Lofoten & Vesterålen

[ArcticMatt]

Hello,


We've just got back from a week travelling through the amazing Lofoten and Vesterålen archipelago. Its easy for us lot as we live near Bodø where the ferry leaves for the very end of the Loften and saves us the thousands of kms travel from the UK. Don’t let this put you off if you do plan on coming.


We took the ferry over from Bodø to Moskenes which was about 910NOK with one passenger and under 4s are free (the driver is always included with the price of the van). The ferry was brand new and the facilities are brilliant.


We spent 3 nights at Fredvang camping just north of Reine, which was a handy base for that area of Lofoten. It was only 210NOK per night and there was loads of space. We met this couple from Manchester in a brand new T6 conversion who just blasted all the way up in three days and were amazed how beautiful it was.


We spent a night at Eggum beach which charges 100NOK to stop the night there. There was no showers but you had full use of the café toilets. It was a short walk to the Sculpture at the end of the headland which was part of the Nordland Skulpturlandskap project which let each Kommune have their own sculpture.


We wild camped before the ferry from Fiskebøl to Melbu which take you over to the centre of Vesterålen (which I think is better in some ways than Lofoten). This was the old main route into Lofoten by road before they complete the main E10 road from Gullesfjord. This takes you over to Stokmarkenes where the Hurtigruten museum is and then onto Sortland (the blue city) where a local artist pursued the town to paint a lot of the buildings in certain shades of blue. We’ve also spent a lot of time in Sortland before as my partner has a public art installation in the towns Kulturfabriken which is still hanging pride of palce in the foyer.


Hope it might inspire some you guys to travel up

 

[ArcticMatt]

Arctic Sun by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

 

[ArcticMatt]

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

 

[ArcticMatt]

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

 

[ArcticMatt]

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

 

[Ignazio]

WOW!

 

[briwy]

Nice pics Matt. We're leaving for Hook of Holland Friday night so should be up there in about two/three weeks time.
Hope we get weather as good as you.

 

[ArcticMatt]

Nice pics Matt. We're leaving for Hook of Holland Friday night so should be up there in about two/three weeks time.
Hope we get weather as good as you.

Ignore any weather forecast at the moment because every day for the last 2 weeks has been wrong!

 

[Deskman]

The views look familiar. The only problem I encountered after getting back behind the desk was that it seemed harder than every other trip I made to ignore all the noise and get back to work again. Cold turkey Lofoten-free-views.

(Your links to the flickr-pages are private - is that to save me from an overdose?)

 

[Hotel California]

Great shots ....convices me even more i live in the wrong part of europe...

 

[theonecraw]

Love your storage box on the bike rack. Finally a good use for those clothes dryers everybody seems to have.

 

[SheffieldSteel]

amazing photos Matt. Cant wait to get there...should be around the 1st August.

 

[briwy]

Ignore any weather forecast at the moment because every day for the last 2 weeks has been wrong!

Thank Matt. That's reassuring as the forecast looks pretty crap at present.

 

[ArcticMatt]

Love your storage box on the bike rack. Finally a good use for those clothes dryers everybody seems to have.

Cheers. Its a little scabby but its dead handy. Im trying to not use it as much so we get to use it for bikes but its hard to fill it full of crap. I wanted to spray it at some point so its not so ugly.

 

[sapto]

Thanks Mat! As always great pics and gives me/us kind of a chance to travel along with you!

 

[ArcticMatt]

This was the route we took on Google Maps

https://drive.google.com/open?id=18urRFwLS_3zYgmhct0ScbB_qp58&usp=sharing

 

[Deskman]

How do you record your trips? I have a nav app on my phone, a diary app, a (dead) geotagging thingy but I seem to forget about tracking while traveling (this time caused by the views).

 

[ArcticMatt]

How do you record your trips? I have a nav app on my phone, a diary app, a (dead) geotagging thingy but I seem to forget about tracking while traveling (this time caused by the views).

I just go onto google maps and you can create your own maps if you have a +++++ or google account. You just plot a load of points as one layer and then you can create a route on other layers and it does all the route calculation for you. I did buy a 2nd hand GPS tracker a few years back off ebay but I found this much better as long as you have a good memory.

 

[Loz]

How do you record your trips? I have a nav app on my phone, a diary app, a (dead) geotagging thingy but I seem to forget about tracking while traveling (this time caused by the views).

I use motionX on the iPad/iPhone as it records a route and has mapping for on and off road.

 

[Deskman]

I'm using Pocket Earth on the iPhone / iPad. You can track, add points and plan routes. And most important: you can download (parts of) maps for offline use. Maps are from Open Street Map. But I tend to forget to record my trips and I did not find a nice workflow to keep track of the small roads. And sometimes it's really hard to geotag my images shot on those 'forgotten places'.

https://500px.com/deskman

 

[ArcticMatt]

Aye Ive got ViewRanger with all the maps for Norway and Sweden (they take up quite a lot of space) and I use them if im out walking. I tried to use it for this purpose but I got bored faffing around with it and I found it more fun after to plot it on google maps later on. I love maps. Id rather read a map than a book.

 

[Deskman]

Maybe I shouldn't track my trails at all...
Most of my maps have lots of arrows, circles, dots and notes. And tape. Except for the expensive Nordeca maps which are printed on Tyvek and are undestructable - but als hard to write on.

 

[zeratul]

What type of storage bag is it that you have on the VW bike rack? Looks decent

 

[ArcticMatt]

What type of storage bag is it that you have on the VW bike rack? Looks decent

It's a fiamma box but not sure on the size. It needs a respray as the top is peeling like a bald Brit in Benidorm! Trying to not use it as much so we can take the bikes though.

 

[Sp0_0k]

Weve hit Andoya and Langoya, now to southern islands (Vestvagoy). Avoiding all E-roads and doing huge slow circles through villages and wilderness.
Had a funny hike relying on my gps tracking maps. Almost got lost and had to backtrack.