As soon as we put a foot on the Lofoten islands, it felt
good. Things kept being better and better. First, we decided to stretch our
legs after our three hour-ferry ride from Bodø to Moskenes in the picturesque
fishing village of Å (pronounced “Oh”). At 5pm everything was shut and quiet,
but it was a nice to walk and take pictures of all the deep-red painted wooden
huts or “rorbuer” dotted around the harbour.
Hamnøy
Breaking the silence were only a few fishermen near the
pier. As we were heading out of the harbour, one of the fishermen waved at us
shouting “Fish!”. It took us a few seconds to react. I stereotypically or
judgmentally said to Jamie; “Let’s negotiate if they want to sell us some
fish.” How presumptuous of me... as they only meant to actually give us some
freshly caught fish!
Me, very happy with our find!
Indeed, they were a group of German lads who’d been on a
week fishing trip on the islands and were now packing up everything. But, they
couldn’t fit all their readily frozen and vacuum-packed pieces of fish in the
few polyester containers they had. So we were told to “Take it all!” – Jamie
and I looked at each other with a big grin on our faces – we couldn’t believe
our luck! We took four big packets; one to eat the same evening and hoped the
rest would fit in our small freezer compartment (It did!). We had a nice chat and they even showed us
around their rorbuer – we told them we wanted to hire one too for our wedding
anniversary.
Jamo, very happy too!
The next good thing was meeting a lovely young German couple
who were both travelling for the last leg of their Summer break before
returning to University in Munich. Jenny and Andy were staying in the Moskenes campsite like us. We’d decided to camp for the night so we could use the
campsite’s dryer following our misadventure in Bodø!
Moskenes Camping
As I went back to pick up our drying laundry, I realised
that there were still a lot of time left on the timer (as usual, it was a coin
automated dryer), so I asked Jenny and Andy who happened to be sat in the
kitchen (the dryer was in a laundry closet by the kitchen) and asked them if
they’d like to use the rest of it. They took me on the offer and that’s how we
ended up chatting for a good 40mins whilst Jamie was making dinner!
Waking up slowly...
Part of me felt bad I’d left Jamo for so long, but it was so
lovely to talk to others, especially like-minded people. We talked about
everything and anything; about travelling, Norway, university, Germany, what we
were doing etc. We could have chatted all night, but I also knew that if Jamo
hadn’t come out, it was certainly because he wasn’t in his usual sociable mood
– how would he not have missed an opportunity to speak to somebody who’d
studied in Yorkshire otherwise?! Jenny and Andy had been on the same ferry as
us and Jamie had spotted straight away Jenny’s sweatshirt; it had the Hull
university logo on. After driving and being on the ferry for a while, he just
wanted to chill out, eat a nice "motorhome-cooked meal" and watch some cheeky and
X-Factor.
Jamo's amazing "motorhome-cooked meal"
We set off in the morning on our search for a rorbuer. It
took us a while to find one. By then, we also knew I’d be going (scuba) diving
in Ballstad on Saturday 21 September. We’d originally thought we’d stay in a
fisherman’s hut from Tuesday night to Thursday and then wild camp near Ballstad
(an hour away from where we were). Well as all plans go sometimes, this one
didn’t happen, but for the best.
What happened first, is that we didn’t want to settle for
the cheapest, but not so nice rorbuer. For 690Kr (about £75) we wanted
something picturesque and cosy. We went to look at some near Ballstad, but it
didn’t feel right. Back to the van, it was getting late (4/5pm) , we kept
looking on our phone and decided to call the Eliassen rorbuer based in Hamnøy –
it meant to go back near where we’d stayed, but it was a lovely area.
I called and left a message on their answer phone asking for
a rorbuer for our wedding anniversary, and so if we could get an upgrade or
discount. I tried again a few minutes later and managed to speak to Agata. She
offered us an upgrade, we just needed to email her with our details and then
she’d come back with a few huts for us to choose from!
Welcome to our new home!
We were so excited and finally opened the door to our lovely
hut or what I would call a harbour cottage! This was going to be our “home” for
the next three nights – sorry Izzy (the Motorhome)! We’d just started feeling the cold a lot
more by then as well, so it really felt like a treat. Our “pimped-up wooden
hut” looked amazing inside out – wood everywhere so it gave this warm and cosy
feeling, but with modern touches such as a full kitchen unit including a huge
fridge/freezer and a dishwasher! The shower even had under floor heating – I
felt just like Skyler in Breaking Bad season 3 when she comments on what a
great invention it is walking barefoot in her bathrobe in Ted’s bathroom.
Staying there meant we could give Izzy a break and give it a
good clean too, even the fridge. For the next couple of days, we went for an
explore around the tiny village & harbour, tried our hands at fishing and
rowing... but didn’t even made it out in the tiny harbour because of the strong
wind and current – we laughed a lot as it really looked pathetic! And hiked up
Reinebriggen to get a view of Reine and Hamnøy – the climb was quite hard and
scary at times as we’d decided to go up on a rainy afternoon. Luckily it hadn’t
rained too hard, but the ground was wet and slippery; we just had to watch
where we were putting our feet. It was worth it though – the view at the top
was spectacular!
On top of Reinebriggen, feeling very little...
We thoroughly enjoyed sleeping on a double bed and indoors
for the first time in a month – it hadn’t been that long really... My usual
self wondered if we were being too luxurious and if we’d deserved it too?...
Well, I must have quickly forgotten about the latter. In the morning of what
should have been our last night, Jamie and I looked at each other with a cheeky
grin; we’d both thought about staying longer! Even though diving was an hour
away there and back, we agreed to stay another two nights and leave on Sunday.
I must admit that the decision didn’t come that easily. The
problem was diving on Saturday – getting to Ballstad an hour there and back
seemed too complicated and not fair for Jamie to have to drive me early there
in the morning and then back in the evening. He‘d be spending all day driving
rather than enjoying having some “me” time. Unfortunately I don’t feel
confident enough yet to drive Izzy on my own – I’ve only driven it three times
in the past couple of months – I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I had an
accident in it. Izzy’s not only our vehicle to transport us from point A to B,
but our home too.
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