Reine at Lofoten

Reine is a fishing village and the administrative centre of the municipality of Moskenes in Nordland county, Norway. It is about as far out on the Lofoten Peninsula as you can get. It’s a tiny village – only taking up 1/3 of a square-kilometre. The rain has come back and we have spent the day poking around in between showers. It’s not a play on words to say that it’s raining in Reine.

Reine has been a commercial centre since 1743. Today tourism is important, and despite its remote location, many thousands of people visit here annually. The largest weekly magazine in Norway (Allers) selected Reine as the most beautiful village in Norway in the late 1970s. A photograph over Reine from the mountain Reinebringen has been used for the front page of several tourist brochures and books. Here is my effort at making the same image.

I took this photo with my drone this afternoon during a break in the rain. Actually, it’s three photos stitched together to make a panorama. It was quite windy but I thought that I would see if my drone could handle it. At 100 metres high, my drone was telling me that the wind was too strong and that its motors were at maximum speed, just to stay in position. Rather than fly along, I decided that a shot from a vertical position overhead would be safer as I wouldn’t  risk running out of battery power trying to fly back against the strong wind.

We drove down to the end of the road to a little village called Ã. There is nothing much at the end of the road but a turning circle and the entrance to a short tunnel. This is about as far as you can see along the end of the Peninsula (without a long hike).

I walked around the village for a few minutes (that’s all it took) to see what sort of scenery was on offer. I liked this coastal view. The red houses are mainly cabins that are rented to tourists while the white houses are more likely be permanent residences. The large buildings are part of a gallery, or are government buildings. Some houses like the yellow one, in the second photo, stood out against the others.

Back near the ferry terminal at Moskenes, we found a signed view point indicating a very scenic and rugged fjord. In another break in the rain, I was able to walk across a long road bridge and capture this image. It’s typical of the local scenery.

Next to the bridge, a helicopter was operating with a work crew. I was puzzled at first to identify what it was carrying. It would fly away with a load slung underneath and return a few minutes later for another one. It turned out that it was transporting rocks from one place to another.

I thought that transporting rocks by helicopter was a very expensive operation. Why weren’t they using a truck? Back along the road 500 metres or so, we saw what was happening. High on the mountainside, another work crew were using the rocks to stabilise a land slip that had occurred high up the mountain. Doing this by truck would have obviously been impossible.

On a side road in the village we found some long stretches of drying racks. These are used for trying cod and making ‘stockfish’.

Near our cabin is the business that processes the fish. I saw this notice on the fence which explains their operation.

There’s not much else to do, or see, in this little village except to visit to the local gallery but we haven’t been there when it was open. There are two cafes in the village centre along with a small general store wth a petrol pump. Most of our day has been spent looking for a break in the rain.