04/08/06 - Moskenes to Fredvang.
We woke to a lovely clear sky and cycled down the E10 to the end of the road at Å. The road ends just after a short tunnel at a small car park where a lot of people were camping in amongst the undulating ground and rocks at the cliff edge. It looks like they are camping wild, but it is in fact a campsite purely for tents and it certainly has lovely views. While we were there an English guy came up and spoke to us, he was backpacking and was interested in our bikes and asked us if we had hired them as he was hoping to hire a bike with panniers. He seemed amazed that we had flown the bikes over.

Å village is a quaint old fishing village with many maroon painted Rorbu (wooden former fisherman’s huts now converted into accommodation). While we were at Å we went to the Lofoten 'StockFiske' museum which was very informative about how they make the stockfish. The owner is quite a character with an amazing grasp of languages, instantly swapping between English, German, Italian and Norwegian. Apparently he also spoke French and was currently learning Spanish. It was quite fascinating to learn how they made the stockfish and the owner was able to clear up some of questions about why their main importer was Italy and why the Seagulls didn't just eat the fish on the racks, apparently when the fish are drying on the racks from February till April the gulls have all flown south for the winter! We headed back north up the E10 to Moskenes with wonderful views of the mountains before coming upon Reine. This has been described as the prettiest view in Norway and they weren't wrong. The mountains aren't very high, but because they come straight of the fjords and they are very sharp and angular the scenery is very dramatic. The village sits at the mouth of three fjords and with the mountains behind making a wonderful back drop. There were some picnic benches by the little harbour which gave a good excuse for lunch with a spectacular view. In the little square by the harbour was a wet fish shop and we bought some Sei (Red fish) fillets for our tea, very cheap at 18kr (£1.64). If we hadn't just had lunch, we would also have been tempted with the fish soup they were serving! We had beautiful views along the road to Hamnø another small fishing harbour. Only after leaving Hamnøya did Frank say we have just managed to go 200m without us stopping to take a photo!

We stopped a little further on at a picnic spot to use the facilities and to have a quick drink. As we were about to set off a big coach turned up from the Czech Republic and parked. Loads of people poured out and started to off load kit, then to our amazement they started to put up tents on the concrete next to the picnic benches. Well it was not exactly wild camping and hardly very comfortable, but I suppose it was cheap camping! It was a good thing it was a very still night with no wind! The Germans in a parked camper van were probably hoping for a quiet night and looked on amazed as we were!

It was a lovely sunny evening as we carried on north up the E10, although it wasn't until we got to the Sundstraumen that we got out of the shadow of the mountains. As we cycled alongside the Selfjorden we saw in the distance the two high hump backed bridges that led over to Fredvang, They looked like two giant Stegosaurus dinosaurs and climbing up them with loaded touring bikes was the last sting in the tail as we were getting tired by then. We finally arrived at the campsite early evening and whilst cooking our evening meal we were treated to a wonderful sunset that cast a lovely pink glow on the mountains behind.

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05/08/06 - Fredvang to Storfjorden
We woke again to a lovely morning and after a good breakfast it was back over the two bridges, but they didn't seem so bad on fresh legs. It was hard work against the wind until the road turned to the west. At Ramberg which was only a few miles further on, we found there was a campsite which wasn’t marked on our map. We could have in fact gone on last night and needn't have gone over those bridges. There was a beautiful white sandy beach at Ramberg and there were lovely views all along the E10 around the Flakstadbollen fjord. It was an absolutely beautiful contrast of the white sand, wonderful blue of the water and the dramatic mountains as a backdrop. We would liked to have lingered longer but we had decided to take the the ferry from Nusfjord to Ballstad to avoid going through the tunnel that connected Flakstadøya to Vestvågøya and it left Nusfjord at 2.00pm so we had to get a bit of a riggle on so as not to miss it.

There was a fairly long climb up to the Storvatnet and the road just seemed to keep on going, however once at the top it did give us a good ride down to Nusfjor. We got to Nusfjor at 1.40pm and we were a little concerned that there would be no other takers for the ferry, but fortunately we did see another couple with bikes waiting on the quay. We just had a little bit of time to look around the village before the ferry was due. Nusfjor is one of the best preserved fishing villages and the Rorbu unlike most of the other villages are painted yellow rather than the usual maroon. When the ferry arrived it was nothing more than a small fishing boat and when it tied up to the jetty there was a good 12ft drop to the boat deck. We helped a group of girls unload their bikes, judging by their fancy dress attire, and jovial mood they were on a 'Girls behaving badly' cycle ride! Due to the large drop to the deck our only option was to unload the panniers from the bikes, scramble down a ladder and hand the bikes and bags down one by one. Unfortunately the Norwegian chap who was handing panniers down to me had his sun glasses tucked into the vee of his top and as he leant over they fell out into the water. He was quite philosophical about it when he realised that they were lost forever, ‘Oh well’ he said  ‘I needed a new pair’. Just as we were loading three German cyclists turned up, they had only just made it!

The boat trip took about 45mins and fortunately it was a calm crossing but with slightly disappointing views due to the low cloud that had pulled in. After the excitement of the loading arrangements at Nusfjor we wondered what was in store at Ballstad. It turned out to be floating pontoon which made it much easier to get the bikes off. When I went to the hotel to pay for the ferry the chap in the bar who took our payment (215kr per adult) had a good English accent and turned out to be from Staines and had a Norwegian girlfriend who was from the Lofoten isles.

We had arrived at the hotel amid a wedding party with the guests all in traditional dress. I asked one of the ladies if I could take a picture of her in her traditional dress, she kindly agreed and we ended up having a long chat about the Lofoten isles. She asked us if we would like to stay and watch the couple arrive by rowing boat at 5.00pm, this was kind of her but we thanked her kindly but explained that we needed to get on and get a few more miles under our belt.

We set off for Gradval and coming around a bend we met Patrick from Belgium coming up the hill. I didn’t recognise him at first as he was wearing a hat which was covering a very short haircut. Apparently after leaving us on the ferry he had a good ride up the islands and ended up at Utakleiv where he met a young lady from Leknes on the beach. She had invited him to stay for a while and he was just having a short day ride to have a look at  Ballstad. We had a long chat about all sorts of things. We hadn't realised that he also rode a Giant Expedition bike, so we had had a long chat about how pleased we had both been with them. Patrick was lamenting the fact that his original wheel rims had worn out and that he had had problems with broken spokes on his new wheels. He had to have them fixed at a bike shop near Borg. I showed him the problem that I was having with my tyre and he said the shop in Bøstad had a good range of replacement tyres. He was running on Swalbe Marathons which he had been very pleased with, as he put it ‘they had done a good few miles but still looked sexy’! He asked me how my back was as he was quite concerned. We must have nattered on for nearly an hour as we suddenly realised that it was getting near to 5 o’clock. We said our goodbyes and headed off up the 818 for Leknes.

Leknes like a lot of the new Norwegian towns is nothing much to write home about, so we found a supermarket to buy food for our evening meal and set off for the campsite at Storfjorden. Unfortunately the most direct route was up the 815 which was over a high col, so it was a bit of a slog up a main road, but a reasonable ride down the other side.

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06/08/06- Storfjorden
Woke up to the sound of rain on the tent, and after a quick look at the weather decided that the rain looked set in for the day. As it was Sunday and we were due a rest day that then was the order of the day and we spent the day washing clothes, reading and writing up the dairy. Fortunately for us the campsite had a very comfortable lounge with a TV and kitchen attached!

07/08/06 - Storfjorden to Knutstad
We woke to some sunshine on the tent the rains of yesterday seemed to have gone. We realised that we had made a bit of a mistake coming over to Storfjorden, as we had planned to go to the Viking Museum at Borg. It meant that we had to retrace our steps a bit back to Leknes. We decided that we might as well take the alternative cycle route via Sennesvika that we had decided against doing the day before yesterday. Although it was a longer route and reasonably flat at first there is a steep climb up from Sennesvika. The sunshine that we had earlier had gone and it had clouded over. It had started raining by then and there was a strong wind coming down the valley, which meant for quite a battle! I made the mistake of stopping half way up to take a picture of Frank coming up. The strong wind blew my bike off its stand and it was hard work trying to get going again. The ride down the other side didn’t seem so bad as the rain eased and the wind seemed to abate. We stopped for a short while in a café in Leknes to warm up and it had stopped raining by the time we got to Borg. We decided to go to the bike shop a little further on at Bøstad first and come back to the Viking museum later. We easily found the bike shop from Patrick’s directions and the guy there found a suitable replacement tyre. While we were there Frank spotted a pair of ergo bars which she thought might help with her wrist problem, they were very reasonably priced at 190kr (about £12) so they were purchased also.

The Lofotr Viking museum at Borg is very well done. They have re-constructed the largest ever Viking Long House right next to its original location. Inside they had recreated the furniture and fittings as they would have been at the time, with craftsmen and women dressed in Viking clothes working inside. We got chatting to the lady who was doing the tapestry and I realised that she had a very good English accent. It turned out that she was from Manchester and her partner was the guy who was doing the leather work and they were both working there for 5 weeks. Apparently they did a lot of the museum work and also went into schools to do history lessons with all their Viking gear. The guy laughed that on his passport under occupation it read ‘Professional Viking’! We cycled down to the lake and had a look at the Viking replica boats that they had constructed there before popping back to the centre café for some refreshment before moving on.

It was a long way to the next campsite, so we decided that we would look for a possible wild camp. However it isn’t quite as easy as you would imagine if you stick to the letter of the 'Allemansretten'. What land is suitable was either farmland, too near to settlements, boulder strewn or mostly bog. So we gave up on that idea and as there was still plenty of daylight (it doesn’t really get dark that time of the year that far north) we decided to push on towards Knutstad where there was a campsite marked. As we struggled up a hill on the E10 near the Tverrfjellet three tour busses came down and stopped half way down. I’m sure that they hadn’t stopped to admire the view but to wonder at these two idiot Brits struggling and sweating up the hill with laden bikes, as more faces seemed to be looking at us than the view! Part way down the Steirapollen we came across a small campsite sign and decided that as we were tired it would be great to stop what ever it was like.

The campsite turned out to be great it was a small holding and the camping was tents only with lovely grassy areas. We found a nice little pitch close to the lake side with excellent views. The toilet and shower block was quite novel as there was one toilet and one shower, both of which had a clear glass heart shaped window in the doors with no locks on the doors. One had to sing loudly whilst you were on the loo or showering, it was a good thing that there was only one other couple staying on the site, . The shower was also novel in that it had a slatted wooden floor and the wastewater fell through into what must have been a pit below, but it was lovely and hot and free!

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08/08/06 - Knutstad to Lyngvaret
It took us a bit of a while to get going this morning as I fitted the new tyre to my front wheel and the Ergo bars to Frank’s bike. The tyre was easy but the bars needed a fair bit of fettling and Jer… Jer ….Jiggerling as Arkwright would have said to get them to fit with the barbag holder. So it was nearly midday before we set off and we soon past the campsite at Knutstad and concluded that we probably had had the best site! It was fairly easy riding along the E10 as we had the wind with us. As there was little traffic on the E10 that afternoon and with some reasonable flat and straight bits it gave Frank a chance to try out the new ergo bars. I wondered just how stable they would be with a loaded touring bike, but Frank reckoned that although they took a little bit of getting used to at first they were fine and they certainly helped a lot in taking the pressure of her wrists. The weather was a little over cast and a little on the chilly side so we cycled all the day in our pertex jackets. There was another bridge that went over the Sundklakkstraumen that linked Vestvågøy to Gimsøya this was not quite as bad as the ones over to Fredvang.

As we headed nicely downhill with the wind behind us we met two Norwegian girls who had stopped in a lay-by just after we turned the corner at Rabben. They were cycling from Nordkapp to the southern most tip of Norway. They had 25 days to do it in and they had planned on doing about 120km a day. They were complaining bitterly of the struggle against the wind and the cold.  They had stopped to put on more clothes and were amazed that we had only cycling shorts on our legs and had bare knees. You Brits all seem to cycle in just shorts, don’t you get cold knees? I laughed and told her that all us Brit tourers in Norway were probably either tough as nails or just plain stupid and that they could make up there own minds on that one! They laughed and we wished them the best of weather for rest of their trip. A little further on there was another steep bridge, the Gimsøystraumbrua which linked Gimsøya and Vågan islands. This one was quite steep and a little trickier as there was a fairly strong crosswind. As I was a little ahead I radioed on to Frank to take care and waited for Frank at the picnic site at the other side. While I waited for Frank I had a nice chat with an elderly Dutchman who was traveling in a camper van with his wife. He was interested in how far we had come and our intended tour, he had obviously been a keen cyclist in his youth.

We decided that as there was a good set of picnic benches we would have a mid afternoon snack and a brew. It was bitterly cold but we needed to take on board some inner fuel. As we turned the corner of the fjord at kleppstad we started to hit the wind and with it being a bit up and down it started to get a bit tiring.

We stopped for a short breather at the Nordland skulpture  and a Norwegian tourer pull up and said hello. He was on his way to Henningsvær. He told us he was from near Oslo and a friend had recommended 3 places in Lofoten as must sees, Henningsvær, Reine and Å. We thanked him for his advice, we hadn't intended to go Henningsvær but it sounded so nice. I suggested to Frank that as we were struggling cycling into the wind that we could stop at the next campsite at Lyngvaret, then go to Henningsvær on our way to Svolvær the next day.  Frank didn't need a lot of persuading!

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09/08/06 - Lyngvaret to Vatterfjorden
Woke to an overcast morning but there looked like some breaks appearing the clouds, the wind of yesterday had gone and the day looked promising. Due to the lack of milk, breakfast was a bit of a non starter. Frank and I both need at least 2 cups of tea to kick start the day! Never mind hopefully we could get some in Henningsvær. As we left the campsite blue sky was starting to appear. We turned off the E10 to head down the 816 to Henningsvær, the tide was out and had reveal a lovely white sandy beach at Røvika. As we wended our way down the coastal road the weather continued to improver and we got lovely views across the Henningsværstraumen to Vestvågøya. Henningsvær is actually on an island and to get to it you need to cross over two hump backed bridges which connect two smaller islands. They are of a similar height to those at Fredvang and required a low gear. They are also narrow and only wide enough for single  vehicle, how ever some idiot of a driver in a maroon car decided that he couldn't wait for a couple of minutes while a loaded tourer got to the top where there was a pull in. He hooted at me and then forced his way past, if I had wobbled he would have had me off! I’m afraid the air was blue and he was on the receiving end of some advanced Makaton.

We were glad we chatted to the Norwegian tourer as Henningsvær as it is certainly an interesting old fishing village situated on a series of interconnected islands that jut out from the southern end of Vågan into the Vestfjorden. It was well worth the detour as the views of the harbour with it’s old wooden buildings with the mountains behind are lovely. We managed to get some milk and then had a good explore around. We found a lovely little promontory at the southern end of Hellandsøya where we had a very welcome brew of tea! While we were there we were visited by a very friendly gray cat, who reminded us of our two, who we had left in clink for 4 weeks!

We left Henningsvær and headed back up the 816 and as we cycled under the Festvagtinden we spotted several climbers on the upper slabs and followed their progress through the binos for a few minutes. They certainly had a lovely day for climbing and must have got good views from the top. We soon turned back onto the E10 and headed towards Svolvaer and just after the Rorvikvatnet we stopped to put our lights on to pass through the Rorvikskardet tunnel. It’s fairly short, straight and well lit so posed no problem. It wasn’t long before we were at Kabelvag and stopped briefly to look at the impressive Vågan Church which is known as the ‘Lofoten Cathedral’. Soon after this there is a cycle path that takes you off the E10 and sticks close to it, crossing underneath the E10 at one point near a small river. As we were going down the hill to Svolvaer there was a single tourer struggling up, we stopped to say hello. He was from Switzerland and was doing a similar route to us but going North to South. We wished him well and good weather for the rest of his tour! We noted as he left his red Ortlieb backpacker plus panniers which were well sun bleached and were now almost Salmon pink in colour, obviously this is what will probably happen to Frank’s red pair!

To get into Svolvaer centre you turn right at roundabout just after a short tunnel. We headed for the Tourist information office to enquire about the Lofoten war museum which we had seen advertised. The lady pointed us in the right direction, which was just across the main square, unfortunately it had closed a 4.00pm and it was then 10 minutes past. However it reopened again at 6.00pm, we decided we would go to the supermarket and buy some food. As we were about to set off a single tourer pulled up and said hello. He was another Swiss tourer and he had spotted Frank’s ergo bars and wanted to see how we had fitted them. We showed him how we had done it and also how we had managed to fit on the barbags with the butterfly bars using a ‘Klick-fix’ extender. We had a long chat about various aspects of our respective rigs and he was impressed with our new ‘Bike buddy’ fuel bottle carriers.

We said goodbye, wished him well and set off for the supermarket. After stocking up on food we still had an hour or so to wait for the museum to open so we went back to the main square to find somewhere for a quick brew. There where some picnic tables outside the Tourist Information office and as we were getting the stoves out the Swiss chap who we had met at the museum came past. I invited him to have a brew with us, he was happy for the company as he had a hour or two to kill before his ferry arrived. His name was Patrick and he was on a long tour having started in Gibraltar, headed north and was aiming for Northkap. We had a long chat about all sorts of things while we supped tea the ‘English way ‘ as Patrick put it and polished off a large punnet of strawberries we had bought from a stall in the main square.

Just after 6.00pm we said our goodbyes to Patrick and headed off for the Lofoten Kriggsminnemuseum. What an excellent museum, if you are interested in World War II history this is excellent. The ground floor of this building is absolutely crammed full of military uniforms and equipment with some interesting local exhibits on life under occupation. We had a long chat with the founder and owner who was a very friendly chap, apparently he started collecting when he was a lad after hearing the stories of the war from his father who had been a wireless operator with the resistance.  It was getting on for 8.30pm by the time we left and we still had 10km to go to get to the campsite at Vaterford.

As we cycled out of Svolvær and under the Svolværgeita a 590m mountain that dominates the town we noticed a couple of climbers on the ‘Goats ears’ the two rock pillars that are at the top of a 40m technical climbing pitch. The idea is to jump the 1.5m gap between them. It’s a bit like the Adam & Eve pillars on Tryfan in North Wales, but a little bit more 'necky' as I remember it was rather just a large step rather than a 1.5m jump! It didn't take us long to get to the campsite at Vaterford and along the way there was a lovely light on the islands of Litlmolla and Stormolla.

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10/08/06 - Vatterfjorden to Stokmarknes.
As we woke again to lovely sunshine on the tent, we couldn't believe our luck so far with the weather. The campsite was a great little site with good facilities and a very friendly and helpful owner. The site is on the shore of the Austnesfjorden and the views from the tent where beautiful. When I went up to the facilities for a shower, I passed a German couple with a caravan. The wife was cutting up Cod into filets and the husband was loading then into a freezer which took up most of the back of his estate car! Obviously that's the way to pay for your holiday. That lot would probably keep them going with fish until next year!

We set off after a good hearty breakfast and half way down the Austnesfjorden we pulled in to a picnic area for a brew. There was a viewing platform on a promontory that jutted out into the fjord, it gave us great views of the Austnesfjorden and the surrounding mountains. While we were there we took the opportunity to take some photos of our rigs for Ron's Fully Loaded Touring Bikes photo gallery website. All along the top end of Austnesfjorden near Vestpollen you get some impressive views of the mountains Higravtindan 1146m and Geitgalien 1045m, that make up the rugged north end of Austvågøya. After Laupstad there was a little pull up over the small bit of land that stops Higravfjorden from joining the Austnesfjorden. As we cycled along the Higravfjorden we noticed a series of buoys in rows down the fjord. Our only conclusion was that they were some sort of farming possibly mussel beds? At Fiskebol we caught the 3.15pm ferry to Melbu (30kr per adult CNordtrafikk). This takes you on to the next island in the chain Hadelsøya and takes you from Lofoten into The Vesterålen series of islands. Whilst on the ferry we had good views of the mountains of the Moysella National Park and it's highest mountain Moysen. Currently all traffic going to Lofoten goes via Stokmarknes and Melbu, however they are currently building a new road and tunnel that will link lofoten directly to the mainland. We wondered what will happen to Melbu as it already seemed a sleepy port town. We saw a sign to the tourist information office, but couldn't find it after exploring nearly every street so we gave up and had a look at the harbour instead. We found moored there a lovely replica of a 'Nordland jekt' the "Brødrene" a replica of the original "Brødrene", which does regular trips around Hadseløya.

As it was getting on a bit we decided to take the shorter route up the E10 to Stokmarknes, rather than the slightly longer western route. The E10 was relatively quiet and you could tell when a ferry had come in as it was all quiet for a while and then a whole convoy of traffic passed us. About a mile out of Melbu we were joined by a young Norwegian Lad who was cycling home for his tea having spent the day cutting hay for his uncle. We had a long chat as we cycled together, he was interested in where we were going, where we came from and cycle touring as he was thinking of having a go. We must have cycled and chatted with him for nearly 3 miles before he turned off.

The E10 hugs the edge of the Hadselfjorden all the way to Stokmarknes. The generally flat route and slight tail wind gave for some pleasant cycling with good views across the mountains of Moysalen. As you get into Stokmarknes there is a good cycle path and as we passed a bus stop near the centre a young chap waved us to stop clutching a tin of Baked Beans. "Have you a '' and proceeded to do turning motions with his other hand. We realised he wanted a tin opener, which we duly found for him. He looked slightly puzzled when I gave him our mini opener. I had to show him how to drive it. It turned out that he and his girlfriend were Polish and backpacking around Norway. It must have been an interesting meal, cold Baked Beans! The campsite as usual was up hill initially a road through a housing estate that eventually led to a gravel road which ended at the campsite. It was quite a nice little campsite with excellent facilities. There only 3 other campers were, I guy from Spain who shared his tent with his mountain bike and a young German couple. As I came back from the shower I got chatting to them. They were backpacking through Norway and had arranged to get married in Narvik on the Monday. Apparently they just wanted a simple ceremony, no friends, no relatives or fuss! They would just let it be a surprise for their parents when they got home!

To Part 3 Stokmarkenes to Sandfjord