Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The walk over the headland between Nyksund and Stø, waymarked with red letter T's,
meritsashortdayofyourlife.Mosthikerssweatalittleontheoutwardlegofthisfive-hour
circular trek via the 517m Sørkulen, then breathe easy, returning via the simpler sea-level
route. Called the
Queen's Route
,
its name derives from a hike taken by Norway's Queen
Sonja in 1994. The Sortland tourist office carries a free guide leaflet.
Small, waterside
Stø Bobilcamp ( 76 13 25 30;
www.stobobilcamp.com
; campsite
Nkr150, cabin Nkr1200; mid-May-mid-Aug)
is stark indeed and a windy spot to
pitch your tent but it does run an unpretentious little restaurant, serving primarily fish.
Two weekday buses run between Sortland and Stø (1¼ hours).
THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED
Unless you leave Andøya by the seasonal ferry from Andenes to Gryllefjord (in itself
a lovely way to go), there's no way of avoiding the 100km drive the length of the is-
land's slim northern finger, poking up from Sortland. To avoid repetition, but all the
more so because it's a simply spectacular drive, take the minor, lightly trafficked
west coast road from Risøyhamn as you head northwards. Designated a National
Tourist Route, it offers magnificent coastal panoramas as it threads along the
shoreline. Returning by the Rv82, notice the giant hillocks of peat, extracted, dried
and ready to be transported to garden centres around the world.
To experience the route at the pace it deserves, hire a bike from Fargeklatten and
ride the coast as far as Sortland, where you can sling your bike on the bus for deliv-
ery back to Andenes.
Andøya
POP 5000
Andøya, long, narrow and flat except for the mountains on its western flank, is atypical of
Vesterålen. The 1000m-deep, dark, cold waters of its northwestern shore attract abundant
stocks of squid, including some very large specimens indeed, and these in turn attract the
squid-loving sperm whales. The result is fairly reliable whale-watching, centred on the
town of Andenes at the island's northern end.
