We had one more day left at Lofoten and the last chance to make it to Bunes Beach. We had read about this beach in several blogs. Some had mentioned, one has to take ferry from Reine to place Vinstad, walk 2kms and then the trail to the Beach starts. There was suggestion to know the time required to reach the beach, as there was only one ferry which takes you back to Reine and if you miss that, there is no chance to get back to Reine. Some had mentioned it takes 1 hr to 1.5 hrs. It was not clear, whether 1-1.5 hrs from where trail starts or from Vinstad. So we decided not to visit Bunes Beach. We wanted to spend the last day just lazying around Hamnoy. I woke up in the morning with the same feeling. Around 6am, felt this can be my only visit to Lofoten and might live with a regret that I did not visit Bunes beach for rest of my life. Woke up kids and got ready to catch the ferry at 7:30am.
It was still dark as sunrise was supposed to be at 8 am. When we reached the harbour at Hamnoy, there was only one person, the captain of the ferry.
The Ferry moved towards Kirkefjord creating ripples in the clear water of the fjords and we enjoyed the scenery from the Deck of the Ferry.
Vinstad Ferry Harbor:Path to Bunes Beach Trail…
And the hike starts… Finally we reach the top of the pass to Bunes Beach where descent starts.View of the Beach from top… There was someone camping at the pass…While returning from the Beach, we saw a couple removing the tent, packing their baggages and hiking towards a steep range and disappearing.
To know how big the Beach is, try to find persons in the below pic.After reaching the Beach, it took almost 8-10 minutes to reach near the water walking across the sand dunes. I would really love to spend few years in the small red house on the left side of the beach. The place is so serene and calm. Even though there was no one in the beach, the place did not given even a single thought of fear. Kids played happily in the fine sand…We found some jelly fishes on the sand..
By noon we started our hike back to catch the ferry at 15.25.And after reaching the top, we saw a flat rock surface from where the view of the Vinstad valley was amazing. We rest there for a while enjoying the cold breeze and started walking down towards the ferry port. As it is October, the cold weather did not permit us to enjoy the place to the full extent.
After walking through the village, we reach this building where we found the board WC(Toilet) on the Door.We got into the building and were pleasantly surprised to see the hospitality of the people of this village. They had kept a flask of Coffee, pepsi cans with a note about prices and to put money in the glass. We took 2 pepsi cans and paid the money in the glass as instructed. There was no one to keep a vigil, but only trust based hospitality. This is another reason why we like Norway so much… We waited for Ferry port for some time enjoying the views around. And the ferry came creating ripples in the clear reflection of surroundings in the water…View of Kirkefjord from the ferry…Last pic before getting down from the ferry at Reine..
Whole hike was worth the experience and the hike was perfect for family with children. Camping there overnight during summer days would really be Great!