Route: A journey to Å
Area: Norway, Lofoten Islands
Date of walk: 1st August 2017
Walkers: Andrew and Gilly
Distance: 1.0 mile
Weather: Cloudy with light drizzle
Today was the last full day of our walking holiday “A journey to Å” on the Lofoten Islands. Starting in Svolvær, the small capital of the islands, we’d worked our way southwards, staying on two of the archipelago’s main groups of islands, ending, appropriately enough, with an visit to the village of Å (pronounced ‘Oh’), named after the final letter of the Norwegian alphabet. This is as far as it’s possible to travel going south on the islands, and the road ends here
Our visit to the village amounted to no more than a stroll, and the dull wet weather would have ruled out a proper walk in any event. Nevertheless it’s worth recording the visit in my walking diary as Å is an evocative place, typical of the small fishing villages which are dotted all over these islands
Some notes in conclusion:
We booked our holiday through Inntravel and I can highly recommend their services. All the travel arrangements worked seamlessly and the suggested walking routes were superb. Although it’s possible to fly to Lofoten I’m glad that we approached the islands by sea as I’ll never forget the sight of the serrated mountain ridges looming ever larger as we neared the landing stage
Most of the peaks are out of bounds to ordinary mortals but if you choose the type of route which we walked the grade is similar to Lake District fell walking
The weather in Lofoten is unpredictable, as with most mountainous areas. The islands are within the Arctic Circle, so we were surprised how warm it was most days, with temperatures of 20c and more. We were lucky in our choice of weeks, and enjoyed 5 good weather days out of 7. The days are very long in late July – 20 hours or so, and the sun hardly sets before it starts to rise again
It was a wonderful walking holiday and we’ll take home with us some never to be forgotten memories of one of the most spectacular places we’ve ever visited
Click on the icon below for the route map
Scroll down – or click on any photo to enlarge it and you can then view as a slideshow
The evening before our visit to Å we enjoyed a long sunset at Reine Rorbuer, our base for our final two nights on the Lofoten Islands
At this time of year the days are long, and as soon as the sun has set it starts to rise again
These photos were taken at about 9.30pm
At 10.30pm there's still plenty of light
Rorbu - these are old fisherman's cottages which have been turned into holiday accommodation
They are painted in a traditional red colour and are usually supported on poles to allow closer access to the water
Many of the rorbu have turf roofs
Reine and its lake
More photos of my evening wander around the Reine Rorbuer...
11pm
About 11.30pm by now, time for bed. We are staying in Jesper, part of the converted police station
Next day, a promising start to the final leg of our Journey to Å...
Crystal clear waters in the lake at Reine Rorbuer
We drive over the bridge to the mainland...
We arrive in the village of Å - by now low cloud has set in and it's raining
Å is a traditional fishing village with identical buildings to those back in Reine
We walk out of the village to take a photo that just had to be taken - the end of our journey on the Lofoten Islands
Next day we have to leave early in order to catch our plane from Leknes to Oslo
Time for a final wander around Reine Rorbuer...
A rainbow as we leave Reine in our hired car
The Eliassen Rorbuer from the Hamnøy Bridge...
And a final picture of the Hamnøy Bridge before we reach the airport. What a wonderful holiday it had been
