sunday - summary

Today we are heading back to Malmö again and it's time to sum up the trip. The 110km hiking (-6km boat trip) in the Swedish mountains has been the longest hike we have done so far, averaging about 20km a day. The terrain has been quite easy but it's still though to carry the heavy bags so long. We did tye trip in five days and there was never any stress to make our day tips even though we did them quite a bit longer then "recomended", but concidering Ania's knees suffered the last day we should probably have planned for one more day. The scenery has been fantastic and can easily measure up to both Norway and New zealand. Only one day did we suffer from the mosquitos and we expected it to be a lot worse. Something we probably will try to do for our next trip is to look at the bag situation. To be light on the feet makes you able to enjoy the scenery more then when struggeling with a heavy bag, though you feel better about yourself when reaching your goal with the heavy load.

Btw, sorry for not posting chronologicaly but there was no cell coverage in the trails so nothing got posted until we reached Abisko.

saturday - pine

A few worrying drops of rain woke us up in the morning, but they never stood a chance. We have had supeb weather the entire day. First we hiked the last 4km to Abiskojaure and then 13km through pine forrest down to Abisko. Today we really took our time and had a wonderful lunch by the river. It's probably good this was the last day because Ania's knee has gotten really swollen and she will need a long rest to cure it. We have set our final camp with a view of Torne träsk. Abisko's camp site is though not the best but because this is inside the national park there is not much else to do since camping in the park is not permitted. Now it's time for a blueberry desert.

thursday - grey

We woke up to a really cold day where we had to crack the ice of the water bottles. The day has been mainly grey with quite a lot of rain. We hiked from Sälka for about 20km and have set camp 4km south of Alesjaure mountain cabins. On the way we stoped for lunch at Tjäktja mountain cabin to heat up. The evening has been really nice and hopefully the night will be a bit warmer than yesterday. There i little cell coverage out here so we'll probaby deliver a couple of reports at once.

friday - t-shirt

Today we hiked from Alesjaure for about 20km and have set camp just outside Abisko national park. Today was the first sunny day and we could go short sleeved almost the entire time. In the evening a few drops of rain has fallen but nothing to be concerned about. One thing that though is a bit annoying are that for the first time we can feel the wrath of the northern mosquitos and we have been forced to break out the repellant.
The hike past lake Ahpparjavri is one of the best we have ever done and the scenery was breathtaking. Tomorrow is the last hiking day with a 18km trip to Abisko in easy terrain.

wednesday - mixed weather

The morning was fantastic but when we where about 1h into the trail it started to rain and the wind was horrible. Luckily it wore off after about 1.5h and the rest of the day have been amazing. We hiked from Keb mountain lodge, took a short cut via a beautiful mountain lake and after about 20km we set camp near Sälka mountain lodge. Last night was pretty cold but today feels a tad warmer. So far the mosquitos have been fewer than the rain deers and we are very happy about that. Ania actually came close enough to 'pet' a baby rain deer before it ran off into the sunset. Except that mr Christoffersson seem to have missplaced the compass everything is just dandy. Now it's about 21.30 and it's still quite bright outside. We don't have midnight sun but it never get's completely dark.

The longest day

After plane to sthlm and then on to kiruna we took two busses to get to get to Nikkaluokta. We arrived at four and set of to cover 19km. 6km walking, 6km boat ride ad 7km walking later we sat camp. The day has been really long but fantastic. One minus though is that it's freezing in the evening. Ania decided to check the quality on her i.c berlin glasses by stepping on the with her boot. They sprung apart but could easily be assembled again. Those Germans make some killer glasses. Now we'll hit the sack. Good night

takeoff

As always we were very late out the door but just made the train in time. Easy morning at Kastrup withot lines and in a couple of minutes we are off to stockholm and then further on to kiruna.

prepping

Have spent most day running around getting food and other stuff. Now for a short nights sleep and then off to Kastrup.

Keb

Now We are swiftly approaching our next adventure. This time we'll eplore the most northen parts of Sweden and are heading to the Kebnekaise area outside Kiruna. We still haven't decided if we should actually do the summit because we are a bit short on time and we have plotted quite a long walk. We'll leave Malmö on Tuesday the 18th so that's when we'll start to get active here for real.