The hike I told you
about was amazing! I didn’t really have much of an idea where to go. I arrived
at the hut at the start of a long trail and asked for ideas. They suggested
doing bit of the Kungsleden – the King’s trail. There are huts spaced out that you
can stay in, all I needed to rent was a sleeping bag sheet, and you can buy
basic food and use the stoves there – simple.
So I loaded up my
little day pack, which is kinda uncomfortable but not too bad, and headed for
the hills. The first thing I saw was a sign warning of wild bears, wolves and
lynxes. I don’t know whether to be glad or disappointed I didn’t see any!
The scenery was pretty
stunning. Most of it wasn’t at that high a altitude, but it is within the
arctic circle so the vegetation was reasonably short. There was snow on the mountains and the odd glacier was
around, but I was mainly walking through valleys.
I arrived at the start
of the walk at midday, and by the time I had some lunch and got a little
organised it was 2.30pm before I started out on the 18 kilometre first day leg.
So the whole thing was a little slapped together in a hurry. It occurred to me
somewhere on day two that I had kind of just started an 88-kilometre hike
without more than half an hours planning. I mean, obviously I live to tell the
tale, but when I did the Overland Track in Tasmania I thought about it, trained
for it and packed for it for weeks (and I still forgot my topographic map!).
After six months of
drinking beer and eating cheese I’m not very fit, but I managed to do okay on
this hike. The longest day was 25 kilometres, but it was the 23-kilometre day
straight after that really hurt. And I was hiking by myself, which was mainly
okay, but sometimes hard to motivate myself. The middle three days I had a really
strong and annoying headwind too, which kind of took a bit of fun out of it.
And on one of the long days there was lots of walking over this kind of thing,
which really slowed me down.
One day I was walking
around with my Gortex hood on my head down to keep the wind out when I saw a
bit of movement in my peripheral vision. I looked up and there were two male
reindeer fighting maybe five metres in front of me! They kind of got spooked
when they realised I was there, but I don’t know much about reindeer and their
antlers looked very big! They seemed more frightened of me but it was a bit of
a shock!
The best bit though
was that most of the huts on the trail, and all of the ones I stayed at, had a
wood-fired sauna! Now I’ve never really been into saunas before, but I am now
totally sold. The huts are built on a river or lake, and the saunas are right
next to the water. This for instance is where the first hut I stayed at was.
So you go and steam in the sauna for a while, then run out
and jump in the ice-cold water. And I mean ice-cold. I started out very tentatively,
but as I became more adventurous I realised that it’s actually a pretty nice
sensation. I know it’s weird, but that’s how I psyched myself up for it. Like
eating a super-hot curry, it’s just a sensation that will pass. And you know
there’s a steaming hot sauna to run back into. But when you get out of the icey
water it feels like you’ve rubbed deep heat into every muscle of your body. And
the next day you more or less feel fine muscle wise. It really is amazing. By
the last night I was in the sauna and running outside to the river for more
than an hour – totally hooked. And the weirdest thing is after getting out of
the river how comfortable you feel walking around naked in four or five degree
weather. I guess everything’s relative.
Anyway, here are some
more beautiful photos.
One of the most fun things was the suspension bridges. There were usually one or two a day, and sometimes really quite high! Not quite sure this quite captures the precariousness above the raging torrent.
The last hut was kind
of a big operation compared to the tiny little huts elsewhere on the trail.
It’s still in the middle of nowhere and you have to walk 14 kilometres to the
nearest road, but it has a fancy restaurant and I treated myself to a set three-course menu. I wish I’d
taken photos! The entrée was herring prepared in five ways: pickled in a
mustard sauce, in a tomato sauce, battered and fried, and in a mayonnaise sauce
with smoked salmon. The main was thing kind of huge rissole thingy made out of
moose meat with mashed potato, and the dessert was based on local berries that
the chef’s apprentice is sent out every morning to pick from the hillside. It
was a pretty bloody amazing meal, and a few glasses of very expensive red wine
went very well with it.
So after hiking out to
this tiny little village where you can catch a bus, I realised that I wouldn’t
be able to get a connecting bus back to the starting point where I had left my
big pack that day. So I had to stay a night in this town called Kiruna, which I
think might be Sweden’s equivalent of Mount Isa. It’s super remote, newly built
and lacks a bit of charm. But I eventually got back to where I started, picked
up my stuff and caught a bus over the border into Norway.
I switched buses in
Narvik - the biggest town in the area and continued on to the Lofoten Islands.
Here’s a map to show you where they are.
I stayed for a few
days in Ballstad, which is this tiny little fishing village. As it turns out
nothing happens in Norway on Sundays, including buses running. So I ended up
having to stay another day, but that wasn’t too much of a hassle. It was kind
of a weird hostel – they had a bunch of old fishing huts, and as it was the off
season I had one all to myself! So I spent one rainy day on the couch with a
blanket next to the heater reading more free thriller novels! But there was a mountain right behind the village to climb!
When Norway woke up
and the buses were running again I moved villages to Å. That’s all it’s called.
I was never able to figure out how it’s pronounced, but I like to think it was
like this:
I stayed there for two
nights and kind of just wandered between villages, because my legs couldn’t
handle much more mountain climbing. But it is very pretty and nice to stop and
have a nice (expensive) lunch.
From here I spent a
lot of time travelling – I caught a ferry to Bodø, stayed a night, caught a
train to Trondheim, stayed a night, then a very long bus to Bergen. It was a
shame to do it overnight, as when the sun broke the scenery was amazing. Alas,
I couldn’t take photos, but it was some of the most picturesque valleys I’ve
seen thus far. Bodø and Trondheim are nice enough cities, but there didn’t seem
to be that much to keep me there longer than a night.
Bergen is Norway’s
second largest city and famous for its fjords. I went on a boat cruise with a
few other people from the hostel I was staying in, and it was very pretty
without being jaw dropping. I suspect if you had time and a car you could find
some truly amazing scenery, but I was running short on both.
I also hiked up one of the many mountains around Bergen, it was a very nice view.
I broke up the train
trip to Oslo by staying overnight in smaller towns Voss and Geilo. These were
kind of pretty – and again with the main tourist season being over I had either
a room or a little cabin to myself! This is the lake in Voss – very pretty.
And
in Geilo there’s a ski lift which starts from the train station!
I spent two nights in
Oslo and mainly did museum kind of things. I went to the Edvard Munch museum
and saw many of his famous works, including one version of The Scream. I went to the Nobel Peace Prize museum, which was
pretty interesting too. Oslo is built of a fjord, but it doesn’t have the
dramatic mountains coming straight out of the water like the north and west of
the country.
I also had an amazing dinner in Oslo where I tried deer for the
first time – it was delicious!
Scandinavia was
painfully expensive at times, but so beautiful that I think it was worth it. I
was umming and ahing about it, but I figured now was the time while I still had
money in the savings account, and before it got too cold. And I certainly don’t
regret it!
All this feels like a
while ago though, because I’ve since flown to Munich for Oktoberfest, stayed
with friends from Katherine in Australia and dragged another mate around
Salzberg to see sights from The Sounds of
Music. It’s been amazing, and as soon as I can get photos from my friends I’ll
put up a post about it.
