On the 4 hour ferry crossing we met a German (Arne) who is riding sections and camping all the way to Nordkapp (northern most tip of Europe). Really intersting guy who works in TV and has interviewed people from the Queen to Harrison Ford.

We were planning to walk the 5km from the ferry at Moskenes (Lofoten) to the hostel at Å but the rain convinced us to take a taxi. We dumped our packs at the Stockfish museum (our ‘hostel’) and took a stroll around town. We were supposed to have had a room to ourselves with a sea view but another traveller had taken our room so we had to settle for sticking our head out the window to get our sea view.

Å (pronounced “Or” ) is a tiny old fishing village turned tourist attraction. Countless rows of drying cod provide the occasional fishy wiff. Most are exported to Italy. It took 15mins to wander around ‘town’ and of course – the general store, resturant and fishing museums were closed.

Arne was planning to camp in Å but ended up at the Stockfish Museum with us as the campground was not open (thankfully). He was kind enough to invite us for sups. Two huge bowls of soup and pasta never tasted so good. We would have been feasting on half a packet of peanuts without him. We are eternally grateful.

BTW. The sun sets around 23h30 now. So there is no ‘night’, just dusk and dawn for a few hours. Freaky !

Travel Tip

There are NO cash machines in Å. The closest is 10km away in Reins. Everyone takes cards, but will not let you draw cash. This was a problem for us because the hostel’s card machine was not working so the owner had wiped us out of all our cash. Thankfully the Nor-express bus to Svolvaer takes cards.

– Posted from my iPhone

I was greeted with a sunrise and street sweeping truck at 3:30. Our plan was to head out to the worlds most powerful maelstrom (whirlpool) some 30km outside town… But… Today is the Norwegian eqvalent of the US 4th of July (without the fireworks) so again, everything was closed along with the busses and car rental agencies. The only option was an insanely expensive taxi. A brief consultation with my boet (a more experienced traveller) and we decided to skip it and take in the pomp and ceremony of the national day parade in Bodø. When I say parade; The entire town got dressed up in traditional clothing or their smartest spring outfits and marched into town mixed with marching bands and drummies of varying degrees of competance.

We had our first bit of rain as we headed for the ferry to Moskenes. Our mood was sinking and the thought of peanuts and 3 cups of tea (without milk) for supper was not helping.

– Posted from my iPhone