Safe Return Doubtful

The peninsula at Bø was the site of a Nazi coastal battery from the Second World War. Following the British attacks on Narvik in 1940 and on the Lofoten Islands the following year, the Germans were determined to prevent further raids in this vulnerable region. The fort here guarded the entrance to Vestfjord and the route to Narvik from where iron was shipped for the manufacture of arms. At the Batterie Dietl at Bø they installed three of the largest land-based guns in the world, called Adolf Guns. They fired shells of 45 centimetres diameter. They had been intended for battleships, but those ships were never built. The contrast between the raw beauty of the spectacular coastline, particularly on the northside of the peninsula and the remnants of a war that killed so many millions is stark. But it does serve as a reminder to those who visit.

Though it is not signposted or even marked, I picked out a good hiking route that circumnavigated the peninsula in an anti-clockwise direction (given the option I’ll always plump for the anti-clockwise) and in its latter stages took in the gun sites and the ruins of the old fort. I had hoped to stick to the beach, but there are times when due to foliage and steep rock that was not possible. It was slow going, but with yesterday’s storm giving way to fine conditions this morning, it was a well spent three hours out.

There is a water tap just across from where the van is parked. This is an area on the beach where motorhomes and campervans are requested to go, rather than further up towards the fort. It’s free, and has a rubbish bin as well as the water. Yesterday there was no one else here, today the is a Swiss and a Norwegian motorhome.

With the water so close to hand, I did a hand clothes wash this afternoon, as it’s a good drying breeze, and bright sun.

Later in the afternoon we walked in the opposite direction, but access here is more limited as there is a large farm. The cows were being moved to a different field, and I got talking to the woman working with them. She is in her 60s and in her last week of work and about the pass the farm to their son and his family. They are German, and moved here 20 years ago, and she told me that dairy farming here was looked after a lot better than in the UK or Germany by the government; they had just had enough of the long hours. They are about to purchase a campervan and take off around Europe, so later in the evening came over to see mine; self-build is something they may do they say.