Les Iles Lofoten/Lofoten Islands

Après notre nuit sous la tente, nous voici partis enfin sur les Iles Lofoten. Il fait assez beau mais le brouillard est toujours là.

Notre premier arrêt sera à Henningsvær, où on visitera ce petit village pendant quelques heures... Les routes sont assez étroites, et on va dire que les Norvégiens conduisent comme des tarés, on les surnommera les "Italiens du Nord"...

On continuera nos visites avec d´autres villages tels que Hamnoy, Reine, Moskenes, Sorvågen, Å.... Les villages sont aussi beaux les uns que les autres... On passera une seconde nuit dans la voiture à cause du froid... La journée suivante, on prendra un bâteau à Reine pour aller dans un mini village (qui n´a pas de nom car y a que 4 maisons) et on fera une randonnée pour finir sur une magnifique plage de sable et faire un peu de bronzette !! Il fait +18 !

Aprés avoir passé 2 jours dans la voiture et une nuit sous une tente, on louera une chambre dans une auberge de jeunesse, pour à peu près 60 € (douche toilette sur le palier, pas de petit déjeuner, vous comprenez pourquoi on a pris la tente !). On appréciera la douche ! Et le fait de faire dodo dans un lit ! Cette chambre se trouve à Å, dernier village à la pointe des Iles Lofoten. Ce fût un moment appréciable. 

Le lendemain, on reprendra la route pour partir en direction de Kiruna pour prendre le train. On fera les dernières visites de l´Ile (visite de l´usine de poissons séchés par exemple), et nous revoilà en Laponie. Les paysages sont différents mais magnifiques aussi. On passera la porte de la Laponie (photo)... et notre dernière nuit dans la tente, se passera près d´un lac suédois, et on retrouvera nos chers moustiques...

Le dernier jour, avant de reprendre le train pour 22h Kiruna - Göteborg, on le passera à Kiruna. On visitera la mine de fer avec un gros projet entre la ville et la mine... La mine entraine la destruction de la ville, alors l´entreprise a décidé de "déplacer la ville" : http://www.rfi.fr/sciencefr/articles/096/article_60398.asp 

Notre voyage en Norvège s´est super bien passé. Malgré la pluie, le froid, le fait qu´il n´y ait pas de nuit, la vie chère... on a vraiment aimé ce raod trip à travers les fjords norvégiens.

Islands of Lofoten

Finally in Lofoten - not a place that will leave you disappointed. We started driving all the small roads to get to see as much as possible. Since we didn't have any plans or time to keep track of, we took the days as they came. Apart from stopping everywhere to enjoy the views, we visited many small towns, all of which either live of fishing or, nowadays, tourists. As everyone know, Norway is expensive and Lofoten is for sure nor exception. It's well worht the price though.

In Reine, we took a boat in to one of the fjord early one morning - then we had the whole day to hike and explore. We headed of the north side and discovered a huge beach enlclosed by high mountain walls. A look around and realized that there was no other tracks to follow (it was simply too step), we spent the day on a beach, half naked getting tanned! Amazing weather. Although it was hot, the water was freezing cold - two minutes with your feet in and you started to get numb for the cold. We spent our night in the tent or in the car, but splashed out one night and used a hostel - a most welcomed shower awaited together with a night outside, downing some beers and just loving life.

When we headed back we spent most of one day driving. Crossing over into Sweden we came across another type of landscape since the altitude was higher. It was bare rock everywhere we looked and dotted over the landscape where many small wooden cottages. We continued and drove along Torne Träsk - a big lake with splendid views. On this east side of the mountains the weather was quite a lot warmer - no cold winds that we so often felt down by the coast in Norway.

Our last day of this trip we spent in Kiruna, a town with no interest - except the hige iron ore mine. We went on a tour! 500 meters below ground we were amazed at the mine and all the structure around it. The iron ore body goes diagonally down the ground, and continues under the town of Kiruna. This means a lot of crack are starting to develop the more they mine and are threatening the whole town. No worries, they will move the whole town! It about 25 000 inhabitants and will cost approx. 14 billion kronor. No worries, this company makes about 12 billion in profits every year! And uses 2 % of Swedens total energy use! Bloody hell - it was interesting to say the least.

All that was left was 20+ on a night train - unfortunately next to someone who snored all through the night. But what a trip!