Brønnøysund is the largest town on this part of the Helgeland coast, with a little over four thousand residents and a harbour full of fishing boats and ferries, and it works as the commercial and administrative heart of a scattering of islands. The place has an airport, a long bridge that carries the main road across the sound, a busy waterfront and the practical comforts a rider needs after the ferries: fuel, supermarkets, cafes, and hotels with a view of the water.
The big landmark lies a short ride to the south of town: Torghatten, a granite mountain with a hole right through it. The tunnel is roughly a hundred and sixty metres long and some thirty-five metres high, and you can walk through it. Norwegian legend says a troll named Hestmannen chased a girl across the sea and shot an arrow at her, and that a king threw his hat to save her. The sun rose, everyone turned to stone, and the hat became the mountain with the arrow hole through it. Geologists give a different account, in which the hole was cut by waves at a time when the sea stood higher, at the end of the Ice Age.
For a rider this is coastal Norway at its most rhythmic, with Rv 17, the Kystriksveien, hopping from island to island on ferries and bridges. The roads are narrow, usually well surfaced, and change character at every crossing, from open skerry landscape to forest and mountain. The ferries are part of the fun, and the timetables matter, so check them and allow for a wait in summer. Weather comes in fast off the Norwegian Sea, and the same view can be sharp and sunny at breakfast and grey and wet an hour later.
The Arctic Circle lies not far to the north, so in midsummer the light never really goes, and a ride at midnight under a pink sky is possible. Local seafood is a good choice, and fish soup or fresh cod need no explanation. Take fuel in town, since the stations on the smaller islands are sparse and sometimes unmanned.