New Hiking Guide for Offersoykammen

There is now a hiking route guide for Offersøykamen, an easy hike on the west side of Vestvågøya.  CLICK HERE to check it out.

New Mountain Page – Ryten

New mountain hiking page for Ryten -CLICK HERE-

Second new page for the week, not too bad!  While the view from Reinebringen is perhaps Lofoten’s most iconic, if there is to be a runner up, then the view from the slopes of Ryten down to Kvalvika beach would be high on the list.  Ryten is an easy mountain walk that finished with you standing 500 meters almost directly above the sea and scenic views in every direction.

This will be my last update for the year; not that there’s many days left anyhow.  I’m pretty happy with the progress I’ve made in the last couple months, and I think the site is off to a pretty good start.  Once I’m finished adding all the info and guides here on the site, I’ll most likely begin working on some that pages more location and photography specific.  I’ll hopefully also turn these into (free) eBook downloads so you can take them with you to the islands; though the functionality I envision is somewhat beyond my technical and design abilities.  It will at least be a start to something useful.  I also get an email every once in a while about ‘the best of Lofoten.’  So I’ll probably write a suggested itinerary guide along the lines of ‘1 week on Lofoten – the best of.’  Or something along those lines.  Maybe a separate summer and winter version as well.

And the best new for me is, I’m already ticket shopping to head back to the islands in mid February…

Himmeltindan – New Hiking Guide

New hiking guide for Himmeltindan -CLICK HERE-

Himmeltindan, at 964 meters, is the highest peak on Vestvågøya and an exciting hike up a steep trail with airy view from the summit.

Autumn 2012 Photo Gallery

A surprise for the weekend.  the Autumn 2012 gallery from Sept – Oct is now online a bit ahead of schedule (I’m a little bored at the moment).

-CLICK HERE- to check it out!

I’ll probably add one more hiking page next week and then will take a bit of a break until the end of the year.  Hopefully in that time I’ll start to work on a bigger project that will eventually be added to the site here.  And I’ll probably also do a bit of house cleaning to bring a bit more consistency between some of the pages;  my main goal is to make all this info as clear, direct, and to the point as possible.  I really hate sites that are full of words, but don’t really tell you anything, or at least anything that you want to know.  Hopefully I can add something new in that regard…

New Hiking Guide – Hoven

New hiking guide is online for Hoven on Gimsøya.

-CLICK HERE- to check it out!

I’m also working on the final touches for the Autumn gallery, should be online early next week…

Summer 2012 Photo Gallery

A new photo gallery is up for images from August – September this year.  20 images total.  Locations include: Horseid beach, Kvalvika beach, Ryten, Stamsund, Utakleiv and a few more places.

-CLICK HERE- to view the gallery.

Horseid Beach Hiking Guide

I’ve added a new hiking guide for Horseid beach -CLICK HERE-

Horseid is probably my favorite beach on the Lofoten Islands, and I highly recommend making the effort to go there and camp for a couple nights.

I’ve changed up the format a little bit.  Instead of having just some rotating images at the top, I’ve now just inserted them in the post after all the text content; in the same style as the other beach guides I’ve written.

If you actually read this, I would greatly appreciate some feedback as to which style you prefer best: Rotating images at the top of post, or all the images displayed within the body of the post.  On the one hand, the rotating images is a bit cleaner look, but if you actually want to study the image for longer than a second or two, having them within the post seems a bit better.  If you guys like it, I might update everything to this format…

Next week I should get around to adding new Summer and Autumn photo galleries.  I’ve edited and selected the images, now all I need to do is downsize and upload them.

New Guide – Lofoten’s 3 Best Beaches

I’ve just added a new article for the three best beaches on the Lofoten Islands. Kvalvika, Bunes, and Horseid beaches

CLICK HERE — to check in out.

This article differs from the older ‘Top 5 Beaches‘ travel guide I had in that it was possible to drive and park at all of those.  To reach to truly best beaches on Lofoten, You’re going to have to put your legs to a bit of work and do some hiking (and also a ferry for Bunes and Horseid).  But the effort is worth it as they are truly spectacular places and and least 1-2 of them should be near the top of any travel itinerary when visiting the islands.

New Hiking Guide – Kvalvika Beach

I’ve just added a new hiking and camping page for Kvalvika Beach.  A few photos as well.

–CLICK HERE–

Check it out! And if you like what I’m doing here and think any of my info is useful, please help me out a bit and spread the word to your friends.  The more traffic this place gets, the more motivation I’ll have to make cool (free) stuff for you guys…

I’ve already began uploading images to my archive some photos from the August/September part of my travels, 50 online so far.  –CLICK HERE– if you want to see them. Otherwise, I’ll hopefully get a quick edit down to about 20 images and have a new gallery online here by the end of the week.

Updates coming soon!

I’m finally finished with my travels for the year, which included about 4 weeks on Lofoten:  Two weeks catching the end of summer in late August and then back again for Autumn at the end of September/beginning of October.

August proved to be somewhat stormy, but I still managed a few days out in the mountains and some wonderful nights camping at Horseid and Kvalvika beaches.

As I returned again at the end of September, I was mostly expecting just to shoot some Autumn color and be content with walking away with a few good photos.  But the Autumn remained mild and calm, and day after day I found myself on top of one mountain or another: Skottind, Himmeltind, Offersoykammen, and Hoven.  I tried to save these for the days with the best weather, but wasn’t always successful in this regard.  But all in all, I exceeded my expected productivity for this part of the trip.

My only disappointment comes in regards to the northern lights.  From August till October, I spend 6 weeks north of the Arctic Circle: 4 on Lofoten, 2 in north Sweden hiking on the Kungsleden.  Though in this time I only ever saw a few minor displays that weren’t particularly photogenic.  That is until my last night in Lofoten, when the entire sky lit up from horizon to horizon for the best Aurora that I’ve ever seen.  The only problem was that I was aboard the Hurtigurten, sailing across the Vestfjord to Bodø.  Thus I could only watch, knowing I couldn’t take any photos.  But as I like to say, it’s just all the more reason to go back and try my luck again.  At the moment I have the end of February roughly scheduled for my next visit.

If I can keep myself to a decent writing schedule I should be able to add one new page per week or so, plus couple new photo galleries as well.  And if anyone has any suggestions on info you’d like to see that I’ve yet to write about, let me know and I’ll do my best…