Wild Norway: hiking on Varanger peninsula
In July 2024 I was lucky enough to get 4 weeks of holiday approved. With a friend from the Netherlands and a rented camper, we roamed around Northern Finland and Norway. Adamant to stay away from the overrun west coast, we stayed north and ended up on Varangerhalvøya, or the Varange peninsula. Here we went for a day hike and an overnight trip, which we can highly recommend!
Most of the peninsula is a national park and is a paradise for bird lovers and empty-landscape-enthusiasts like us. Tundra, green hills, stony plateaus and not a marked trail in sight. The freedom to roam is taken very literally here; you can go and hike as you please (of course taken the common rules seriously).
Day hike: Nattfjelldalen
A stunning hike, with the goal of a impressive waterfall at the end of the canyon. The hike is about 19 km long, and took us almost 5 hours. Please be aware it can be very windy on the ridge, so prepare to brace yourselves.
Coming from Vadsø on the E75 going north, we went west at the sign “Crosbane/Skytebane/Nattfjeldalen”, which quickly turns into a dirt road, all the way past Byvatnet lake, until we hit a parking lot. Here you are still outside of the national park, and the path towards the boundary is marked. At the entrance to the park, there is a shelter with a fire place and from here you can already see the canyon.
From here there are no markers, but the path is well-trodden, so you won’t get lost. Slowly but surely you make the way up the ridge on the right side of the river. After the curve you’ll slowly see the waterfall at the end of the canyon. You can hike up to the top of the waterfall, which was slightly scare for us with fear of heights. To get back to the parking lot, you will follow the same path back.
Overnight hike to Telegrafhytta (Sandfjorddalen)
With all the wilderness, we were desperate to really immerse ourselves in it, and we decided that we wanted to sleep somewhere wild. After visiting Vardø, we took the coastal road toward Hamningberg. Upon reaching Sandfjord, we left the main road and took the dirt road east, along the river Sandfjordelva. This road is not for the faint of heart; it is barely wide enough for one camper van and there are only a couple of places where cars can pass each other. We got lucky and no cars were going back the way we came. At the end of the road, after ca 4.5 km, there is a place to park your car (google for “tie päättyy”). There was even a toilet! After getting all our gear on our backs, we made our way along the river. On our map, we saw that around 8 km in, there is a unmanned hut, which is open for tourists. The hut is called Telegrafhytta, as long ago here the telegraph lines were put up and maintained. There are no real trails here, and we were happy we had our trusty paper map and gps on our phones. In general, you keep following the river. A couple of times we had to cross streams; it is wise to bring sandals and hiking poles to get across in one piece. Also remember to unfasten your hip belt of your backpack; when you fall, you won’t be weighed down by the pack and water. The weather was perfect and we took it easy and as there is no sunset in summer, we had plenty of time. We encountered one tricky bit, where the river calved a high cliff out of the mountain. I would recommend here to wade through the water and not like us follow the raindeer tracks over the cliff. One misstep and you fall a long way into the stony river…
After a couple of hours we reached the hut. It was well-stocked with gas, light, and bunk beds. We made ourselves home and cooked some dinner. At 11 PM we were joined by another hiker, and we all slept like babies. The next day we hiked out again, and continued our trip to Hamningberg.
