Fri, 01 Aug 2003

author Tim	location Ørsvågvær Camping, Lofoten, Nordland, Norge
posted 22:46 CEST	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Towards the Lofoten Islands ( 22 photos )
It seems like we didn't come too far today, but we have seen quite a lot.
After taking it very easily this morning, getting our journals up to date (thanks Liz!), we hit the road and drove into town, seeking Campingaz. This is the magic stuff which lets us cook, and the way it works is you buy the first cylinder (which we of course have done), and then exchange it. It's actually just butane, but in a certain bottle which is supposedly easy to exchange across Europe.
The gas has lasted us a month and a half of fairly solid use, but finally gave in last night, meaning we were lucky to be able to finish cooking on the kitchen there - not all caravan parks have kitchens.
So, we had bene told that the local service station had the gas, but this was not so. Not to daudle, we sent off some post and did a little shopping before getting on the road once again, heading North.
We stopped in a few little places along the way asking after the gas, and eating our lunch, but in general had no luck.
At Ulvsvåg, it was time to turn West towards the coast to get a ferry across to another recommended part of the world - the Lofoten Islands. After waiting in the queue for an hour or so (so many holiday makers!), the ferry arrived to take us on the trip across to Svolvær, the capital of Lofoten.
Due to the length of the trip, the ferry was much larger than most we have been on, with a café, seating, and lots of people lounging in the fantastic weather.
The views here are quite different again to the fjord areas. There are few trees, lots of very high ragged mountains, and sparse scatterings of human settlements around the water's edge.
The ferry presented plenty of opportunities for photos which we of course didn't miss out on.
Upon arrival, we drove Rosie off looking for the Information centre. This suggested a few places to try for the gas, but with no luck. By now it started to occur to us that the only places which are going to carry it are camping places, not service stations. So, we will look for a large camp site to get some from in the next few days.
This left us not quite knowing what to do for dinner, as we had bought some mince and the fridge ain't too good either. No real matter, as we pulled into a campsite along the road which had a kitchen (however hard it was to find). It's also a very nice place thrown into the deal, although the young guy checking us in was more interested in the American sitcom on TV than serving us.
Here Liz cooked up some great spag bol, which we ate overlooking the fantastic views we can also see from the van. After dinner, we wandered down to the first pub we have seen out of a city here, and the first we have been into since Ireland.
We sat and chatted, mulling over the rather expensive beers while enjoying the views over the islands with the sun making its very slow way down behind the mountains (23:06 sunset tonight!), lightning striking nearby and boats making their way across the tiny harbour.

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