“How did you end up here?” - Hike up Vetten

Fine weather is forecast once more for today, at least for part of the day. We want to make the most of it, so after breakfast we go for one more hike. We are heading up Vetten, a 467-metre mountain near Bø. According to a route suggestion on ut.no, it takes its name from a beacon that used to be lit up here. Marked paths lead up from Steine and from Straume, and we park at the hikers’ car park for Vetten.

The hike is very easy. First we follow a gravel track that gradually turns into a path through the grass. Right at the top it gets rockier, but it is still easy, and we never have to climb. The grass glows golden yellow, and there are pointed mountains all around.

Shots just below the summit

Just before the last climb we suddenly hear shots. There are four, and we wonder what is going on up there. We have not seen any signs warning of hunting. Unsettled, we stop at first, and then we see a man walking with a rifle. We do not know what is happening, so we turn back.

On the way back we meet two Norwegian men who are also heading up Vetten. We ask them whether they know anything about the shots. They say that capercaillie or ptarmigan are being hunted up there. According to the Norwegian Environment Agency, Miljødirektoratet, the hunting season for willow ptarmigan and rock ptarmigan opens on 10 September and lasts into the winter. Capercaillie may be hunted from 10 September to 23 December. On the open, treeless heights it is more likely to be ptarmigan.

We get talking to the two of them. They are very friendly and come from here. They ask where we are from, and then: “How did you end up here?” We tell them that we love the north and the landscape up here. They understand, but say that Switzerland has great mountains too, and we can only agree. Luckily it is not as touristy here as in Lofoten, they say. They do not really understand why things are done that way there, and they hope it will stay different in Vesterålen.

That is exactly how it is here at the moment. There are hardly any people, and we have not spotted any tourists yet. On our hikes we have only met Norwegians, who greeted us in Norwegian. The only exception was the hiker from China on Måtind, but he studies here, so he does not count.

The view from Vetten

Because the two men have reassured us about the shots, we carry on after all. At the top we are amazed. We have a 360-degree view with an incredible number of peaks, Lofoten among them. The summit itself looks like a moonscape, grey and rocky, with small lakes further down on the plateau. The signpost on the summit reads «Vetten 467 moh.», and from here the path continues for three kilometres to Lynghaugtinden.

For the first time on this trip we also see wind turbines in the distance. We do not know exactly which ones they are. The nearest wind farm is Ånstadblåheia near Sortland, with 14 turbines, in operation since 2018. Wind plays only a small part in Norway, though, because most of the electricity comes from hydropower. According to Statistics Norway (SSB), just under 88 per cent of the electricity in December 2025 came from hydropower and just under 11 per cent from wind. According to Energifakta Norge, at the start of 2025 there were 65 wind farms in the whole country with a total of 1,392 turbines.

From the top we also see the island of Gaukværøya again, which we had already seen from Skårvågsfjellet. One of the two Norwegians said that 1,000 people once lived there. The sources we read for the post from the day before yesterday say something different. Around 1910, about 130 people on Gaukværøya made their living from fishing. From 1946 more and more families moved to Langøya, and in 1953 the last three families dismantled their houses and took them along. The island has been uninhabited ever since.

Next to the summit stands a small hut, Vettenbua. It is open, and anyone may go in. In front of the hut there is a funny sign. It says in dialect: «Historisk plass. Akkurat her, om ættemeddagen dein 14. juli 2021, klarte en mainn å vinn en diskusion med kjæringa.» Translated, that means: “Historic place. Right here, on the afternoon of 14 July 2021, a man managed to win a discussion with his wife.” Of course we also take a look inside the hut. Inside there is a table, a Norwegian flag hangs in the window, and we can look out to sea.

When the wind picks up, we set off back down. We reach the car without any rain.

The last evening

Afterwards we do some shopping. It is not much, only crispbread and Indian sauces, because Annina loves the korma sauce by SaritaS. You cannot buy it in Switzerland, so we take some home from here. Behind the brand is Sarita Sehjpal, who came to Norway with her family from Shimla in northern India in January 1972, at the age of five. In 1995 the family opened the restaurant Mother India in Kristiansand, which Sarita runs with her brother Raj Sharma. The sauces are also made to the restaurant’s recipes. For a while the brand belonged to the Orkla group, and in 2020 the founders bought it back. The korma is mild, with coconut and coriander, and the spice mix comes separately in the lid. In Norway it is sold at Meny, Kiwi, Rema 1000 and Coop, among others. We also buy a few snacks as souvenirs for the office. Back at our accommodation we clean our hiking boots. Sadly we will not need them up here any more, because tomorrow we are heading back home.

For dinner we use up all the leftovers from the last few days and anything else that is still around. Then we pack our suitcases and tidy up the accommodation. Tomorrow we start early. We want to leave at 6 a.m. at the latest, because we still have a three-hour drive to the airport ahead of us.