Welcome to the mountains

Saturday 28/6

After a few hours of sleep at a rest stop somewhere along the road we started to head north again. We arrived at Nikkalouka mountain station a bit after noon. After weighing in our backpacks e headed off towards the boat that would take us over Laddjujarvi sea. Missed the boat with 30 seconds and therefore had to wait to the next one. Cooked dinner while I realized me and my friend Jocke had forgot one of our bags with food in the car. I guess sometimes one plus one equals a half. Not much to do but go the 6 km back and get the bag. So while Jocke ran back to get it the rest of us took the boat over the sea and chilled in the sun. Turned out that the captain of the boat, who by the way couldn’t swim, once crossed the lake by walking on the bottom of it after the engine stopped a couple of years ago. During the 20 min boat ride we heard quite a few funny and interesting stories as well as we saw two raindeers taking a bath. Was quite hard to tell if it was voluntary or not though. Am at the moment sitting leaned back against a rock with the sun in my face at the same time as the mosquitos are surrounding me. Mosquitos or not, it is not hard to relax and enjoy life in a surounding like this. Sitting stuck in traffic, stress or feeling anxiety over what to wear in the moringing feels less and less important. Since when did life be all about who has the biggest tv, most expensive car or nicest house? Right here and now, with everything I need to survive packed in a backpack, I don’t miss any material things.

Sunday 29/6

After setting up our tents at the hillside in the Tarfala valley and a nice sleepin it was time for todays hike. We met quite a few people along the trail in the nice weather, some just taking a day hike while others been out for over a week. From Tarfala the had a pretty steep climb, sometimes on snow and other times on rocks. Slowly but surly upward though. After reaching the plateau at 1460 meters between two peaks we had to walk in snow quite a bit. Was not too fun in sandals since I forgot my walking boots in the car. Oh well, not much to do bout it. From there we walked down the Darfal galcier and further down towards Kaskavagge. ere jumping on stone blocks for a while, which took quite some time. Stopped for dinner by a bridge. Tasted really good with mashed potatoes and beersausage after a whole day of walking. Stayed quite a while by the river before we started to walk towards Njunni to round a peak and then head into the Unna Reaidavaggi valley. The lush verdure was quite a contrast to the fields of snow and rock we crossed earlier today. It took longer than we thought to cross all the loose stone blocks and hillsides, why we ended up setting camp for the night at a plateau right down by Palkastak. A waterfall above us supplied us with fresh water. It was almost one o’clock before we fell asleep.

Moday 30/6

Woke up to just as nice weather as the days before. Ate some breakfast and then packed up our stuff. Todays route started by crossing a ice cold river. Must confess that it as a bit scary with the current trying to drag my body along. Went without any problems though. With numbed legs from the cold water we climbed up, up and then some more up the hillside. Was quite bruchy in Unna Reiddavaggi. Followed the mountainside all along to a waterfall with a turkoise sea down below it. Here a rather hard climb on ice and then stoney terrain started. I had my doubts before but we managed to get up in just socks and sandals. Took a quick break at the cabinet on the top of the water fall to warm up our bodies a little bit. Headed down in the next valley and hoped to face a little bit less snow, but boy were we wrong. In spite that the valleys highest point only was 1226 meters, which was a lot lower than areas we passed earlier, it was more snow here than the faced earlier. We had to cross a lot of rivers with snow on top. The snow melting that usually occurs by this time had obviously not happened quite yet. When we around 5pm arrived at Reaiddajarvi sea we faced even more fields of snow. The planned trip to the Nallo valley was therefore left out at the same time as a storm was approaching quickly. We managed to put up our tent just in time before the first raindrops hit the ground. Just a couple of minutes later it was pouring down. Fredrik and Malin caught up with us a few hours later, soaked by the rain. Hopefully the bad weather will all be gone tomorrow. The rain makes it a little bit harder to trust the capacity of the snow. 

 

Tuesday 1/7

Sometimes hiking can be amazing, while you other times just long home. Today the day begun with sunshine and all the four of us all walked pretty fast towards the cabins at Salka. However, of course it started to rain while we where making some lunch, as always. For some reason the sky always treats us with rain as soon as we take out the kitchen. Had to more or less evakuate into one of the cabins to seek shelter from the rain. Was nice to stay inside away from the cold and rain. However, the rain dissapeared just as fast as it came. Around 2pm me and Jocke therefore started to walk again towards the Kebnekaise station. The weather was amazing and we quickly progressed along Kebnekaise’s answer to autobahn. Everything was going well until we stopped and decided to take a break for some snacks. At first it was just drizzling, but the rain quickly got heavier and heavier. Almost got attacked by a bird while crossing the fields. The footpaths soon turned more and more into big fields with water and mud, which we walked through in anger. Didn’t even bother any more to attempt to stay dry. The rain stopped after a couple of hours, which was long enough to make us soaking wet. All the floating water had made the terrain very slippry and the number of rivers to cross was multiplied by at least five. In these conditions it was a bit harder than normal to enjoy the increadible beautiful landscape. The last 4 km to the station felt like forever, although some snacks and the sun’s reappearance made our moods a little bit better. The legs started to feel pretty tired by now and by the end of the day we walked some 30 km. Unfortunatly we missed the receptions hours by 20 min, which ment it was to late to get a room at the hostel. We therefore didn’t have much choice than to put up the tent again and as usual it started to rain as soon as we were about to make dinner. After eating inside the tent while the rain was falling outside, we both fell asleep pretty early.

 

 

 

Wednesday 2/7

Since me and Jocke walked ahead of the others we had a whole day at the Kebnekaise station before the others got here. Woke up by the sun shining into the tent. Perfect time to dry up all of our stuff. So we therefore moved the tent and spread our stuff out in the sun. Climbed up a little hill and just chilled out all day until the other two got here. So we waited, waited and waited some more until we finally spoted the two walking towards us. Unfortunatly the ferry, which was to take us back towards Nikkaloukta, was about to leave in about an hour and 15min. We decided to make an attempt to catch it. Time was ticking fast and when it was 8km and a little less than an hour left before it was about to leave me and Jocke decided to start running in order to catch the boat. So with about 12kg in our backpacks we took off, crossing rivers, over stones and up slopes. At least we managed to avoid the mosquitos rushing through the woods like this. With about 2km left I started to get really tired and had to walk for a little before picking up the pace again. Managed to get to the loading platform two minutes before departure time. However, it turned out that you needed to make a reservation. With no signal on out cellphones we were stuck. Luckily Fredrik and Malin, who came about 15 min after us stopped the first couple of people they met and managed to call the ferry. A little later the same man who drove us out about a week earlier came with the boat. Relief is the word. Relaxed on the way back and then managed to walk the remaining 5 km back to Nikkalouka station just in time before the resaurant closed. Enjoyed a really good meal before we got into the car and started driving west towards Norway and the city of Harstad where we spent the night.

Thursday 3/7

Woke up after sleeping in the car, which by the way is not the most comfortable thing there is. Anyhow, our plans to head to the pool for a bath got ruined when the place didn’t open until noon. We therefor headed along the halfisland of Lofoten for a little while before we dicided to go back to Narvik. It was a really beautiful day today and the city just by the ocean was really showing itself from its best side. After getting a little lost at first we finally found the ski lift, which was operating during the summer as well. Packed our lil stove, food, and drinks to head up the mountain. Where accompanied by some downhill mountain bikers in the lift as well. Turned out there was a little restaurant on the top of the mountain so we skipped our dried food and decided to eat there instead. With a lookout over the whole city of Narvik we enjoyed a good meal. After dinner me and Jocke climbed the next 400 meters or so to get even further up the slopes. Took about 30 minutes to get up but the view from there was worth both the time and sweat. Unfortunatly it was getting late and it was time to head down and hit the road again.

 

 

 

Friday 4/7

Spet a rather interesting night in the tent accompanied by all kind of animal noices somwhere along the road close to Bodo. At one point during the night I seriously though a cow or raindeer was about to run into the tent. We woke up fairly early since the sun turned the tent into a sauna. Headed towards Salstrommen, which is a place off the coast where the current changes direction every 6th hour. Got some breakfast and sat on the cliffs by the ocean witnessing the stream first run out from the fjord and then completely stop for a while before changing direction and start running into the fjord. Pretty cool to see and the force of that current was not to play with. The plan for today was to drive south through Norway to Mo i Rana and then head back home through Sweden. Made a pit stop at the Polar museum in the middle of Saltfjellet, which is a mountain north of Rana. Along the curvy, narrow and steep roads that where climbing along the mountainsides we had to stop several times because goats where standing in the middle of the road. Could not do other than laugh since no one got hurt. Our next stop was in Sweden and right outside Tarnaby where we ate dinner and then took a bath in a lake. Felt really good to get a little cleaner after about a week without a shower. After this we decided to drive all the way home tonight. Was back home in Uppsala at 4 am for a little bit of rest before we drove to Stockholm where I dropped the other three off. It has really been an amazing week and it is a little hard to get excited about getting back to work to be honest. I already look forward for the next trip, whereever that might be.