Experience country life with us in Engeløya, Norway

Infos

• 

  Description

  ==================
  Hi, we are taking an autumn and winter break from hosting now after a very joyful and intense second year on workaway to recover a bit :)
  ===============
  
  Are you looking for a meaningfull exchange in the fresh arctic air in 2025? We have about 6 spots for the kind of person who is
  
  -very good at organizing and motivating themself
  -interrested in connecting with locals and taking in the amazing nature and culture in a more serious way than you get just travelling through
  -believes in leaving every place better than they found it(keeping nature clean,cleaning up after work...)
  - mature and positive attitude needed to share our little house, experience with cooking, cleaning,life stuff
  -proactive.Especially for June,July we need people who see things that need doing and get to it without too many instructions as it is the high season with midnight sun where everything happens all at once. The more responsibility you take the more creative freedom you have, we prefer to trust you and let you work without micromanaging
  -reasonably tidy. It's not the norwegian way to directly ask someone to use the toilet brush or open the windows more and post-it notes everywhere just dont go with the interior design so we write it here and hope for the best.
  -some life experience, 24 years+ with exceptions if you have strong skills or good reviews
  
  What you can expect:
  Peaceful North-Norwegian nature, good views from the living room,northern lights September-April(check nordlysvarsel.com),Midnight sun from June and long nights before, Eating dinner together, meeting the family and option to join social things/whatever is happening in the village, option to borrow bycycles and a car for hiking/exploring. The more effort you put in to improving our place and relationships the more motivated we are to drive you around and make sure you see a lot of cool stuff,explain the local history and so on. Our island is just as beautiful and special as those of lofoten but it is not as well known so even in the summer you can be alone on the mountains for hours.
  
  We had a really nice experience with workaway so far.we've hosted 15 lovely people and they've all made a small or in some cases very big impact on our property and our outlook on life, most became friends and are still in contact.
  
  
  We are a couple (28 and 30), renovating our little house by the sea in Northern Norway. We mostly speak English German and Norwegian. 🇳🇴 and 🇦🇹 We like to meet new people, eat lots of good food, spend time in nature but also enjoy a nice cup of tea and doing nothing. We both have full time jobs with occassionally unpredictable schedules. There may be some home officing in the living room during which we need to be left in peace and if and when you need your alone time we will ofc respect that too.The house is getting to be pretty comfortable, but we have big plans for the garden as well. We are trying to start a kitchen garden as well as many other projects like building dry stone walls and laying some paving,cutting lot's of trees and bushes and this year we got 5 chickens. We are looking forward to having some nice conversations with you, helping and living together as part of the household while you are here. During the day you may be alone, depending on our schedule, you can try to make friends with the neighbours, their cows, go bird watching (we have eagles near by and so many different birds in the summer it's awsome!) or just enjoy the solitude.
  
  Some of the projects that we want to realize in the near future and that you can do:
  
  -tiling
  -improve chicken coop
  -collect and prepare seaweed
  -make fire wood
  -organize the tool shed and make a workshop
  -clean and fix tools and machines
  -build things in the garden
  -lots of sanding and painting
  -make shelves and better storage
  And others

• 

  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Projets artistiques

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  S’occuper des animaux

  Cuisine/repas pour la famille

  Aide à la maison

  Entretien général

  Aide informatique/internet
• 

  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  We are happy to exchange knowledge about our fields of work, especially gardening, language exchange is very welcome and learning about each other's food and culture! The hiking and outdoor life is fantastic in Engeløya and if work/life allows we can also explore the area together. You can buy a ticket for the 8peaks challenge(about 10€ at the supermarket) and if you go to the 8 mountain peaks within the summer season and collect a stamp on each one you get a prize like a mug or a tshirt. If there is anything happening in the village or in our social lives, you are welcome to join and if you want to be alone, there is plenty of opportunities for that too. You can hang out in the garden or enjoy the ocean view from the veranda or the living room. If you are into journalling,writing letters,knitting... it's not the worst place here to calm down and do such things. Our place could be a good stop before/after heading to Lofoten or North/South on the mainland. You can even put your days off together and go to Lofoten during your stay with us with less luggage (or work longer days and have more days off, we are flexible) We are curious to hear your stories and perspectives. Though we have fulltime jobs, this workaway is not supposed to be just for free labour, but to make meaningful connections and create good memories and beautiful things, that have those memories attached to them :) Every workawayer leaves their mark on the house in some way as well as on the people they meet here. We are looking forward to meet you and we'll make time to get to know you.
  
  One of the night's of your stay we will ask you to cook for the extended family so they can experience some of the food of your country/just your favourite dish to make and they will be happy to tell you about Norwegian culture and whatever you want to know about as well. Some people have also done this two or three times and been invited for norwegian traditional food or garage parties as well
  
  Apart from this "special" dinner we take turns cooking, depending on who has the most to do, so you dont have to cook every day and we dont have to cook every day either.
  
  Sometimes things happen spontaneously here, especially in the summer,visiting family or going on a midnight hike, or having to suddenly fix something or drive somewhere...if you come from a very structured life that can be an adjustment but it also leads to all those experiences that you don't have as a regular tourist and little old ladies on a north norwegian island asking about how you are doing many years after you've been there.If you come with an open mind and lend a hand where its needed, take the chances to go outside and you can really have a nice experience here.

• 

  Aide

  We are looking for 1-2 people for 1-3weeks at a time who are either
  1. Skilled workers who can take on larger projects
  2.people who like to cook and clean and help with whatever needs doing in the house and garden.
  
  In the spring we need: someone who knows wordpress, snow shoveling, organizing, Early summer: getting ready for planting, chauffeuring rocks and shreddering branches, if you are really good at asian food, making handles and sharpening tools...Carpenters are always very welcome the biggest project being a greenhouse of old windows
  If you are a tradesperson (carpenter,mechanic,gardener...) reach out to us even for red months and we'll see if we can make it work. You can come up with your own DIY and art projects as well, we can talk about what you want to do before you come or when you are here.The work is often physical. Please be up for the challenge. Cleaning inside also counts as help, except when you are cleaning up after yourself, which is necessary of course. Please remember to put back and take good care of the tools and if you see a piece of plastic or other trash in the garden or when you are hiking, please pick it up and recycle. 👍 At the moment we have 5 chickens but we would like to get more animals in the summer
  We are working on a limited budget, trying to reuse and recycle as many materials as possible. We eat well, but like to challenge our creativity. We try to save food that other people would throw and experiment with eating the weeds in the garden/foraged food. It would be cool to host more people who help us actively fill up the pantry and freezer or cook with foraged or self grown food,maybe teach us new skills in that department. - It's fun and we're excited about everything that is local,cheap and tasty vs. shipped in from 1000s of km away with strange ingredients and animal abuse.
  We like to have a well stocked freezer with moose meat and all sorts of things.
  
  At the moment 1-3 week stays suit us best. If you have construction skills and you want to come with a project in mind such as building the greenhouse, renovating the bathroom (2025 fingers crossed) you are welcome to stay for longer,let us know your ideas and we'll try to make it work :) We reply to all messages and check them regularly, feel free to reach out spontaneously. Good workawayers are highly sought after so if you find out you want to stay more than 3 weeks we can introduce and recommend you to the other people who have workaways in the area.

• 

  Langues

  Langues parlées
  Allemand: Courant
  Anglais: Courant
  Norwegian: Courant
  Espagnol: Débutant

  Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
  Cet hôte a indiqué qu’il souhaitait faire partager sa propre langue ou en apprendre une nouvelle.
  Contactez-le pour en savoir plus.
  
• 

  Hébergement

  Your own room in the house, the bathroom,kitchen and living room are shared.
  The guest room has a window facing the forrest, a door which you can lock, a Bunk bed, 80x196 If we get two solo travellers at the same time you will share the room (or sleep on the couch if you're not comfortable sharing the room) Sometimes you can hear birds all throughout the night. We are pretty far up here in Steigen which means if you come in the summer you get to enjoy the midnight sun, which is really weird at first, but also great because you never have to stop driving/hiking/doing anything because it's light out.
  simple but cozy inside accommodation for 2 at the moment. If you want to camp outside in your car or tent that is possible too. We have Wifi, a dishwasher and a washing machine, that you may use as soon as you arrive.
  
  We can talk about what you want to eat or cook and we will buy the ingredients and take turns cooking.(with some flexibility in case we get food that is about to go bad then we have to use that first or preserve it that day)During the day you can just take food from the fridge. If you have a specific diet, just tell us and we try to make it work. It's not completely easy to be vegan in Norway, but if you are one of the ambitious people who try, you are just as welcome here as the omnivores. Personally we do cook with meat and fish. People who are good and using up left overs and avoiding food waste are also very welcome.
  
  We provide sheets & towels and we can provide work clothes too, if you dont have your own as well as other random clothes that you can use
  A WATERPROOF JACKET AND SHOES are essential for travelling comfortably in Norway. This is because even if you go hiking in beautiful sunny weather you will get wet feet because the mossy ground holds a lot of water. Last summer was warm and gorgeous but you can get rain and cold too, coastal weather is milder but changes quickly

• 

  Autres infos...

  there are stunning beaches in this area, some of Norways finest, on clear days: wonderful views of lofoten across the water, walking/hiking, swimming in the (cold) ocean, local sightseeing, birdwatching,one time there was a seal chilling at the neighbours house,mini dolphins swimming right by the side of road,sea eagles and the occasional Moose, kajaking, fishing...
  
  We have two bikes and helmets you can borrow. There are buses and the speedboat (hurtigbåt which you can book on reisnordland.no or at the sentrumsterminalen in Bodø at the counter to bodø/lofoten the stop you need is Bogøy(Steigen)
  
  If you come on the bus (or train to narvik or fauske and then bus) we can also pick you up from a stop called Skjelvareid or even closer: Åltstad kryss
  
  If you are driving yourself please note that our driveway is a muddy mess after rainy days and easy to get stuck in without 4wheel drive, so if you have a car without 4WD you may have to park up on the road.

• 

  Informations complémentaires

  • 

    Accès Internet

  • 

    Accès Internet limité

  • 

    Nous avons des animaux

  • 

    Nous sommes fumeurs

  • 

    Familles bienvenues

• 

  Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads

  Our Internet is currently working well. You're welcome to use the kitchen table if you want to work or study or in the guest room.

• 

  Espace pour garer des vans

  we have space and a beautiful water and mountain view, you are welcome to camp out there

• 

  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Deux

Sécurité du site

Feedback (11)