Damn fine coffees and hikes on Lovund

THE BEST COFFEE IN NORWAY

The small boat harbour on Lovund is on the southern side of the town and in behind the industrial harbour with ulta modern-design salmon processing and packing factories. Despite its slightly out-of-the-way feel it is a pleasant enough spot, sufficiently appointed and just a short walk from all of the very few delights of town. Chief amongst these delights is Coast Coffee, a combination of coffee roaster, coffee shop and Swedish small marine diesel engine museum run by Oleksii, a very stern looking but very friendly Ukrainian tattoo enthusiast.

The coffee was very good, but when Oleksii learned that we were Australians he needed to make us a proper coffee as, unlike Norwegians, our nationality apparently meant that we knew and understood coffee. So we savoured a second coffee that was indeed very different, and indeed very good but maybe not better than the first. However, Oleksii felt that he had done the right thing by us, we felt he had been more than generous and had very much enjoyed our very good second coffee, so when we finally left all parties were feeling satisfied.

AN ANNOYING AMERICAN AND A VERY DRUNK FINN

The other cultural attraction in Lovund was a very ordinary pub that hung out over the water. Here, we ate very ordinary hamburgers, drank some very ordinary beers and listened to a baseball-cap bedecked American talking with that American accent and volume combination that dominates a soundscape. His audience were a trio of workers from the fish factories, a young Dane, a very drunk Finn and a Norwegian who was clearly having a hard time listening and kept running off to get some fresh air. The American had been asked where he was from and what he was doing on Lovund.

Having fairly quickly dispensed with those banal questions, he somehow found it necessary to move on to telling his audience how at home he always carried a gun on his person, a concealed pistol and a long gun when it was legal, and how guns didn’t kill people, blah, blah, blah. The fish factory fellows listened politely and every now and again popped him a question about the nexus of guns and America that he took very seriously but which were clearly intended to be politely mocking. They were clever enough that he didn’t take offence and, when he finally left, they came and spent an hour with us, until finally the friendly Finn got so drunk that it was easier for all of us to leave instead of keeping him upright and lubricated.

THE STEEP SLOPES OF LOVUND

Fascinating though the cultural attractions of Lovund are, the real attraction is the island itself. Surrounded by long rows of skerries, Lovund is a high ridge of rock that leaps up 600m out of the sea. With a rock, grass and forest foreshore and unnecessarily steep grass and rock slopes and cliffs running up to its ridge line, the island is a fantastic place for walking, swimming and contemplation. During the summer months, the scree slopes of the northern side become Norway’s largest puffin colony and in the past this formed a significant source of wealth for the locals. By the time we had arrived, however, the puffins were all back out at sea getting ready for the winter. Happily, we had been seeing puffins on an almost daily basis for months so we were able to contain our disappointment.

The walking was superb, some of it easy rambles to rocky headlands and lookouts where sharp eyes could find tiny (10cm), metal human figures climbing and frollicking on the rocks. Others, like the hike up the Lovundfjellet, were steep and long scrambles that could do with a bit of the Sherpa input evident in other parts of coast. Our Norwegian walking app suggested that this was a ‘medium’ rated walk. We considered that any ‘walk’ where half the time one could reach out and touch the track ahead without bending over was neither moderate nor a walk.

Nevertheless, it was fun and once we reached the top the views of the surrounding seascape and mainland mountain ranges were truly amazing!