Lofoten Love

Author: Ingeborg Sol Fure - @solfure

I admit it: I have an ambivalent relationship with Lofoten, without even ever having been there. I am from the west coast of Norway and was born with the belief that nothing can compare with deep fjords, huge rock formations, ice blue glaciers and sand white beaches. The ones we have on the west coast of Norway - mind you! The capital of our country may be Oslo, but the centre of my universe is 55 minutes away - that is if you fly Widerøe, the local airline in Førde.

When I first had decided to find out what all this fuzz around Lofoten was about, it was therefore really nice to be able to fly Widerøe all the way from Førde to Svolvær. My friend, Helle Frogner and I packed suitcases and camera equipment and headed north.

Love at first sight

Arriving at Svolvær Airport, which turned out to be even smaller than Førde Bringeland, we brought the suitcases to the rental car that was waiting right in front of the main entrance. "The car is open, the key is in the glove compartment" was the message from the rental company. Northern Norwegian trust, frighteningly different from West-Norwegian scepticism. But I liked it, and 15 minutes after we had landed, we checked into the historic fisherman's cabins (rorbuer) of Svinøya Rorbuer. For two days we were going to take in northern Norwegian culture, history, nature and experiences, and we felt we were in a hurry.

The blood rushed through my veins. Nature in Lofoten was just like nature at home, only more compressed and without forest somehow. The pointed peaks rose from a flat, dark blue sea and the urge to climb up the ridges and take in the impressions was almost unbearable. November days are so short in terms of daylight that we had to choose carefully what activities we would do. Mountain hike went out, but luckily, we had the view from "the box with wings". Through the drone's eyes we were able to confirm what we had realized the moment we set foot on northern Norwegian soil: we should have booked more than two days here, because the airy view from the mountain tops would have been unforgettable.

Road trip

Day 1 was set aside for a road trip to Reine, a trip that according to Google maps takes 2 hours and 10 minutes if you drive in one stretch. Of course, we did not, because there was a lot to see along the way. The first stop was Henningsvær and Trevarefabrikken, a cool café that also offers accommodation, ski packages, yoga treats, sauna, swimming in the fjord, concerts, exhibitions, and lectures. In other words, the place is for people of all ages, with all kinds of interests, and has its very own atmosphere that can only be experienced, if only to just buy a coffee, as we did.

When driving towards Reine, we made many stops along the way to enjoy the nature and take photos. It is beautiful to observe the various shifts in light and mood that occur from minute to minute when on a road trip. Many people drive from A to B to reach to something, but I would recommend going on a road trip only for the trip itself. You are guaranteed to miss many exciting sights and attractions if you just rush past. Stop the car on intuition, take a deep breath, observe, be curious, and take photographs!

The world's most beautiful football field!

One of the attractions that was high on our bucket list was the beautiful football field in Henningsvær. Henningsvær sports club was founded in 1927, but it was not easy to find space for a football field on the rugged archipelago. The solution was to improve the bedrock on the south side of Hellandsøya, so that the iridescent green carpet could be placed between lighthouses, fish hatches and weather-beaten rocks. We parked the car at the end of the track and walked around on small paved paths. The lighthouse on the island is unfortunately privately owned, otherwise we would probably have stopped by this as well. If you are going here, bring a folding chair / picnic blanket and enjoy a few hours on the rock. The fresh sea air is something that must be enjoyed for a long time,

Eagle safari

Day 2: The highlight of our days in Lofoten was without doubt a rib trip and eagle safari with Lofoten Explorer. I had imagined that we would only see eagles if we were lucky, and that there was no guarantee. How wrong I could be. West-Norwegian pessimism. We saw hundreds of eagles, and closer than we could ever imagine! Rib driver Rune Svendsen told with great passion about the eagles, the landscape in and around the Trollfjord and historical events that have happened there. Among other things, we learned that eagles cannot swim, which was new information to me. When they hunt, they depend on buoyancy to be able to take off, so they dive down and catch fish only in headwinds. If they land on the water, they will sink and drown! The rib trip lasted a full two hours and gave us plenty of time to capture a whole bunch of pictures of eagles from all sorts of angles. These are dear memories to take home to the western Norway, where I have never been so close to an eagle like this.

Photo tip

If you are going to take a picture of an eagle in motion PHOTO TIP: If you are going to take a picture of an eagle in motion and you have a camera with manual settings, you should try it out based on this: aperture: 5.6 in aperture, depending on how sharp you want the whole eagle to be, closing time at 500-1000. Set the ISO after this, but remember that the higher the ISO, the more grainy the image will be. Bring a towel to wrap around the camera when the boat moves, and to wipe the lens with. It was pleasant weather when we were on the rib, but the towel came in handy anyway. Also remember extra memory cards, you do not have time to look at photos and delete those that become blurred before the trip is over, and I guarantee you: you will take many photos!

After two eventful days, the journey returned to beautiful western Norway, with a slightly different perception of Lofoten than the one we had when we came: Nature is close, the people who live and work there love the place, the experiences are powerful almost no matter what you do , and last but not least: you get to see a lot in 2 days in November, but not nearly enough to not want to return to this wonderful place!

If you want to follow our experiences both in western Norway and elsewhere in the country, you can check out our instagrams @solfure and @hellefrogner.