Seventeenth day

Sørvagen - Smorten (about 30km before Svolvær)

107km

19.3 km/h average speed

Plenty of wind, very little sun, many clouds, sporadic drizzle

Strong wind from northeast to northwest, half headwind, half tailwind, overall very challenging

Of course it had rained during the night, not bad but enough to make the tents wet. As always when it rains and I'm in the tent, I don't have much motivation to get up. That's why it took until shortly after nine o'clock for us to set off. Although it kept misting, the day didn't look too bad. The sun managed to break through the clouds from time to time. Unfortunately, the mountain peaks were still covered in clouds, just like the evening before. Our first destination was 4km south in Å. There was a small village bakery specializing in cinnamon rolls. Not cheap, but VERY delicious. From now on it was back north, or rather northeast. The landscape was quite extreme. Here at the southern tip, the Lofoten seemed to consist only of steep mountains. There is water almost everywhere, either there are lakes between the mountains or fjords that go so far between the mountains that they look like lakes, or as channels cut through the island(s). And we followed the base of the mountains and the shores on the country road. The water shimmered blue to turquoise. This is due to the snow-white sand shimmering between the rocks and the seaweed. Sometimes the white sand can also be admired as a beach. But nobody is swimming today, with temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius and the strong wind it is perceptibly cold.

Just before Leknes, the road went nearly 2km below the sea. I've decided that I don't like these tunnels. Noisy, stale, and steep. And at the North Cape there is a sea tunnel over 6km long waiting.

After Leknes, we no longer followed the E10 but took a slightly less busy road along the south coast. Depending on whether we were driving into or out of a bay, we fought against the headwind or let ourselves be pushed by the tailwind. In the end, it was a game of zero-sum. We had 95km and I was longing for a campsite. But either the coast was too rocky, the meadows too wet, or so exposed that we would be blown away. We had already agreed on the campsite south of Kleppstad (another 15km) when we discovered a decent spot near the road. The evening was very short. Cooking, eating, washing up, brushing teeth, and into the warm sleeping bag. I'm still waiting for my feet to warm up, but I'm quite optimistic about it. It's quarter to nine now, I'm dog tired and as soon as the pictures are uploaded, I'll doze off. Maybe we'll have a night without rain today (21:15, it's raining :))