Our second base during our 6 days in Lofoten was in Haukland, a few minutes stroll from a nice white sand beach. We stayed in a very good, spacious and well equipped Airbnb house, all to ourselves, at the extremely reasonable price of £80 per night, 5 mins stroll to the shore.
It was a far cry price-wise from the eye watering cost of lovely Sakrisoy Rorbuer, much as we loved it.
The weather turned a bit drizzly in Haukland but we loved the easy coastal walk round to Uttakleiv and back over the hill pass to our base.We also got part way up Mannen but the high winds finally drove us back.
It didn’t look promising at all for that walk, with a storms promised later and hefty showers lashing the house windows. Heavy grey clouds swept in ominously from the south. But what the heck, we had good gear and plenty of it so off we set.It’s a beautiful area, though the beach always had a clutter of camper vans and tents behind it and it must get really busy in high summer.
It’s a cracking wide track to Uttakleiv, very flat and sitting just above the turquoise sea.Showers blew in occasionally but mostly they missed us.The perpendicular mountain wall to our right was typical of Lofoten and I can’t honestly say I found many of these mountains very inviting to hike; intimidatingly steep.
But there were fine coastal views throughout, really stunning and Uttakleiv was a very attractive place to arrive at after 45 mins or so.We dawdled the whole way, as I took lots of photos so it could easily be done in far less.But why rush through a beautiful landscape?
Had a break for some crisps and fruit beside the beach,which had a lovely grassy background, almost like Hebridean machair. Some sun even came out, lighting up the impressive mountain backdrop.
Then we made our way to the beautifully built hill track over to Haukland. It was also the route used for many years by local schoolchildren, before the coastal path was built.
The sun was making an appearance now though it was blowing a hoolie too, but the mountain of Mannen called us given how high up we were now. It’s classed as an ‘easy’ hike by Lofoten standards. Almost immediately we started on the narrow ascent path, we remembered how incredibly slippy hiking in Lofoten can be; I could hardly get any purchase on the clay/earthen surface with my boots.I tried coming off it onto rougher ground which is often ok to walk on, but it was poorer terrain than I expected; basically small boulders covered in moss and bilberry with big holes in between.Very awkward and I say that as folks who are used to difficult terrain at home!
Noticed a guided group starting up the hill too, just behind us.
Some really great views opened up very quickly, as our route skirted quite close to the cliffs but as we started to ascend a scrambly rock band, the wind nearly knocked us flat.Wow.It was wild; that first section must have been quite sheltered.No fun walking a cliff-edged ridge in high winds so after a brief discussion about what to do, we about turned.
I really hate doing that – oh, the sense of failure! But as I looked longingly back up the hill, wondering if we did the right thing, the guided group had decided the same and were retreating too. Sensible decision I suppose.
It was good to get down though and onto better ground again, but as we rejoined the path down to Haukland, there had been a large landslip in the past and the track had become a ravine.Negotiated our way across a jumble of boulders above the gully then some steep ground before it all flattened out again and we were striding out down to the beach.Not surprised the villagers demanded a better track for their children given how prone it must have been to rockfall at various points.
But what a lovely walk all in – stunning coastal scenery, nice beaches.Wild country in the hinterland.Wonderful.
Other Norway adventures – HIKING NORWAY’S HIGHEST MOUNTAIN and THE TROLLFJORD AND SEA EAGLES GALORE and LOFOTEN HIKES – RYTEN AND KVALVIKA BEACH
THE BEST OF SCOTLAND 