm)...
Wendy and I had canned "fiskeboller" (fish meatballs sort of), with some instant potatoes, bread, and tinned mackeral with salsa. K & M cooked pasta, and shared a pineapple with us for dessert...
By the end of dinner, the rain had stopped, which offered us a chance to explore the camp and beach. The lavo is impressive...
Wendy and I took a walk on the beach ~10:30pm. The clouds were thinning above the island, though still thick over the water. However the sun still managed to fight through the gap on the horizen. Some pics here with my ND grad filter and Lightroom touch-ups...
We brought the frisbee along, and played some toss before wandering further along the beach...
This beach was a lot smaller than Bunes, but still scenic and peaceful. A great place for a campground...
More pics of the sun along the edge of the clouds over the water...
We had been used to blue skies for so long, but the presence of clouds offered its own unique beauty. Only saw one jelly fish during my time in Norway. The beaches were mostly shell free as well. Just lots of smooth sand...
I snapped pics of the birds along the ocean. Pretty serene...
As 11pm neared, the sun was emerging from under the thinning clouds...
The mountain on the left in the 1st pic is where we hiked earlier this evening...
It looked like we might be seeing the midnight sun again tonight if conditions held another hour...
Wendy walks along the shoreline. It was exciting to have the sun back out again tonight...
A couple looks of our campsite at the edge of the grounds. Our site was furtherst from the busy parts, an ideal site located close to the beach and furthest from the road...
We got back to camp at 11:15pm, and it was time to check out the showers. 20 Nok for 6 minutes (~$3). I went first and managed a quick one, leaving 2 minutes of hot water left for Wendy (along with her 6 minutes). The sun was low on the horizen, and directly in my eyes when walking back to the tent. I can't find the journal, after spending tons of time searching the car and bags. It's now really late, and the birds are starting to squawk as I head to bed.
The midnight sun was visible tonight, despite the clouds. These pics were taken at 12:14am and 12:38am from camp, in the midst of me searching the car for my journal pad...