The Island of Vanna

The camp up above the road tunnel at Sørskaret was a good one and I did consider staying a few days, but it is hardly wild, being just 15 kilometres from Tromso. Most visitors are locals that come for a run or a walk, a dog walk, or a bike ride, after work in the evenings, especially on these midnight sun nights; some arrived as late as 11:30 pm.

We made the most of it with another two hour hike this morning, up to a lake at about 500 metres, and with no one around, on a warm morning with a clear sky. Last night I had got talking to the people in the other two vans parked up here, both French by chance, in Norwegian vans, hired from Arctic Campers, whose base is just below on the outskirts of Tromso. It’s easy and affordable to fly in and rent such a vehicle for a couple of weeks.

I’ve spent the last two weeks in places which Norway would consider as busy; not busy like we might consider the Lakes in summer, but plenty of visitors. I avoided Lofoten where there are traffic problems due to the narrow roads and the amount of motorhomes, but Vesterålen and Senja are at their busiest.

I headed off to the islands northwest of Tromso where I knew there would be few.

I drove 50 kilometres north to Hansnes and took the free ferry to the Island of Vannøy or Vanna. Though still a cloudless sky, the weather changed, with a strong northeasterly wind and pockets of mist hanging on the sheltered side of the mountains. The mist is a common feature of late summer I am told.

I had researched some hikes on the island and also a good place to stop, at Sandsletta, a car park off the road, which has hardly any traffic on it anyway, which looks out over a long sandy beach.

We arrived just after 4 pm, and explored the beach right away, Roja finding a trail at the end of the sand that took us around a hill on the headland. It was a bit further than I had in mind, another two hours out, but the scenery and sense of adventure, that we didn’t really know where we were going, won out.