The last town on Lofoten is called Å, because this is the last letter in the Norwegian alphabet. To get there, you follow the E10 which is carving its way around the steep slopes. The mountainsides fall away sharply into the ocean, and only a very narrow strip has been asphalted and fenced. There is so little space here in the corner between horizontal and vertical, that the settlements were build on the skerries, half standing in the ocean, supported by stilts.
A few minutes walk south of Å, there’s a cliff facing south. I sit down here in the evening, watching the sun set behind the rocks of Værøy in the distance.
Between Moskenesøya and Værøy lies the famous Moskenestraumen, called The Maelstrom or in german, Mahlstrom. This strong and dangerous tidal current was an inspiration for Jules Verne and Edgar Allen Poe, and has even left its traces in the Edda, the old norse poetry.
It involves strong tidal currents flowing through the shallows between these islands and the Atlantic, as well as the deep Vestfjorden, creating eddies and whirlpools, the largest one having a diameter of some 40–50 meter.
This constant exchange of nutrients, oxygen and warmth makes this area a very vital fishing area.