Lovely Lofoten

the fjord near Sortland 360 km E10

The Vesterålen and Lofoten are not as rugged as the northern provinces like Finnmark we had just passed. Their geographical position is still above the arctic circle, but because of the warm gulf-stream, the nature is much kinder and less rough than the real north. The rocky fields are suddenly replaced by nice patches of grass with plenty of flowers along the side of the road.

The Lofoten's main source of income is nowadays probably tourism. But the fact that originally fishing was more important then farming can be felt everywhere. Plenty of sheep around, but not much real farming. Which makes the nature less tempered with and therefore more pure. To close the circle, that is again helping its position as a touristic attractive area.

Many combinations of fishing and tourism are created. Whale watching is popular, cabins are suddenly rented out as fisherman's huts and naturally a lot of fish on the menu. Buying it in the supermarket is sometimes more difficult, but at other moments you are lucky, as happened to us in Laukvika, where a professional sport fisherman staying on the same camping had caught too much cod needed for his own family, which provided us with a nice fish-soup of the freshest sea-fish (2 hours old) we have ever had in the pan.

gridroad on Vågan .

What happens on many days here in the North, is that the route is fully determined by the availability of campings and shops. Often they are more then 50 km apart and not all just along the main road. Sometimes this is a nuisance, but at other times lucky findings are the result. On Vågan we had to make a detour to reach a camping in time, which brought us on an unexpected grid-road. But combined with the nice weather this became such a beautiful experience that the pot-holes were quickly forgotten and the only problem was the remaining amount of film in the camera.

The eighth of July was for us an eventful day. On the 16th day of Fra Kapp A Cabo we passed the barrier of the first thousand kilometers. We really don't know how many still have to follow to arrive at Gibraltar. Can be five, can be seven. But the first Mm is done.

the first 1000 km one of the many tunnels

On our last day on the Lofoten, the Gods were not with us, because the rain was pouring the whole night and day. That meant packing the tent while wet, etc. But on our way to the ferry to Bodø, we passed by this fishing village called Hamnøya. And it even provided us with hot coffee and a salmon sandwich from the leftovers of the hotel-guests' breakfast. Lucky us. But even after this warming-up we decided to leave the visit to the village Å (yes, that is the full name) at the end of the E10 for a next visit to Norway and take a boat earlier. Which finally appeared to be the right decision, because when arriving in Bodø at two in the afternoon, we got one of the last hotel-rooms. Again, lucky us ...