Football and photography: Uttakleiv

Yesterday evening, we walked into Henningsvær, arriving at Klatrekaféen cafe-bar well before 20.00, to have dinner and, hopefully, watch the England-Norway World Cup football match. We’d been advised that there there were only 80 places and doors would open at 21.00. A few people were already waiting to go in, so we ordered burgers and chips and ate them quickly, before joining the queue.

Everyone was in good spirits. There were a few tourists of various nationalities, but I appeared to be the only English person. At 21.00 we made our way in, pleased to get a ticket and seats at the back, on a table. From there, we had a good view and weren’t crammed in with the Norwegian youngsters, who were excited and very lively.

Chatting to people around us, including some Irish bikers, the two hours before the match began at 23.00 passed much faster than I expected. We enjoyed the game, but felt sorry for the Norwegians when they lost. As one girl told us, their success in the World Cup has been really good for the country, and they’d begun to believe they could go all the way.

By the time we got back to Molly Moho it was after 2.00… it felt very strange walking back from the bar in daylight at that time. We had tea and biscuits to wind down then snuggled up in bed.

We both had slight hangovers this morning, and are tired after our late night. Because of that we’ve had a fairly easy day.

We drove to Leknes to dump our waste water and buy some milk, before heading to Uttakleiv beach.

Having arrived, we considered walking up the mountain but decided to wander down to the beach instead. I wanted to practise using my wide angle lens and I’d read that this was a good place for that type of photography.

John helped me by carrying my bags and spotting good rock pools for me to use in the foreground of my images. There were quite a few good ones and I was pleased to find the dragon’s eye, which I’d read about, even though the pool was murky today and the colours weren’t as nice as I’d seen in some images.

There are lots of people about, walking and camping on the coast. There are lots of sheep too. It’s seems odd seeing them grazing on the beach. We hope they don’t keep us awake bleating tonight, but at least that’d make a change from seagulls squawking!

We’ve also booked our ferry back to the Norwegian mainland and now only have two days left in Lofoten. We’re looking forward to seeing more of Sweden though.