Haukland Beach to a Layby By Hamnøy

Zagan the motorhome’s finally dragged his tyres from Haukland beach, and is kicking his heels in a layby/picnic area by the E10 (N67.96211, E13.1528), a tunnel’s distance from the village of Hamnøy. We’re flanked by high shoulders of rock, which the sun’s just rolled behind, but since it’s 30°C in here, we’re not complaining. Out the windscreen a short skirt of sun-lit Arctic vegetation, stunted trees, moss and heather separate us from a broad expanse of rippled blue-green ocean, which itself finally rises up in the teeth of the mountainous mainland ahead. It’s one beautiful sight.

In a Layby By Hamnøy, Lofotens, Norway

The last few nights at Haukland beach were just wonderful. A combination of wonderful scenery, perfect weather, interesting company and the minor fact all this came free of charge created a sense of magic. Chris, Tina and Libby arrived at the beach with us, and we enjoyed long relaxing hours chatting, supping wine, and playing Cards Against Humanity. The latter game, somewhat close to the bone that it is, was so hilarious I woke up the following day to find I’d pulled a muscle in my back laughing.

Sadly Chris and Tina had to get shifting onwards as they need to be back home for a wedding in early September, and Libby needs to be back at school, so they’re getting some miles in rolling south through Sweden. Since they left we’ve met, in no particular order:

• Ian and Marit and their six year old sons Bo and Victor. Ian, originally from Australia but latterly living in Switzerland, is a Formula 1 engineer, having spent the best part of a decade in various research, test and development roles for a couple of F1 teams. These guys are out on a six month trip in their five tonne panel van nicknamed ‘The Rhino’ with one amazing tool-kit.
• Sarah and ten year old daughter Tabatha (veedubadventures.co.uk). This British duo are a couple of months into a year on their European tour, heading north in Norway before turning south and following the sun over the winter.
• Wendy and Gordon, who’ve kind of retired, and have been out on the road for 18 months, with no immediate plans to return to the UK any time soon (travelblog.org/bloggers/on-the-road-once-more). Before travelling in their motorhome, they backpacked around South America (travelblog.org/bloggers/tangoandllamas), which sounded a fascinating experience. Their parting story was of being washed down a flooded river in a bus, having to be rescued in the bucket of a JCB…

After several days of sunshine and complete relaxation, apart from a couple of hour’s hike to get some outstanding views over the beach and southern Lofoten islands, we finally managed to get moving onwards, stopping here to relax and attempt some fishing. No joy, I spent a couple of hours monkeying about in the rocks but managed to catch nothing. The ocean was so clear I wanted to drop the rod and leap in, to almost try and drink it in, it’s that clear.

As I huffed and puffed my way back, fishless, I met a retired Norwegian couple from Trondheim who told me the school holidays are over now here, which explains why there are suddenly practically no motorhomes turning the E10 in a Lofoten Cannonball Run. I built up a bit of courage to ask them some questions. “Is the beer expensive for you too?” “Yes, yes, it’s heavily taxed, it’s expensive for us too”. “What do you think about Brexit?” The Norwegian man smiled “It made us laugh.” I asked why, curious. “You need access to the market, which Norway has through a special deal, but we have to pay, pay for the Eastern countries. The UK leaving the EU won’t be a good thing for you.” “and we have the Schengen thing too, which makes it more difficult for us to travel.”. They’d already explained they have a house in Norway, plus a summer house on an island here, and a third house on the French Mediterranean. I told them I thought they had a good life, and they smiled again. “Yes, yes we do. Norway has a lot of tax, but retirement here is very good, everything is taken care of.”

The plan now is to leave the Lofotens tomorrow and get the ferry to Bodø. I have to admit, the Lofoten’s initially felt a little disappointing: heavily touristed, roads and free-camping areas choc-a-bloc with motorhomes, high parking fees asked for some of the more popular spots. But the last few days have turned me around, especially the hike up over Haukland beach, which we practically had to ourselves and on which the views were just stupendous.

Photos from the last few days follow:

Haukland Beach, a eclectic mix of vanners and campers shared the spot with us in the sunshine. Two tiny rented camper vans from arcticcampers.no arrived, having us marvelling at just how small they were

Motorhomes and campervans at Haukland Beach

August moon rising over Haukland Beach. The sun’s properly setting now

Views over the southern Lofotens, just wonderful

An eagle’s eye view of Haukland. We spotted a fair few sea eagles, but they were teeny weeny on the camera

Looking north from the hike, to the beach on the other side of the tunnel

More Lofotens views

We both got sunburned, whoops…

Nippers on a cabin near the beach

This way to heaven, Haukland Beach

No Camping. We can only assume this means don’t camp on the beach itself, since there were at least 10 tents each night we were there, topping out at 21 tents and 15 or so motorhomes

The Rhino! Five tonnes, with two motorbikes, several push bikes and enough tools to keep Force India rolling

I was interested to see Ian, an experienced F1 mechanic, had gone for Hankook tyres. He explained they’re ten ply, and more than good enough for the van. Age and rock strikes were what would do for the tyres he told me.

Us next to Gordon and Wendy’s motorhome at Haukland

Ian, Marit, Sarah and the kids

The onion-domed church at Flaksted on the way here, made from reclaimed driftwood from Siberia

And a short video taken at the top of our hike to look over the beach and southern Lofotens:

Cheers, Jay

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