Campsite experience on the Lofoten Islands (22.02.-24.02.2021)

Drive to Fredvang

We leave the DNT Cabin quite early as we need to do a big grocery shopping, have a long drive ahead of us, and want to prepare the food for the camping trip in the evening.

The groceries for six people cost us 200€. We drive all day on the E10, the only major road on the Lofoten Islands. As soon as you leave it, you feel like you're at the end of the world.

Some may think I'm crazy, but the landscape changes as soon as you're on the Lofoten Islands. The mountains become steeper and the sea rougher. The further you follow the E10, the more beautiful the scenery becomes and the smaller the fishing villages. Along the way, we also see stockfish for the first time (air-dried fish, usually cod, hung on wooden racks).

The road leads us through tunnels and over bridges. Shortly before our destination near Fredvang, the roads become narrower and you have to drive even more cautiously than you already do. We often wait at passing places to let the oncoming traffic pass, as the roads are simply too narrow.

Preparations for the camping trip

In the evening, we arrive at our beautiful cabin for the night. The house is right on the fjord and built on stilts.

The self-planned camping trip is part of the study program and includes 3 days/2 nights in nature.

We unload everything and start preparing our food. We cook quinoa, mix oats with nuts and raisins, and exchange cans for plastic bags.

On the last evening, there is an argument in our group because one person thought they should decide for everyone.

Our landlord said that we should not do our planned hike as it is too dangerous. We originally wanted to do a hike to Ryten and then hike to Kvalvika beach the next day. As it had been raining almost continuously in the past few days, the snow conditions had changed and the avalanche risk was level 2. The next morning, we had a meeting with Bina, a native German who knows the region where we wanted to hike well.

She also advised us not to do the hike to Ryten and Kvalvika. After we had decided to sit down again and work out a new route plan, our landlord came back and said that Kvalvika is actually doable without any problems, as a friend had been there just a few days earlier.

With the different opinions of the locals and our own six opinions, we sat down and talked.

The new plan was to do a simple 1.7 kilometer hike to a small beach, stay there overnight, and then attempt to see Kvalvika on the second day.

After putting on our rain gear, we started a hike through deep snow, sinking waist-deep in some places. We also climbed over rocks and scree, hoping not to fall off at a steep spot.

After about 2 hours, we arrived at Mulstøa Beach, where we set up our tents.

First, we settled in, then Luca, Sara, and I took a short walk, and then we cooked. After a toothbrushing party in the rain, we went to sleep.

At 11 p.m., it started to storm and the rain got heavier. The tent pegs came loose from the ground and it felt like the tent was about to collapse on us. At seven in the morning, we heard the pots clattering, so I got up to put all the pegs back into the ground, as the entire awning had come loose.

After securing the pegs for at least the next 10 minutes, I went back to sleep for a short while.

With the others, we discussed what to do, as we had three options: 1. spend the day at the same spot and sleep another night there, 2. go back and cancel, or 3. go back and continue as planned. To make a decision, we checked the weather forecast and tried the dangerous part of the trail without heavy backpacks.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast was not good, as it was supposed to rain all day and the wind was expected to increase even further.

Together, we decided to cancel the trip and hike back to the cars. After a quick breakfast, we started packing everything up. While taking down the tent, one tent pole broke as the wind ripped the tent out of our hands. The girls from the other tent lost a pot as they had put it outside in the evening to collect rainwater ;)

The way back was much easier than expected, as we could walk in the tracks we made on the way there and thus save some energy.

Back at the car, we took off all our wet clothes and drove to Ramberg to warm up in a café.

Then we called our landlord in Å i Lofoten and asked if we could come a day earlier. As that was no problem, we drove even further to the end of the Lofoten Islands. In Å, we had a small beautiful house right by the water, where we tried to dry our tents and clothes.

Once everything was hanging up, we put on our rain gear again and walked to the end of the Lofoten Islands on foot (you can go even further, but not in winter and only on foot).

In the evening, we had a game night and then went to bed.

In the following days, we had the opportunity to experience the weather of the Lofoten Islands.

In the next post, we will talk about the drive from Å back to Tromsø.

Until then, stay healthy.

Yours, Maike :D