Walk across Norway along the Navvy Road

Walk across Norway is a long day trip in Narvik where you combine train on the Ofotbanen, hiking along the Navvy Road and returning from Rombaksbotn by boat and bus. The trip takes you from high mountains to fjords through a raw landscape with railway history, war memorials, waterfalls and views of the Rombaksfjord.

Description

Walk across Norway is a mountain hike for those who want to experience the Narvik region's strong meetings between fjords, mountains, railways and history. The trip starts with a train from Narvik station along the Ofotbanen, the railway line that connects Narvik to the border with Sweden and further into northern Sweden. From the train, you can see the landscape change from an urban area close to the fjord to steep mountainsides, valleys and high mountains.

From Bjørnfjell, Riksgränsen or Katterat, follow the Navvy Road down towards Rombaksbotn. The Navvy Road is the old construction road along the Ofoten Line, built in connection with the railway work in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Today, it is used as a hiking route for both hikers and cyclists, and the route from the mountains to Rombaksbotn is the most accessible and distinctive way to cross Norway across.

Along the way, you walk through a landscape with great contrasts. In the high mountains, the terrain is open and exposed to the weather. Further down, the route follows rivers, steep mountainsides, rock scree, gorges and lusher valleys. In several places, the Ofot Line comes close, where the ore trains between Kiruna and Narvik that whizz past are part of the experience. Along the way there are information boards, old walls, ruins, bridges, bunkers and viewpoints that give the tour clear historical depth.

Rombaksbotn marks the end of the walk and is an important place in Narvik's railway history. During the construction of the Ofot Line, a construction community grew up here. At its peak, around 500 people lived in Rombaksbotn, with homes, a quay and an active local community. Today, the buildings are gone, but the traces in the landscape tell of hard work, great ambitions and a short, intense era in Narvik's history.

The tour can be adapted according to the starting point. You can walk from Katterat, Bjørnfjell or Riksgränsen, depending on your desired length and level of ambition. The route is easy to walk and mainly goes downhill, but the length of the hike means that it is classified as demanding. If you want to cross Norway across officially from the border guard at the Swedish border, you must calculate extra distance and enough time to catch the return transport from Rombaksbotn, as the train stops at the penultimate station before the border.