Around Andøya and onto Stø

29/09/2025

Since landing in Harstad we had been on a group of tightly packed islands close to the north west coast of Norway. The Islands make an interesting shaped archipelago, if you squint a little it might look like an anvil tipped on it’s side. We thought at first that the whole thing was ‘the Lofotens’, but the Lofoten district is just the long tapering point of the anvil that extends south west. To the north, the ‘heel’ of the Anvil, is the district of Vesterålen.

North to Andenes

We’d originally planned to arrive in Andenes, at the very northernmost tip of Vesterålen, by ferry. But the ferry route doesn’t run in winter and we’d missed the last ferry by a few days. Instead we drove the ‘main road’ through the island of Andøya. On the way we stopped to do our services, we’d had a few nights off grid and were rather desperate to empty the toilet. Unlike a lot of the services we’d encountered these were provided by a fuel station so we had to pay. I popped into the shop to make the 50 NOK payment. They seemed to be doing a brisk trade in pølse and burgers even on a Sunday morning.

Andenes itself was quiet, a ghost town with a selection of empty car parks. Reading reviews this village is really busy in the summer, presumably because everyone on the trail from Tromso to Lofoten passes through here.

They call Andenes the whale watching capital of Norway with it’s proximity to the deep arctic ocean, but the boats from the whale watching operation bobbed in the harbour and the only activity was maintenance and building work.

We walked out along the long harbour wall, from the tall ox-blood lighthouse covered in scaffolding, to the stumpy white lighthouse at it’s far end. Here we got an amazing close up view of a pair of sea eagles who were swooping over the harbour and finding perches where they could watch us with an imperious eye. This majestic sight made our day.

Vesterålen Scenic Route

It was too early to think about stopping here in Andenes so we decided to drive the scenic route along the north west coast of the island and see whether we could find somewhere we fancied en-route.

This was such a stunning drive with the sea on our right, long sandy beaches interspersed with rocky outcrops, and jagged hills on our left.

The rest stop at Kleivodden restplace allowed us to stretch our legs. Further along Bukkekjerka restplace had a loo with a view which we just had to experience. There was once a fishing village here and, going even further back, the headland next to the rest place is an ancient Sami sacred site.

We scouted out the campsites at Bleik and Stave but both were expensive and very quiet. We decided to give them a miss for the moment and the nearby mountain of Måtind will wait for another trip.

We passed the Andøya space station, this was formerly a rocket launch site and has been redeveloped to launch small satellites. The scenic route is sometimes closed due to activity at the space station.

The space station can be seen in the distance

Langøya

Very soon we had made a complete circuit of Andøya and were heading off to the neighbouring island of Langøya. We still hadn’t found an overnight location that suited us so we drove north, heading for a Bobilcamp near the fishing village of Stø.

Stø has a huge harbour which protects the northern facing village from the arctic ocean. In high season you can take whale watching trips from here, or stay in rorbuer (fishing huts),  or park up your motorhome at the bobilcamp.

The bobilcamp is a flat area of rough parking at the far end of the harbour with a small facilities block, a cafe and a sauna. The site was quiet, the reception was shut and all facilities were locked. Paul headed straight out for some fishing while I tried to work out how to pay. As we don’t have VIPPS the notice in the window of reception suggested we should make payment in the village cafe. I wandered along the road to see if I could find it, but it was closed. Frustrated, I returned to the parking where the weak evening sun tempted me for a swim in the calm black waters of the harbour.

With the clear skies we were treated to a beautiful sunset

Walk to Nyksund

The next morning we set out to walk the coast path to Nyksund on the next headland. This is part of the long circular route ‘Dronningruta’ – the Queens Route. There are a number of Norwegian hiking routes named for Queen Sonja who is a keen outdoorswoman and hiked this trail in 1994.

We’d originally planned to do the whole route and had set our alarms for an early start, but when we we woke up the wind was howling. Almost immediately we knew we wouldn’t end up doing the whole route, we didn’t fancy being buffeted on top of the hills. Thankfully the hills also gave the coast a little shelter so we decided to just walk the coastal stretch there and back.

The route took us past the beautiful sandy beach of Skipssand where peat erosion has prompted signs to direct people away from the boundary where sand and peat meet. Then the coast became rockier, backed by grass and the tree clad hills. A small hut provided shelter (with a firepit) with a view out to sea. The golden autumn colours were beautiful under the blue skies.

We walked along a strip of land between a lake and the sea. At the far end of the lake we crossed some stepping stones over a stream and then had to ascend to a saddle that separates this stretch of coast from Nyksund. At the beginning of the ascent were a small group of houses. We wondered how they had been built in this area that is only accessible by footpath or sea, especially as it didn’t seem very easy to land a boat on the nearby shore.

We got to the top of the pass and looked down to the coast beyond. As we huddled in the shelter of a rock to eat our snacks we considered whether we wanted to walk down to Nyksund only to walk back up again. Laziness won out and we retraced our steps back to the van.

Back at the van it was time to move on. As we drove back through the village we stopped to see if the cafe was open, but it was as firmly shut as the day before. A welcome freebie that we didn’t feel too guilty about given that none of the facilities were open.