This is part III of my road trip to the Nordkapp. You can find part I here.
After visiting Senja we drove to the Lofoten, one of my favorite places in Scandinavia.
Lofoten
Lofoten is an archipelago in northern Norway known for its dramatic scenery with steep mountains and sheltered beaches. There are 5 large islands there which are interconnected by bridges and some more which can only be accessed by boat.
I’ve visited the Lofoten more than 10 times in the past, summer, and winter. But this was my first trip to the Lofoten with an EV.
After a 1 hour 50 kW DC charge in Evenes, right at the north-eastern edge of the Lofoten, we had another charging stop in Svolvær, the largest city on the Lofoten. We tried to activate the charger first with our Audi card and then via the dedicated app. Sadly both options didn’t work. Next, we called the hotline. They were again extremely friendly and offered to remotely start the charging without asking for any credit card data or other payment methods. Something I’ve never experienced in Germany. I’m really impressed by the customer service of the energy providers in Norway.
We spent our first night on the Lofoten in Kabelvåg close to the Lofoten Aquarium where you can find a nice elevated viewpoint.
The next day we continued our trip to Henningsvær. We had some really dark clouds and sunshine at the same time on that day, leading to some lovely rainbows and dramatic light.
Recently Henningsvær got some attention on Instagram for it’s spectacular soccer field.
But in addition to this rather new attraction, it’s a lovely colorful fishing village with many nice stores, cafés, and restaurants.
There is even a slow 11 kW Type 2 charger at the parking lot. It has to be activated with the Easy Park App and costs 6€ per hour (for parking and charging combined).
One of the newer attractions in Henningsvær is the KaviarFactory Art Exhibition.
It’s a rather small but high-quality exhibition, focusing on modern art and photography from international and local artists. It’s definitely worth a visit.
For the next three nights, we had booked an apartment in Leknes. The main reason was that this is the last place on the Lofoten with a 50 kW DC charger. Further west chargers are extremely sparse and very slow. In addition, this charger even accepted our Audi card. Altogether we charged there 4 times during the 3 days. Luckily the charger was never occupied by another EV during that time.
From Leknes, we explored on day trips some of the touristic highlights of the Lofoten. Our first stop was at the famous ‘eye’ in Utakleiv.
Next, we explored the historic fishing village Nusfjord.
We also shot there some timelapse from a hill above Nusfjord.
In Ramberg, you can find a beautiful sandy beach. In sunny weather, you will quickly forget that you are north of the Arctic Circle and your hometown in Germany is about as far away as the North Pole (both about 2400 km).
Another lovely fishing village on the Lofoten is Hamnøy.
The most famous village on the Lofoten is probably Reine and this is fully justified.
The road on the Lofoten ends in Å (pronounced [ɔː]), another beautiful historic fishing village.
After our visit to Å, we drove back to Leknes and then further east to Svolvaer. We had planned to take the ferry from Svolvær to Skutvik on the Hamarøy peninsula. But sadly when the ferry finally arrived at the terminal we were told that it has some technical problems and won’t be able to leave.
We, therefore, decided to take the ferry from Lødingen instead, 100 km away from Svolvær. But we were rewarded by a really spectacular landscape and some golden late-afternoon light on that unplanned drive.
On the short ferry ride we also had some dramatic light.
In Hamarøy we stopped at the first charger, a 50 kW DC which also accepted our Audi card.
During the wait, I took out my drone to fly over the fjord in the lovely evening light. Sadly right after the start, the drone crashed into the sea. I could recover it and halfheartedly rinsed it afterward in fresh-water, knowing that this will very likely not be enough to save it. The seawater will finally destroy the electronics due to corrosion.
Quite frustrated we continued the 15 km to our booked cabin in Ulvsvåg
Luckily DJI replaced the drone after our trip for free after analyzing the flight data, despite that I was flying slightly below the recommended minimum distance of 3m above water surfaces. Great customer service of DJI. I didn’t get any feedback on the root cause, but my guess is that it was either a sensor-problem or (less likely) an undervoltage problem of the battery.
To continue with part IV click here.
EV Overlanding 