The day started early because I have a lot of driving to do. The plan is quite simple. I start in Harstad, drive down to Å at the southern tip og Lofoten and then work my way back to Harstad.

The Trip is 296 km one way and it is calculated to tak 4.5 hours one way. It was more. 🙂

I drove the E10 over the dark, already snowy passes towards the place where the Lofoten National Tourist Route starts. One goal today is to film the whole trip and upload the video to YouTube. I will link it in the blog as soon as I have worked on it. The drive through the night was slower than anticipated, since there are no lights, the road was ice at times and you had to watch out for animals crossing the road. I got lucky and saw to moose cross the road in front of me.

I think the trip took around 5,5 to 6 hours for me. I arrived at the most southern point i Å around 13:30 – and I had to pee. 😀

One goal again is a geocache per municipality and the caches were chosen before I traveled. On the way back to Harstad I had also some “must see” points and maybe a detour or two. To come with the conclusion right from the beginning – one day Lofoten is FAR from enough, And I bit more off than I could chew. I also – in retrospect – chose the wrong point to stay for a visit to Lofoten and Vesterålen. I should have picked a place in the middel, most likely at Svolvær to have a good starting point in all directions. And again… more time than a weekend.

One point I got as a recommendation was the beaches on Lofoten. There were two on the way where I did stop and take a small walk: Rambergstranden and Flakstad. There are much more, but not in my time constrains.

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The second lesson is, that Lofoten is something for the summer, not the late fall or winter. I was driving against the time because the sun would set early this far up north. And – even with the Corona and less traveling – most places were just dead. I saw a handful of foreign cars, but there were times where I wouldn’t see anybody.

Another stop – and a detour that was very rewarding – was at the historic fishing village of Nusfjord. Just beautiful. And then I think about all the tours left and right the main road that I missed. You have to have time to do that!

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I passed the “city” of Leknes and drove directly to the Lofotr Viking Museum. I had exactly one hour opening time left and also this came highly recommended. And it was worth every penny (a lot of pennies for an hour). The Viking long house was beautiful and they even had people there, explaining stuff about the life there. And it was only me in the museum. I was the last visitor. Late in the year they only have opened two days. A movie about the place and a small museum with a self-guided tour on your mobile phone. Also here an hour was not enough.

Last detour was Henningsvær, but dusk came fast and there was soon no more light to see anything. So unfortunately I didn’t take a tour around this village, that is so often featured for tourists – yeah, I am a tourist today.^^

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By the way, the drive is spectacular. I would love to do a tour on the fjords one day. And if you like mountains and climbing/hiking – it must be a dream for you. Not for me though. I stay at sea-level. 🙂

Just jump over the town of Svolvær – it is a normal Norwegian small town, nothing interesting in my opinion.

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Time to head back to Harstad. It is still a long drive. I take my stops where I need to find my caches, but otherwise my goal is clear – to get to my hotel. It is getting dark and on place I stop, switch of the headlights and it is pure blackness. No stars since it is cloudy.

Back at the hotel I am tired. This was a 16 hour trip, most of it driving. Even for me, who loves driving, always an audiobook on, this was to much. I am tired. And I think I will sleep in tomorrow and not do the other big drive.