Distance travelled: 35km
Distance travelled in sun: 6km
Distance travelled in everything but sun: 29km

Shorter ride today, a few hills but nothing too major, but quite challenging weather and much heavier traffic than we have seen so far- the Lofoten is a popular holiday spot so lots of tourists, vans and buses coming and going. We kept our heads down and pedalled like crazy as they whipped around us.

Some very pretty and interesting towns along the way. First stop was Kabelvag, a fishing village set around a beautiful cove- one of the oldest fishing villages of the region. Again, stock fish racks everywhere and beautiful old fishing huts and boats.

There was also a fabulous gallery in Kabelvag- after barging in they told us the gallery was closed as they were setting up for a new exhibition opening on Thursday- when they heard we were from Australia and not here Thursday they allowed us a personal viewing – with the artist. Really interesting work, very large black ink (on white) prints of giant ‘chops’ made by carving cross cut tree trunks (a bit like enormous potato prints)- really stunning, but would need a huge wall to hand them on. Again, left armed with his website.

Weather got pretty murky from here on in- heavy rain and a bit of hail, so we donned our visi-gear and made tracks for Henningavaer as fast as possible – which is pretty slow on the fully laden tandem.

Arrived soaked and muddy and very happy to check in to our little hostel. We have a tiny attic room – which is great as we have cranked our heater up full blast and left our wet clothes/shoes baking in our home made oven while we cosy up in the lounge waiting for dinner.

Henningavaer is a really beautiful little village- one young man proudly told us it is the most beautiful village in Norway and it certainly is for us so far. Well set up for visitors with many small shops sporting high quality local textiles and handcrafts- the best we have seen so far, and great to hang out in on a wet afternoon.

Soccer is now on in the lounge, Poland and the Ukrane are playing and the crowd is getting rowdier by the minute- roaring in the universal language of football crowds.

Just ordered dinner- both David and I are having pizza- the only thing on the menu that wasn’t whale- which even I couldn’t quite come at.