Sunday 10th July
The cloud overnight had continued to thicken, out west the cloud was even darker. I was awoken at 9am by the sound of a very loud roar, at first I thought it was thunder, but realised that it had been roaring just a little too long. I popped my head out of the tent to be greeted with the sight of a large rockfall occurring on the north face of Prestind. A thick cloud of dust could be seen streaming down one part of the face to the snow and scree blow. This was not a rock face for climbing! After the spectacle, I went back to sleep.

It was to be a day of rest. After two very heavy days, I deserved some relaxation. Analysing my timetables, I realised that this afternoon and evening there was a relatively well connected series of busses and ferries to take us as far as Sortland in the lofoten Islands. At midday I finally roused from my stupor and began the task of making breakfast. The others awoke and also started breakfast. The patchy drizzle of the morning become more steady, increasing in tempo to moderate rain. We hadn't climbed Stetind a moment too soon.

Waiting in shelter for the bus

At Lodingen, as the rain clears

Soon we were packed and began our descent back down to the highway where we waited just 45minutes for the bus to pick us up. This was a minibus that took us to the main E6 where it connected with a larger bus that took us to the ferry port, Skarberget, at the mouth of Tysfjord. We took a ferry across Tysfjord to Bogen where another connecting Ferry took us to Lodingen. The rain cleared as we docked, the air feeling much cooler. We had another wait of about an hour for the bus to Sortland and finally at Sortland, we had a 1km walking up a hill to an official campsite. While it was a "rest" day, it involved much travel. I was glad we weren't at the mercy of badly connected services.

Monday 11th July
Sortland is a pleasant town with around 4000 inhabitants. On the other side of the sound lies the Island of Hinnoya, the largest island in Norway. These mountains thrust into the air from the sea. Many of the mountains were reminiscent of the summits around Glen Coe and of a similar scale.

New way of carrying tent!

Sortland, it's bridge and the mountains behind

We caught a bus to Svolvaer on the Island of Austvagoya, very much the heart of the lofoten Islands. The weather that morning was cloudy, but bright with all the summits clear. The Svolvaer goat was clear to see, rising just ~300m above the town. It was to turn out to be another rest day. After some shopping in Svolvaer, including the purchase of fresh shrimps from a fisherman, we headed off on a Bus towards Henningsvaer - a remarkable town situated on an Island off the southernmost tip of Austvagoya.

At Svolvear

At our capsite in "Paradiset"

2km before Henningsvaer we left the bus where some remarkable patches of grass exist between the road and some excellent rock climbing cliffs. A tap feeding off the main water supply to Henningsvaer ensured that the site was usable as there were no streams in the vicinity. This place was known as "Paradiset" in the climbing community. It is a corner of lofoten that's well documented in climbing literature with a combination of quality rock climbs and ease of access that makes it unique. 2km away in Henningsvaer is the Nordnorsk klateskole. It is a place, rich in climbing history. The klateskole not only has a bar with many live performances and climbing paraphenalia, but it also runs mountaineering courses and it publishes the guide book: "Climbing in the magic Islands" by Ed Webster. In a way, it's a merge between the Clachaig Inn in Glen Coe and Glen More lodge school of mountaeering and is every bit as famous as its scottish counterparts.

Henningsvear harbour

Cheap, dont you think?

We weren't the only ones at "paradiset". It turns out that this patch of land is very popular with campers. Unfortunately, the lack of toilet facilities has meant that the place was rather badly littered. It had all the characteristics of a good wild camping spot spoilt. Worse was the road, barely 25m away, Henningsvaer was a popular place and it ensured much traffic on the road. However, hitchhiking on this road was a doddle and generally we found that the 3rd car along would stop to offer a lift. We walked to Henningsvaer that afternoon, not returning to our tents until 2am the following morning. We had a lot of sightseeing, including a lot of mucking about on the defensive sea wall, Then we had probably the most expensive beer in our lives. It was a good night.

Tuesday 12th & Wednesday 13th July
Two more days were spent at paradiset. After last night, we all had a lie in. In the afternoon Me, Ally and Rich went out climbing at the side of Djupfjorden. This was a UK Severe climb of three pitches. I brought a little too much stuff with me, and at one point I had to give my rucksack over to Rich, a more competent climber, so I could complete the climb. During the afternoon, the showers became more prolonged to the point where we just wanted to finish up and descend back to the road. Heading back to our campsite, we saw Nic, Jamie and Rob approaching us in the opposite direction. When just 30m away, a car pulled over and offered Me, Ally and Rich a lift. It was hilarious timing!

The wall of Presten

The valley of Djupfjorden

The terrain around here is astonashingly rough. North of Djupfjorden lies Sorfjellet. Sorfjellet is a 3km ridge just breaching the 400m contour. Despite its height, it is razor sharp and puts ridges like Scotlands Aonach Eagach ridge to shame. On the next day, after a prolonged torrential rain shower washed out thoughts of climbing Vagarkallen at 942m, we considered Sorfjellet as an "easy" alternative. At 200m altitude, we turned back realising that the ridge demanded climbing. Even the concilliation walk along Djupfjorden was no easy feat. Large boulders make access very slow, even by the standards of the rest of Norway.

On the evening of Wednesday, we headed back to Henningsvaer for a live performance at the Klatreskole.

Thursday 14th & Friday 15th July
The last two days had been showery in nature, with some sun, but a certain bias towards rain. Thursday saw the arrival of frontal rain, and friday was just simply driech with low cloud and drizzle making everything soaked. On thursday we relocated to a campsite at Svolvaer. It was a holiday centre, quite cheap at £5 per night, but included free use of a cabin (with other campers), a sauna and showers. It was probably the best deal I've had for camping for a long while. We didn't do much on Thursday.

Friday was our last full day together. But with the weather damp (as it had been for the last five days), we certainly needed the movtivation for walking. At some late hour in the morning we headed out north for Rundfjellet. We thought it would be an easy day, and were enlightened with the prospect of an improvement in the weather. We followed a path before dropping down to a boggy eroded ski-trail. Crossing a suspension bridge at the neck between two lakes, we continued north on a soggy wet path on the west side of Straumea. My motivationg was struggling, yet both Nic and Jamie stripped off to their undies and jumped into the freezing lake! They are quite a character.

At the end of the lake was a small hydroelectric power station. We followed the pipe up before branching off left up a rather damp and eroded path. Somewhere above the treeline we stopped for tea. It was 2pm, still drizzling and no sign of improvement. I think it was the prospect of how far we had yet to go in relation to progress so far that made us turn back but we were certainly in damp spirits.

Returning back to the campsite, the weather slowly showed signs of slight improvement (though only for two hours). It was enough for the group to gear up for Svolveargeita, but I was the odd one out and was unable to be fitted into one of the two climbing teams. Nic and Jamie turned back after Jamie realised he forgot his helmet. The others returned at 2am the following day.

Saturday 16th & Sunday 17th July
At last the weather was on the mend. Sadly, it was the end of the trip. We caught a bus back from Svolvear to Evenes airport. Stetind made the trip all the worthwhile, and even if Lofoten was damp, it was having some mates along with me that made it better.

At Svolvear, waiting for the bus

Sortland bridge and coastal steamer

On the bus

There was a moment of sadness waving them off at the airport. While I've seen my friends a few times since, this holiday was the last time that we were all together. Since then, we've slowly started to drift apart as each of them set new priorities in their lives.

Waving goodbye to friends

Deer crossing

The next day I was on my way home, after spending a night in my tent for the last time - at my little favourite camping spot just 2 minutes from the airport terminal. Today was glorious, soon my editor would be arriving at Lofoten, and little did I know then how many good walks he was able to notch up on these islands.