Shelter from the Storm

06/10/2025

With Storm Amy gathering strength we disembarked from the ferry and made our way to another camper stop.

Laukvik Bobilcamp

Laukvik is a fishing village on the north coast of the Lofotens. We drove there along the coast road from Fiskebøl, past a couple of deep sandy bays with calm turquoise water despite the strong winds whipping up the sea on the exposed coast. The last part of the approach to Laukvik was along a narrow village roads with multiple speed controlling humps that were steep enough to rattle the contents of our cupboards.

Laukvik has a sheltered harbour where it’s fishing fleet is based. The camper parking is on the outer harbour. A disintegrating breakwater provides some shelter from the open sea, but the pounding of the waves has started to break it apart. Fencing blocked off the far end of the pier where the concrete had disappeared leaving only large rocks with dangerously deep gaps between.

Looking back towards the camper parking from the breakwater

Most of the camper parking is on a large rock and concrete platform with the water of the outer harbour on two sides. This didn’t look like it was going to give us much shelter from the wind but we managed to find a spot behind a rocky mound that would hopefully block the worst gusts. As a bonus we were able to reach a nearby hookup point for electricity.

In the centre of the parking is a building, it looks like it may have once been an administrative building for the harbour but now it provides camper facilities. Downstairs are bathrooms and a large communal washing/drying room. Upstairs, accessed from external steps, is a kitchen. The washing machines were included in the price of the camper stop, even though we’d only recently washed all of our clothes we couldn’t pass up this opportunity so I stripped the bed and washed the bedding and our towels.

A windy night

That evening, as promised on the signs around the building, someone came to collect our payment.  We saw more aurora as the wind pushed the clouds swiftly overhead. Although we were quite well hidden from the worst of the wind we were still subjected to an occasional violent rocking that jolted us awake.

The following morning the wind was still blowing and we woke up slowly, catching up on our sleep and allowing ourselves the luxury of some time chilling in the van. Paul got a haircut and a beard trim and we both had good hot showers. We ventured out to explore the village which was obviously in hibernation after the summer tourist season. Just a couple of families were enjoying the last Sunday of the autumn holidays.

Fish drying racks – we have a lot of photos of these

Climbing Matmora?

We debated staying for a second night but our optimism won out. If the wind continued to drop we would probably be able to manage a walk the following day, so why not move to the trailhead parking for the walk and save ourselves a night’s camping fees.

We drove back the way we had come to the parking for the ‘Matmora’ walk. Amazingly there were a few cars parked in the small clearing and we watched the hardy Norwegians returning to their cars after their Sunday walks.

Eventually we were left alone in the car park. We wondered if we would see any wildlife but the only sounds from outside were the occasional squeak of a twig on our bodywork.

Nestled in the corner of the car park

The following day we woke to slightly lower winds but drizzle. Undeterred we donned full waterproofs and set off to walk up Matmora.

The full ridge walk here is a point to point walk, requiring a bus to bring us back. As the weather was not great and the bus timetables infrequent, we decided to walk to the peak of Matmora and then retrace our steps back again. The walk started with a rocky climb up to the ridgeline. At the bottom of each rocky section was a deep damp peat sludge, washed down by the rains. Ptarmigan were hiding in the rocks, some now showing their winter white plumage as they burst out of their hiding spots with a loud squawking.

As we got higher we started to see the views, behind us was the sea and one of the sandy bays we had driven past a couple of days previously. In front of us the ridge climbed into the cloud. We stopped to take some shelter from the wind behind a large rocky outcrop and braced ourselves for being even more exposed.

Hiding from the wind

The next part of the walk was around a plateau on top of the ridge. The wind was blowing and the drizzle was being forced into every nook and cranny. We were very happy we’d worn all of our waterproof gear as we trudged to the end of the plateau and climbed up onto the next part of the ridge above forbidding cliffs.

In the end we didn’t make it all the way to Matmora, we stopped at the first summit on the ridge where the cloud was swirling around us. It was a spectacular walk but the weather was not improving and we didn’t see the point of continuing into the cloud. In weather like this we were just happy we’d got out at all.

Watching the clouds cover the peak of Matmora

We headed back down, following the other edge of the plateau for a change. At the van we stripped off our outer layers and hung them in the bathroom. The warmth of the diesel heater was very welcome, as was a hot drink.