Kajsa and Fredrik were one of a total of three winners who got to borrow a roof tent from Taktältarna during the summer of 2022. If you want to see more of their trip - here are all the Insta Stories from their trip collected !
We started our journey in Sunne, Värmland, and made our way up to Bodö in Norway. From Bodö we took a ferry across to Å at the far end of Lofoten and then started to head towards the mainland and stopped at several places along the way for about a week. On the Norwegian mainland, we went up to Fjordgård in Senja and the mountain peak Segla. After that we made our way down again towards Narvik and then across to Sweden via Riksgränsen and Abisko down to Saltoluokta . After a few nights there, we followed the E45 down to Dorotea and home to Sunne.
Our itinerary was quite spontaneous. We wanted to visit Lofoten, so it seemed to make the most sense to start from the outside and work our way inwards, so as not to have to drive even further. Since then, Fredrik has wanted to visit Segla for a very long time, so we chose to go up there as well. After that we just drove down in Sweden, saw the sign for Saltoluokta and turned off!
- On the days when the weather was with us, we went on day trips to various mountain peaks. On the days when it rained and the weather was less fun, we went around and looked at the beautiful nature, stayed in small communities and walked around there. We also visited some friends who live in Lofoten and went on a day trip with them. On the way home, we stopped at Saltoluokta Mountain Station in Sweden and went for a walk there.
- The trip up to the mountain peak Segla by the small village of Fjordgård was probably our absolute favorite. To get there, we went through several very long tunnels and then, all of a sudden, we came out to a tiny little village in the middle of a fjord. Although there were quite a lot of people there, the village felt so cut off from the rest of the world. The weather was quite foggy and rainy when we went out so it felt a bit dystopian, but when we started to go up towards the top the sun came out and it was an absolutely magical view!
- We were pleasantly surprised that it was as tourist-friendly as it was in Norway. There were a lot of toilets and showers that were actually just for tourists. Wherever we went, we could almost always find a small, simple campsite with simple standing places, drinking water, toilet and shower for 200-250 kroner.
The Norwegians have nevertheless accepted the great tourism that is and tried to make the best of it! In Sweden, we did not experience the same ease of finding toilets, cheap campsites and so on.
- Good, the ferries ran often and it was easy to get on. We stood in line for the ferry in Lofoten for maybe 30 minutes then we got on. However, if you get seasick easily, the ferry is not recommended! The ferry goes out over fairly open sea in the big bay between Lofoten and the Norwegian mainland, so it was an incredibly bumpy boat ride. Fredrik, who gets seasick very easily, and the majority of others on the ferry had quite a struggle! Otherwise, driving worked well, on Lofoten there were petrol stations in more places than we thought and the roads were better than expected.
Difficult, it was a constant fight with all the German campers! The campers lined up quite early in the best spots so some evenings when we came back late from day trips we had to drive for almost two hours to find a free spot.
- Being able to lie in the roof tent in the evenings and look out at the midnight sun when everything around calmed down was really cozy. And that we slept so surprisingly well in the roof tent!
- The constant search for a good place to stand for the evening took considerably more time than we had expected.
- Some type of wind/rain cover that you could pull up to have somewhere to sit next to the car when it rained.
- A good camera, brass chairs, storm kitchen and crossword puzzle to solve in the roof tent while you lie and watch the midnight sun! And VERY warm and waterproof clothes! The weather in northern Norway was more against us than with us ;)
- It's an incredibly nice trip, but it's good to prepare yourself for perhaps spending more time camping than you think. I was surprised at what a fierce fight there was every day for good, natural standing places. We probably had an image that every night we would find the perfect standing place for ourselves, but everyone else has that image too. So several times we ended up only taking in a campsite for SEK 250. Which was still nice because of access to the toilet, shower and so on.
