Kvalvika Beach – Lofoten Islands

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kvalvika beach lofoten islands norway

Photo: Looking down at Kvalvika beach from Ryten, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  August 2012

Near the top of my list for this trip was a night of two camping at Kvalvika beach.  Perhaps one of the most spectacular beaches on all of Lofoten, I was last here in in 2006 where I sat in my tent for 3 days of rain and could hardly even see the mountains rising above me.  This time however, I lucked out with some spectacular (for Lofoten) weather.

It was also the luck of meeting a stranger that I probably got some of the best photos from these last 2 weeks here on the islands.  In the late afternoon I was shooting a few photos on a small path above the beach, looking to get a bit of an overview shot, but also feeling a bit lazy.  There was one other guy camping at the beach, a young German, who came up the path and said he was going to hike up the mountain, Ryten, and asked if I would like to come along.  ‘Sure, why not.’ was my reply, as so we headed up the mountain in the warm afternoon sun.  …To be continued.

kvalvika beach lofoten islands norway

Photo: Evening light over Kvalvika beach, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  August 2012

Leaving Lofoten

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utakleiv lofoten islands camping campfire

Photo: Campfire at Utakleiv beach, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  August 2012

If there was any chance the islands were trying to hold onto summer, it’s now gone with the first autumn storm of the season spreading across Norway.  This morning I was still planning on taking the Hurtigruten ferry from here in Stamsund to Bodø tonight.  But as the hours passed, the weather worsened; with near gale force wind forecast for later this evening.  I called the Hurtigruten and they were not sure if they would be able to make it into port in Stamsund tonight, and with a 7 am flight to Germany tomorrow, I decided to play it safe and book a flight from Leknes.  It also means I’ll arrive not too late and thanks to the hospitality of some friends in Bodø, I’ll actually have a place to sleep instead of a few hours on the floor of the ferry building.

Over the last two weeks I think I’ve had a few more good days that I was expecting and I managed to visit and get some decent photos of most of the places I was wanting to.  A few more hikes will have to wait until I return in a few more weeks.  Looking back, it seems to have been a pretty cold and stormy summer overall here on Lofoten, without any long periods of stable weather.  In the last week, the trees have definitely begun showing colors of autumn.  Hopefully the color waits for me to return in roughly 3 weeks.

For the next week I’ll be in Germany and then it”s back north of the arctic circle for 10 days on the Kungsleden trail in Sweden.

First Days on Lofoten Islands Norway

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camping at Horseid beach Lofoten Islands Norway

Photo: Campfire at Horseid Beach, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  August 2012

I’ve been back on the Lofoten Islands for almost a week now.  For the first two nights I camped out at Horseid beach.  Had the place pretty much to myself and got lucky with some decent weather on the second night.  The first day hiking in was horrible rain and crossing the pass from Kirkefjord I was in total whiteout, only knowing that I was going in the right direction when I could finally hear the faint sounds of the ocean in the distance.  Then dropping back down below the clouds, I could see the beach in the distance.  I wasn’t planning on starting out this trip with hiking in full rain gear, but that’s how things work up here…

After two nights at Horseid I then hitchiked from Reine to Stamsund where I’ve been the last two nights.  I was told the forecast for Friday was rain, but it turned out to be a pretty good day and I probably should have gone into the mountains for Thursday night.  Today is bad rain however, so I’m glad I have a nice fire to keep me warm and endless cups of hot tea.  The weather should improve in the next days and hopefully I’ll get a bit more time in my tent.

It’s only a week away from September now and the days have been quite cold, below 10˚ C most days, but the days are still amazingly long.  Even at the darkest period of the night, 1 am, there is still a glow on the horizon in the north.  But as each week passes, the days become 45 minutes shorter, so when I return in a month the nights will be long.

Summer night Stamsund, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: 1 am twilight in late summer, Stamsund, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  August 2012

Hiking Gear Packlist For Lofoten Islands Norway and Kungsleden Trail Sweden

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Lofoten Islands Norway mountain camping Reinebringen

Photo: Camping on Reinebringen, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  July 2010

Backpacking gear 2012

Photo: Backpacking gear 2012

Backpacking gear list for travels to Lofoten Islands, Norway and hiking the Kungsleden trail, Sweden.

Here’s a quick rundown of the gear I’m taking with me on my travels this year.  First part is 2 weeks of late summer on the Lofoten Islands – a mixture of camping and hostels.  Next is camping at a festival in Germany for a few days.  This is followed by 10 days of hut-to-hut hiking on the northern section of the Kungsleden trail in northern Sweden.  Then I’m back to the Lofoten Islands again for another 2-3 weeks of chasing autumn storms; I’ll probably mostly stay in hostels this time around, but maybe a night or two in the tent if I get a good forecast.   Finally I’ll slowly head south. I’ll probably hang out in Stockholm for a few days and then head down to either Germany or Poland for a few weeks before flying back to the UK.

1 – Backpack
Golite Odyssey – 1.6kg/47oz – 90 Liter

2 – Clothing
Shell Jacket – Mountain Hardwear Trice jacket 489g/17oz
Shell Pant – Marmot Minimalist pant 292g/10.3oz
Insulation 1 – Patagonia R2 fleece 371g/13.1oz
Insulation 2 – Patagonia Ultralight down shirt 167g/5.9oz
Pants – Mountain Hardwear Nima pant 607g/1.5lb
Shorts
T-shirt – 2 cotton, 1 synth
Socks – 3 pair
Underwear – 3 pair
Gloves
Beanie
Sandals (for hostel showers)
Shoes – Montrail Mountain Massochist II Outdry

I’m trying something new with clothing this year.  I probably have mentioned several times that I don’t really like hard shell jackets, as I often get way too hot in them until the temperature drops a few degrees below freezing.  But from my wet, cold, snowy, windy experience on the Kungsleden trail in the autumn of 2009, I think a shell jacket will make sense (of course with my luck, every day will be 15˚ C and sunny.  Not that I would complain!)  My reasoning is along the lines of: Most days I will need to wear a fairly weather resistant jacket while hiking.  If I were to wear something like a soft-shell or Marmot DriClime windshirt, I would still need to carry a rain shell anyhow, albeit a light one.  So I might as well just hike a heavy duty rain shell and avoid carrying the extra couple hundred grams of a second jacket.

I’m also going without a second pair of ‘normal’ pants, instead taking only a second shell pant.  This will also help to save a bit of weight.  For my normal day to days pants, I chose something a bit warmer, so again, I hope I don’t overheat.

For footwear I’m going with waterproof trail runners.  It’s possibly a bit risky and I’ll likely end up with some wet feet at a few points, but since I’ll probably be staying most nights in the STF mountain cabins, and with a warm fire to dry everything off, I don’t think it will be a problem.  If I knew I was going to be in a tent the whole time, I would definitely take a lightweight waterproof boot or mid level shoe.

3 – Sleeping
Tent – Big Agnes Fly Creek 2 Platinum 992g/35oz
Sleeping Bag – REI Sub Kilo -7˚C/20˚F  820g/29oz
Pad – Thermarest NeoAir 397g/14oz (old version)

The only new addition here is the tent.  It’s 2 person and lighter than the old 1 person tents I used to carry.  And costs a hell of a lot of money!  The sleeping pad is a bit heavier than if I were to take a foam one, but the savings on space, as well as added comfort, is worth it for me.  The sleeping bag should be plenty warm.

4 – Cooking & Food
Stove: Primus TiLite + Titanium pot (.9l) – 9 oz.
Water filter – Katadyn mini
Food
Fork and Spoon

5 – Trekking Poles
Black Diamond Ultra Distance 297g/10.5oz

6 – Hygiene
Toothbush/toothpase
Camp soap (multi-use)
Camp towel
Hand cleaner
Deodorant (only because I feel sorry for anyone who has to sit next to me on a train/bus/plane if I haven’t showered in a few days)

7 – First Aid Kit

8 – Rain Cover

I’ve also made these gear list for the past couple years:

-CLICK HERE- for my list from 2010 for a few weeks in Lofoten Islands and central Norway in summer.
-CLICK HERE- for my list from 2011 Autumn/Winter in Lofoten Islands and northern Europe. It was similar to this trip but with more time in cities and no long distance hiking.

Reindeer in mountain landscape, Kungsleden trail, Lapland, Sweden

Photo: Reindeer, Kungsleden Trail, Sweden.  September 2009

Lofoten Islands 5 Best Beaches

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Gimsoya beach summer lofoten islands norway

Photo: Summer days on beach at Gimsoya, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Aug 2010

I’ve written a new article over at 68north.com on the 5 best beaches (that you can drive to) on the Lofoten islands.  CLICK HERE to check it out.

Winter storm over snow covered beach, Unstad, Lofoten islands, Norway

Photo: Unstad Beach in Winter.  Jan 2010

 

 

68 North V2.0

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68 North Lofoten Islands Photography

68 North – Lofoten Islands Photography

I’ve finally finished up the re-design of my 68north.com website, my Lofoten Islands photo gallery.  I wrote some 6,000+ words of new content and have expanded things out to include travel and hiking info.  It’s not 100% finished at the moment, but I’m pretty happy with how things turned out so far.  Over the next months I’ll keep adding info, and will go into more detail about photography on the Lofoten Islands.  Hopefully I’ll end up with detailed descriptions of my favorite photo locations and when is the best time to photograph at each place.

I’ll probably still share a fair bit of general Lofoten content with my blog here, but will likely add a bit more detail over there from now on.  So go check things out! And let me know what you think!

And the photos are way bigger over there!

68 North Lofoten Islands Photography

Summer Sun

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Summer sun shines over Kjerkfjord, Reine, Lofoten islands, Norway

Photo: Summer sun over Kjerkfjord, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  July 2010

Today is the beginning of nearly two months of the midnight sun on the Lofoten Islands.  While summer is still a few weeks away, starts wont shine in the sky again until August.

I’ve been a bit absent of late.  Partly because I haven’t done anything of interest in the past weeks and partly because I’m working on a big re-make of both this website and my Lofoten Islands gallery website: 68 North.  I’m starting with 68 North first, as it will be a simpler process.  I’ve written some 5,000 words of new content (a lot for me) and am in the final stages of working out some design bugs.  Hopefully I can get everything online and working by Monday, as I’ve put things off too long already. Probably won’t be perfect, but it will be a start and something I can build from.

I’ll probably get around to changing this website next month.  I’ll be incorporating the blog together with my website, which will probably result in the breaking of all my links here on the blog; another reason I’ve haven’t added much lately.  No point if it’s not going to work in another month.  If you read things by an RSS feed, you’ll probably need to re-subscribe.  I’ll make a final post a day or two before I change things over, sometime next month hopefully.

Lofoten Islands Autumn and Winter

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Lofoten islands norway landscape photo

Photo: Cliffs at Å in Autumn, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Sept. 2011

What a difference a few months make to the mood of a landscape.  This scene is at and the end of the cliffs past the village of Å.  It is pretty much the furthest west/south one can easily get on the islands.  To proceed further means traversing those mountains in the background, something I’d like to do one day, but better suited for summer.

I’ve found this to be a good photo location recently as there are various places to get down among the cliffs where one can be sheltered from the winds.  And in the winter months it’s also a decent location for sunset as the sun will be low in the sky over Væerøy (such as the photo HERE) and finally disappear behind the ends of Lofoten.  Lots of other little place to explore out there as well.

Lofoten islands norway winter landscape photo

Photo: Cliffs at Å in Winter, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Feb. 2012

Lofoten Islands Winter Sunrise

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colorful sunrise lofoten islands

Photo: Colorful winter sunrise over Norwegian mainland, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Feb 2012

A layer of clouds was hanging over the islands with only a thin slice of clear sky in the eastern horizon.  This light lasted a few minutes and then turned to gray and my camera didn’t come out of the bag for the rest of the day.  I was hiding behind a rock to try and get a little protection for the winds – the sea is dark, but you can see it’s a bit rough.  This was the 2nd best/most colorful sunrise of my February trip.  The best was the day before as I was looking out the window of a bus, in my typical expertise of missing good light.

The arctic sun is deceptive in the fact that it rises so slowly in the sky.  In my head I have what I expect as a standard length of time from when I start to see the light of the sun building below the horizon until it finally breaks it.  In the north I end up standing, jumping around the keep warm, and telling the sun to come on and hurry up so I can get back in the car as I can’t feel my toes anymore.  Although the benefit of this is that the light last so much longer and you take take a little more time to work with each scene before the light fades, all depending on what the clouds are up to of course.

Olstind – Lofoten Islands

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Olstind mountain peak rises from fjord, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Olstind rises from waters of Kjerkfjord, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Feb 2012

Olstind, as it rises from the waters of the Kjerkfjord is probably the most iconic mountain view of the Lofoten Islands.  It is often a scene that literally says ‘take a picture of me.’  Changing angles from Hamnøy towards Reine can give a different look to the mountain.  My favorite view (below photo) is from down near where the E10 crosses to Andøya.  It’s best to walk out on the rocks to get the most unobstructed view.  Though be careful of an incoming tide, I almost got stuck out there on a lone rock when not quite paying enough attention.

Olstind mountain peak rises from fjord, Reine, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Olstind reflection in partially frozen Kjerkfjord, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Feb 2012

 

Olstind mountain peak rises from Kjerkfjord in winter, Lofoten islands, Norway

Photo: Olstind, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Feb 2012