Made it to Saltoluokta!
Kategori: Allmänt
Back to some civilisation after days up in the mountains! 😃 Everyday something new happens, and everytime I think "oh this I need to tell my friends!" or "wow, I have to write about this on the blog!". But it's difficult to tell everything that happens and no matter how hard I try it's never gonna be a fair vision of the real life experience.
So I'm gonna try to sum things up as good as I possibly can without writing a whole novel.
Day 1, Abisko - near Alesjaure
Quite far distance. Was walking alone and found a beautiful place to put up my tent!
Day 2, Alesjaure - Tjäktja
Met supercool 15 year old Filippa also walking alone with a dog. Took company to Tjäktja. Hut-host Monica welcomed us with hot lemonade and told us great old stories about the "same-culture". Found a nice mountain plateau to put up our tents. Extremely windy night, couldn't sleep, scared that the tent would break.
Day 3, Tjäktja - Sälka
Very challenging day! Left Tjäktja with Filippa and a girl from Greece called Maria. Started with 4 km uphill to a windshelter. Took us around 3 hours since we had to walk through snow/water (in swedish I would say "snöblaskshelvete") all the way. It was really wet and heavy snow and when we stepped through it we got all the 0-degrees water up our waist. Suuupercold (!) and we had to pep-talk eachother through it. Filippa was amazing, extreemely positive and totally took the drama away by laughing at our situation. Perfect company a hard day like this.
The dogs were struggeling a bit, I'm so proud of Kita handling the situation in best possible manner ❤️
Reached Sälka 8 km downhill after the windshelter, still soaked in water. Hut-hosts Anders & Janne greeted us with hot lemonade and cinnamon-buns and me and Filippa enjoyed a night inside one of the huts. The dogs loved it and got along perfectly together.
Happy outside the windshelter after getting trough all the water and snow
Picture down the valley we came from with all the snow and water.
Day 4, resting day in Sälka!
What can I say? Had the perfect resting day being a guest at Anders and Jannes hut. Big thanks for everything, you both are worth gold!
Helped a bit with the firewood, Janne gave us swedish "fika" with coffee and homemade cookies directly from the oven, wow! Went to the sauna later, had a proper shower and washed my clothes. Got to know 3 swedish guys and one girl, Erika during the day. Had a nice evening together, playing some cards and desided to take company to Singi the next day.
Day 5, Sälka - near Kaitumjaure
Walked together with the guys and Erika to Singi. Nice weather and nice company. Got to Singi and had dinner together. In the early evening I said goodbye to the others and killed 10 more km south (they were heading east on a different track). Put up my tent and went to sleep.
Day 6, Kaitumjaure - Vakkotavare
Woke up with a layer of wet snow on my tent. Horrible weather. Everything got soaked in water directly. Went the last km to Kaitumjaure. The hut was locked, only the safetyroom was open. I went inside to make some breakfast. Woke up 2 guys that were sleeping there, heading my opposite direction.
Started walking, it was raining and snowing all.day.long.. Up the mountains I couldn't even see the path sometimes, everything was white and wet. Felt very lonely and had to fight through this day. Had to cross a lake by using a small paddleboat. Kita was brave ☺️
Up the next mountain, snow again. Took many hours to reach Vakkotavare, but as soon as I got down in the valley, to the tree-line, the sun suddenly appeared. With a smile on my face and reception finally on my phone I called my mum and finished my walk to Vakkotavare. Met a german biker/hiker. Had dinner together in the sun.
Day 7, Vakkotavare-Saktoluokta (today)
Overslept a bit. Started walking. My tent was still wet when I packed it. Had 30 km to walk on an asfaltroad. Since I overslept I had limited time to catch the boat that goes to Saltoluokta. Had to walk really fast. Lasted for a few hours before my knees got to upset. Stayed to make noodles. Sat in the cold rain feeling a bit sorry for myself and the frozen dog when a busdriver stopped cause he felt sorry for us. Got on the bus for free and joined some kind of private tour with 4 other people. Went to Naturum for example and got a very interesting day indeed! The busdriver drove me the last km to the boat in time and now I'm in Saltoluokta.
Unfortunately my knees have been hurting more or less the whole way from Abisko and today my brother spoke some sense into me and made me realize I need to rest more than just one day to get rid of this pain. So even if it really sucks I'm gonna stay here in Saltoluokta for as long as I need. Hopefully not more than 3-5 days, but it all depends on how my knees are recovering.
I'll keep you updated!
That was all for now. I'm gonna try to transfer more videos and pictures now when I have the time 😊
And YES, I admit I cheated a bit by joining the busride the lasts kilometers. But it was definitely worth it.
Take care everyone ❄️ Regards Ronja
