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. Want to see more of their journey – here are all the Insta Stories from their trip collected!
We started our journey in Sunne, Värmland, and made our way up to Bodø in Norway. From Bodø we took a ferry over to Å at the far end of Lofoten to then start making our way towards the mainland and stopped at several places along the way for about a week. On Norway's mainland we went up to Fjordgård in Senja and the mountain peak Segla. After that we headed back down towards Narvik and then over 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 route was quite spontaneous. We wanted to visit Lofoten so it seemed most sensible to start from the outside and work our way inwards, so we wouldn't have to drive even further. Then Fredrik had wanted to visit Segla for a long time so that's why we chose to go up there as well. After that we just went with the flow downwards in Sweden, saw the sign to Saltoluokta and turned off like that!
– On days when the weather was with us we went on day hikes up various mountain peaks. On days when it rained and the weather was less nice we drove around and looked at the beautiful nature, stopped in small communities and walked around there. We also visited some friends who live in Lofoten and went on a day hike with them. On the way home we stopped at Saltoluokta Mountain Station in Sweden and went on a hike there.
– The trip up to the mountain peak Segla by the small village Fjordgård was probably our absolute favorite. To get there we drove through several very long tunnels and then, suddenly we came out to a tiny little village in the middle of a fjord. Even though there were quite a few people there, the village felt so incredibly 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 walking up towards the top the sun broke through and the view was absolutely magical!
– We were positively surprised that it was so tourist-friendly in Norway. There were many toilets and showers that were actually meant specifically for tourists. Wherever we went we could almost always find a small simple campsite with basic parking spots, drinking water, toilet and shower for 200-250 kronor.
The Norwegians have accepted the large tourism 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 at all.
– Good, the ferries ran often and it was easy to get on. We waited in line for the ferry in Lofoten for maybe 30 minutes then we got to board. However, if you get seasick easily the ferry is not recommended! The ferry goes out over quite open sea in the large bay between Lofoten and Norway's mainland, so it was an incredibly wavy boat trip. Fredrik, who gets seasick very easily, and several others on the ferry had a tough time! Otherwise, the driving worked well, in Lofoten there were gas stations in more places than we thought and the roads were better than expected.
Difficult, it was a constant fight with all the German motorhomes! The motorhomes parked quite early at the best spots so some evenings when we came back late from day hikes we had to drive 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 incredibly cozy. And that we slept surprisingly well in the roof tent!
– The constant hunt for a good parking spot for the evening took much more time than we had expected.
– Some kind of wind/rain shelter that you could set up to have somewhere to sit next to the car when it rained.
– A good camera, folding chairs, a camping stove and a crossword puzzle magazine to solve up in the roof tent while lying and watching the midnight sun! And LOTS of warm and waterproof clothes! The weather in northern Norway was more against us than with us ;)
– It is an incredibly beautiful trip, but it is good to prepare yourself to maybe stay more at campsites than you think. I was surprised by how hectic the fight was every day for good, natural parking spots. We probably had an image that every evening we would find the perfect spot for ourselves, but everyone else has that image too. So several times it ended with us just checking into a campsite for 250 kronor. Which was still nice because of access to toilet, shower and so on.
