Senja, the Lofoten Islands, Saltstraumen. Days 6 to 11

So, on July 22, 2016, we woke up in a place called Birtavarre, packed up, and headed toward the Lofoten Islands. On the way we planned to visit Senja, an island about 250 km away. As usual, the drive took a very long time because we kept stopping to admire the views. Another thing that delayed us every two or three days was that we stopped on the road to cook a proper meal. Before cooking, we would stop by a supermarket, usually Rema 1000, and buy salmon for about 400 rubles per 400 grams. The fish was tasty and boneless, and when we were hungry we could finish it all with soup in one go.

We also bought a lot of raspberries and blueberries, which by local standards were not terribly expensive, about 250 rubles for 100 grams. And of course we bought a lot of chocolate and ate it on the road, though that was no longer healthy eating. One thing to remember: on Sundays almost all shops in Norway are closed, so buying anything becomes unrealistic. We got into that situation once and had to go hungry and use up our reserves.

Once we reached Senja, it was one beautiful place after another.

According to the plan, in the evening we were supposed to take a ferry to another island, Andoya. I had not booked it in advance, I just knew the timetable and wanted us to make it. In the end we got so carried away by the sights of Senja that we missed the ferry. And when we arrived at the departure point, we realized there was probably a long queue there anyway, because the ferry did not run often. Once we understood that, we drove the long way around in our own car to reach Andoya. It took a long time, and it had already started getting dark. We were beginning to lose hope of finding any proper place for the night when we came across a campsite that was still open, at 11:30 p.m. A little girl was sitting at reception. She woke up her mother, who took the payment and handed us the key to a cabin. She also gave us two free shower tokens. In Norway, showers are almost never free, and there is usually a machine that gives hot water only in exchange for coins. On average, four minutes of hot water cost about 80 rubles.

After spending the night there, we left early in the morning and headed toward Andoya. The weather was good. But as we approached the island, fog started pouring in from the ocean. In some places it was there, in others it was not. In the end, almost our entire visit to the western coast of that island took place in fog.

Still, there were some parts of the island the fog had not reached yet. The mountains kept it out, though in some places the fog managed to sneak through gaps.

Later I read that whales can sometimes be seen off the western coast of this island. We did not see any, of course, but my girlfriend said she noticed something moving in the water through the fog.

Then we continued on. The next goal was the Lofoten Islands, and we had not booked any hotel or cabin there. We hoped to find somewhere either unofficially or on the go. Then the rain started, and the fog thickened so much that it became hard to see the road. As usual, I searched for campsites through MapsWithMe, and we tried our luck at the ones it showed. In the first campsite all the cabins were occupied. We drove to the next one, where the campsite owner's wife turned out to be Russian. She told us that all their cabins were booked months ahead, and that it was the same everywhere on the Lofoten Islands. She offered us a tent spot instead, which we accepted reluctantly. The only free place was on the lawn right outside their house window. It was the first night of the whole trip when we were forced to sleep in a tent, though the good part was that a tent pitch cost less than a cabin, 200 NOK, about 1,800 rubles. The price also included access to a kitchen, toilets and showers, though the shower itself still required coins. So we ended up settling there for several days. Before that we had never stayed anywhere for more than one night. But here I understood that it was impossible to see everything in a single day, and besides, the forecast for the next day was poor. So we spent three days on the Lofoten Islands. One day was rainy, the second was average, and the third was good. But every day, by the end of the day, fog rolled in from the sea. The manager even said that we had arrived at the right time, because the day we came was their first day of summer, which meant the weather had finally become at least reasonably good.

Over those days we covered all the sights on our own list, plus some that the manager recommended.

We spent those three days in a tent like this:

Sleeping in it was fine overall, but of course that would have been impossible without good sleeping bags. Once I even managed to talk them into giving us free electricity to the tent so we could charge all our devices. There were mishaps too. One evening I forgot to place my boots under the tent vestibule and left them standing where I had kicked them off before jumping into the tent. By morning they were completely soaked.

The last day on the Lofoten Islands is what I remember most. We walked a lot that day. In the morning we nearly climbed to the top of a steep mountain. The route was difficult both up and down. We made it to a certain viewpoint and did not go any farther.

Then we got into the car, visited a few easier points, and by the end of the day reached another place where you had to walk a lot and jump across rocks.

After three days we packed up the tent, by then already ready to keep sleeping in it later in the trip, and headed along the Norwegian coast. As the campsite manager had told us, if you want to keep moving down the western coast of Norway, sooner or later you have to put the car on some ferry. There were several options. One was to sail from the village of A, which is almost at the end of the Lofoten Islands, but that ferry is expensive and the wait can be long. The other option is to take the ferry from Lodingen to Bognes, which is both cheaper and faster. That is what we did. It rained almost the whole day, and it stopped only when we reached our next point, the Saltstraumen whirlpools. In fact, Saltstraumen is a narrow strait connecting the ocean and a fjord, where tides and currents occur roughly twice a day. The schedule is known a month ahead and can be found online. We drove fast to make the evening current, but ended up missing it by about 30 minutes. So we decided to check into a cabin or a hotel. After three days in a tent, we wanted some comfort, but could not find anything cheaper than 10,000 rubles per night, which got us a huge cottage.

It stood on the shore of a lake.

That evening we washed up, warmed ourselves, and went to bed. The next morning we had to get up early to catch the morning current. Since it was around 6:30, we needed to wake up at 5 a.m.