Lofoten – Just Beautiful

After a spectacular drive from Sweden we arrived in Narvik in northern Norway.  A picturesque town nestled deep in the surrounding fjords whose major attraction was a rather good war museum dedicated to the battle of Narvik and it’s 5 year occupation by the Nazis.

We then headed further north for Tromso.

There is discussion in the deer family as to which is a moose, elk or reindeer and as the only one I know has a flying squirrel for a friend, I’m going with moose in the below picture.

After unsuccessfully trying to find somewhere to park in Tromso that wouldn’t leave us bankrupt we headed out of town for 20 minutes and found the below campsite for free.

One of the features of driving around Scandinavia is seeing first hand some marvelous engineering structures in the various tunnels and bridges we cross, in Tromso there were even tunnels with roundabouts in them.  While most felt safe and very roomy, in the remote areas you can often encounter very dim and narrow cave-like tunnels with no road markings.  These are especially fun when a vehicle bigger than yours comes from the opposite direction.

By this point we had already reached our most northerly point of this (or any) trip and were deep inside the arctic circle but so far the weather had been mostly rain with heavy clouds.  We were told the Lofoten Islands, an archipelago jutting out from northern Norway, receives about 8 days sunshine a year but as we approached the clouds parted and the warm, bright sun finally arrived.

Deb was hoping we would get a chance to see the midnight sun but as it happened the bloody thing wouldn’t disappear for the next week.

While Norway in it’s entirety is wonderfully scenic nothing we’ve seen matches the dramatic landscapes of the Lofoten.

It seems Australia isn’t the only country boasting oversized, kitschy landmarks.

Went whale watching in Andenes and came across a pod of about 6 Orcas.

Some of the fishing villages in the Lofoten are reinventing themselves as tourist destinations by converting the old fishermen’s huts into accommodation and installing museums and exhibits as well as offering a variety of boat trips and excursions to local attractions.

We spent our last night in the Lofoten at Skagsanden Beach, a lovely place but no surf.

Now the journey is heading southward again and am looking forward to a different landscape back on the mainland bound once again for Oslo.