Day 14 (July 5th): Lofoten (Ballstadøya and Reine).
View into the Norwegian Sea from the top of Reinebringen.
As expected, we woke up to cooler temps (~55 degrees) and cloudy skies for our kayaking journey. The only variable for kayaking was around if we were going in shorts or in full-on suits, which our guide, Roland, would make the determination on. It was borderline, but we went full-on suit mode as you can see in the pic.
We kayaked 6.5 miles, which felt as though it was more than the other 2 kayaking expeditions combined. But it was more of the fact while the water was flat, not much current was out there so every stroke had some work involved. That said, it was a great morning to be out on the water and Roland took us to some islands that he normally doesn’t go to because the water was so flat.
After our kayak and grabbing some lunch, we rested while we did some laundry just enjoying the scenery from our room. The skies started to brighten a bit and we started thinking about going to the western section of Lofoten earlier than expected.
I had asked Roland about a very well known hike to see if it was “all that and a bag of chips.” He said it was but it was really crowded so check out the parking lots. The other variable is that the weather could be completely different over on that section of the island in the town called Reine (26 km away).
Marc asked what the back-up plan was if the weather was crappy and I said I don’t have one. So off we went! The ride over happened to be beautiful and the skies really ventured from dark grey to mostly sunny in that short distance.
The hike, Reinebringen, is probably the most popular hike on Lofoten. We got there around 545pm and it was going to be tight with a dinner reservation at 730pm. Parking was packed, but not insane. I found a place where I could pick up postcards, which offset cost of parking. Win-win.
We found the trailhead, which included walking on the motorway, and saw many people walking back. Roland told us the hike could take longer because it is 99% on steps so back-ups are likely.
It’s basically straight uphill for 900 uneven steps. Anyone who has hiked with me knows that I’m dreading going down these same steps (I am good going up). Put another way, you go up 1600 feet in 7/10ths of a mile. They have lots of benches along the way and they are there for a reason. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it), it wasn’t very crowded so no “forced stops.”
So, yeah, it was pretty relentless. It took us about 50 minutes to get up there and while some clouds were in the distance, they hadn’t rolled in yet. The views were UH-MAZE-ING. We really lucked out with the view and the lighting. Keep in mind it was 645pm local time when we were up there so no concern about daylight as we descended the stairs.
As I mentioned earlier, I love going uphill. I just treat it like a cardio workout and focus on getting up there. Going downhill, especially down a steep staircase gets in my head and scares the shit out of me. This hike was very steep, as evidenced by the pics. Marc zoomed down, waited for me at each of the benches, and it took about 45 minutes to get to the bottom.
Yes, the Becks’ were actually late for something - and this was dinner in Reine. They had cod tongue fritters and whale steak on the menu. We shared the former and I ordered the latter. The cod tongue fritters tasted like fried fish. The whale steak was very chewy and I just ate the veg on the plate. Marc’s lamb was also chewy, which made it hard to evaluate the whale since it seems like both meats were overcooked.
Sign for the rest rooms where we are. I agree!
At this point it was 945pm, and we had about 80 minutes of driving on a road that had very narrow stretches. But fortunately it was pretty light because, you know, Lofoten in July! Made it back and we just crashed as between the kayaking and the unexpected hike, we were just exhausted.