Monday 20th July 2026

Today we travelled north to the village of Laukvik and parked by the harbour.

Beautiful view but not a very nice smell!

Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions..........

........of fish heads strung up on drying racks!

We moved on travelling east. We parked in a small layby with a stunning view to the north.........

........and to the south! We had a cup of tea and some cake. We would have liked to stop here for the day but the layby was on a bit of a slope and we probably couldn't have got level even with ramps.

We moved on east to Fiskebol and parked for the day on a large level car park right next to the busy E10 road. Here's the view from the sliding door on the side of our van.

Here's the view looking out from the front of the vehicle.

We wiled away the afternoon looking at the stupendous views and watching other vehicles come and go.

Today we travelled 30 miles (48 kilometres). We are at: N68.42423 E14.84097

Fiskebol       Street View

Sunday 19th July 2026

Today we travelled east from Stamsund to Solvaer where, after much searching, I found a "laundrette" in a small building on a jetty in the marina. We packed all our dirty laundry into a big bag and made our way over.

The laundrette turned out to be two washing machines and two dryers in a pokey little room. One of the washing machines was reputed to be out of order and the other was being used so we decided to give it a miss!

We left Solvaer and travelled north on the E10 to a rest area with a sewage disposal point. Then we went west a few kilometres on a B type road to this nice level parking area where we stopped for the day.

It's a wooded area.

Here a backpacker guards his four mates backpacks while three of them are off fishing and the fourth is fiddling with his smartphone down at the other end of the parking area.

There are some nice views from here.

There ar four other vans here tonight. Belgian, French, German and Polish registration plates. We watched the first half of the World Cup Final on my smartphone as there was no TV reception. We went to bed during the dubious half time show! Result Argentina 0 Spain 1, apparently Trump tried to muscle in on Spain's victory celebrations!

Today we travelled 58 miles (93 kilometres). We are at: N68.31273 E14.57513

Near Vestpollen     Street view from 2022 since then the parking area has been enlarged

 

Saturday 18th July 2026

It was a beautiful morning early on at Storsandnes Beach. We reluctantly left and travelled west.

We paid a visit to Flakstad Church - highly rated in our Wild Scandinavia guidebook.

The church was built with wood from Russia which was exchanged for fish! Unfortunately the church was locked so we couldn't go inside.

We travelled back east, through the undersea tunnel to Leknes, where we did a supermarket shop, bought whiskey and sherry at Vinmonopolet, took on water and bought a flexible ruler in lieu of a flyswatter!

We then travelled south east to the port village of Stamsund and parked for the day on this rough area next to the sea. We stayed on this very spot on 31st May 2014.

We are just over the road from the Live Lofoten Hotel. As I remember it this building was being used to house refugees in 2014. I don't think it was a hotel then.

The Hurtigruten Dock is on the far right of this picture. See: Hurtigruten

I remenber this statue from when we visited over 12 years ago. I don't know who it portrays.

There is a plac on this "menhir" next to the statue.

We set off for a ride/walk around the village and port.

We passed the Co-op.

Relics from WW2 ?

Ann is getting very good at avoiding potholes!

There are lots of boats here but no one much is around.

We went along various quays.

When we got to the Hurtigruten Quay we encountered what we took to be a wedding party!

A Netherlands registered van turned up and parked near us. As you can see the telephoto on my smartphone isn't up to much!

Mural at the Hurtigruten Dock.

And another mural. Note Hurtigruten ship in the distance.

We visited a few more quays before returning to our van.

The Netherlands registered van has a lot of ramp at the front this evening.

We went out for a meal at the Live Lofoten Hotel. We could keep an eye on our van from our table.

Ann had vegetables and I had fish - all very nice and very expensive!

At 19.15 the northbound Hurtigrute Nordlys docked at Stamsund for 25 minutes.

Then at 22.15 the southbound ship Nordnorge docked briefly. 

We watched France 4 England 6 World Cup Bronze Medal Match on Norwegian TV.

Today we travelled 41 miles (66 kilometres). We are at: N68.12376 E13.84189

Stamsund      Street View

Friday 17th July 2026

 This morning we put out some cereal we don't like ourselves for the birds.

The weather seems a bit better than yesterday.

I took a walk on Storsandnes Beach.

The sheep often wander onto the beach.

It was low tide, exposing these beautiful rocks.

There is another good parking place a bit further on, seen here on the left.

Looking back from the beach to our parking place. Most of the other vans which had stayed over had gone by now.

The low tide revealed large beds of seaweed.

There are some beautiful rock pools.

I loved trying to catch shrimps and prawns in rock pools when I was a little boy!

I found a nice flat topped rock to sit on for a while before returning to our van.

Later on in the day Ann decided to go on the beach.

I showed her my flat topped rock.

We both sat on it for a while before returning to our van.  It was really quite difficult for Ann to get on and off the beach as the way down (and up) from our parking place was steep! Once again several more vans turned up and stayed over.