Norway: traveling to Lofoten and arriving in Sørvågen

Lofoten is the North pin, Oslo is the most Southern pin, and where I was kayaking is the South Western pin. The blue dot is where I am writing the first half of this post as the ferry departs Bodo for Moskenes!

Today I took the ferry from Bodo to Moskenes to start my Lofoten adventure! I’ll spend the next 12 days making my way from Sørvågen to Reine, Flakstad, and Leknes. Only 25,000 people live in the Lofoten Islands so I’m expecting pretty small towns and for it to be quite rugged. Fun fact – the Lofoten Islands are in the Arctic Circle but has one of the world’s largest higher temperature anomalies with the Gulf Stream bringing warmer waters and preventing the sea around the archipelago from freezing fully during the winter.

Arctic Circle – also, I’m more North than Iceland right now?! How wild!

I’m taking the bus between towns and spending 2-4 nights at each stop in a hotel, with the exception of Flakstad where I’m camping for one night at a surf camp. My plan is to just do day hikes and kayak trips using the hotels as my base – I have too large of a luggage bag to backpack around, and the hotels will be a warm, cosy place to come back to every night. The weather here is significantly cooler than what I’ve had the last few weeks, around 10c but definitely feels colder by the ocean, the wind is wild!!

My Lofoten destinations – will start Southwest and make my way East

The ferry was fun, definitely wavy in a rollercoaster kind of way with the sea spraying over the front of the boat (I was wondering why there was no outdoor passenger area on the front of the boat!). When I got off the ferry I caught the bus to my hotel and explored the town. The scenery here is fucking insane! It is so beautiful and unlike anything I’ve ever seen, it’s like Jurassic Park meets cold rough ocean meets Scottish Highlands meets small fishing village. I brought a tea down to the ocean and looked for whales (sadly none) then hiked around a lighthouse and took in the views. For dinner I had a tasting menu of ceviche, cod tongue (it was so delicious holy crap), stockfish (arctic cod that they hang to dry), local cheese on a tart, and creme brule. It was $110 Canadian so not cheap, but one of the best tasting menus I’ve ever had and got to try local foods at a bougie little restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Off to a fantastic start!!