On 1 August 2026 I started walking south from the Nordkapp plateau. Nine days later I walked into Lakselv. That was the first section of Norge på langs.
The start, on the Nordkapp plateau. 1 August.
The numbers
205.4 kilometres in nine days, with 5,751 metres of climbing and 6,042 metres back down. Garmin counts 50.3 hours of moving time across the nine walks.
The route is my nine Garmin walks joined into one track. It runs south across Magerøya and onto the mainland, through Måsøy, and down through Porsanger to the edge of Lakselv. Norge på langs is about 2,836 kilometres from Nordkapp to Lindesnes, so this section is around 7 percent of it.
Before the first step
On the morning of 1 August, at camp before I had walked a metre of the route, the wind was blowing 22 metres a second and the tent pole broke at one of the joints. The extra guylines were in the ground on the windward side but not on the other side, and that's where it snapped.
So the first thing I did was head into Honningsvåg. I started from Nordkapp at 13:22 that afternoon, so day one is the short one. By evening the tent was up by a lake.
Reindeer on Magerøya, the first afternoon.
Day by day
| Day | Date | Distance | Climb | Where the day ended |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 Aug | 18.5 km | 590 m | Magerøya |
| 2 | 2 Aug | 26.9 km | 853 m | Mainland, Nordkapp municipality |
| 3 | 3 Aug | 23.2 km | 768 m | Måsøy |
| 4 | 4 Aug | 24.2 km | 1,176 m | Porsanger |
| 5 | 5 Aug | 21.1 km | 319 m | Russenes, Olderfjord |
| 6 | 6 Aug | 24.4 km | 661 m | Porsanger |
| 7 | 7 Aug | 22.4 km | 362 m | Porsanger |
| 8 | 8 Aug | 20.2 km | 430 m | Porsanger |
| 9 | 9 Aug | 24.6 km | 592 m | Lakselv |
The figures are Garmin's own, one activity per day. Day two was the longest at 26.9 kilometres. Day four had the most climbing, 1,176 metres. After day one, no day was shorter than 20 kilometres.
Morning of day two on Magerøya.
On the way
I ate nuts, chocolate and dried fruit on the move, and that was breakfast and lunch. Gas went faster than I had calculated. One of the huts had a spare canister, so I used that, and on two nights I heated the water on a fire instead.
A trout at a lake in Porsanger. 6 August.
Camp by a lake among the birches. 8 August.
Stopping in Lakselv
By the time I got to Lakselv on 9 August the weather was just too bad, and I chose to stop there. I also had some gear to replace and a plan to rethink. I took a hotel room in Lakselv and flew out from there on 11 August.
The river near Lakselv on the last day. 9 August.
Nine days was enough to show me what to change. The 30-litre pack was too small. I had plenty of food per day but no buffer, and that made the whole thing a race. The quilt wasn't warm enough, the sleeping pad was too narrow, and the shoes pressed on my little toes until both toenails went blue. I carried a fly fishing kit the whole way and never used it. A bit of tinfoil, on the other hand, works great for cooking fish on a fire. I'll bring more of that.
What comes next
The rest of Norge på langs I'll walk later, bit by bit, at my own pace. I want to enjoy the sections I do rather than complete them in a given amount of time. When I go back, I start from Lakselv.
I made a poster of this section with Distance Made. The line is the GPS track from my watch, and the photos are the six in this post.