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| pointing in the right direction |
During the summer, I decided to hike at the world famous Kungsleden trail up in Abisko National Park up north in Lappland county, Sweden. I woke up early in the morning to catch the earliest train to Stockholm where I would then take a connecting flight from Arlanda airport to Kiruna.
The weather in Kiruna that day was quite cloudy and windy. As I exited the airport with my luggage, I waited for the only bus that day that would bring me to Abisko Tourist station. Surprisingly, I was the only person to take the bus there as the others either rented cars or called taxis. The journey took quite a while, but I had a preview of what I would be walking through in the next few days.
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| The view along the way from Kiruna to Abisko |
I reached the tourist station in about 1.5 hours. There was no point in waiting so I immediately started on my way although there was still some light rain and PLENTY of mosquitoes. After a few hours of hiking, I camped near the lake about 5km away from the nearest campsite, Abiskojaure. As expected, the sky never got really dark and I had my first experience with the Arctic midnight sun.
The next day, I walked to Abiskojaure and bought myself some mosquito repellent. It really helps! The mosquitoes still keep buzzing around in your face but they weren't able to bite. I then passed by some streams. It was really refreshing and nice to drink and brush your teeth in the cool mountain water! In fact, the area is filled with small flowing streams that I did not really need a huge 2 liter water bottle.
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| A water pump powered by the flowing water itself |
A note to future travelers: All of the campsites and huts in the national park have no electricity or piped water. You need to chop firewood and get water pumped from the river yourselves!
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| One of the many stream in Kungsleden |
The weather in the evening turned quite bad with heavy rains and I was forced to spend the night in Alesjaure. Here I met my fellow travelers, most of whom will go the same way I do. There was a sauna in the campsite and I really enjoyed it. You work up a sweat then jump into the ice cold river. Well at least the Swedish do that. I think its just crazy.
The next day, there was terrific weather and with my newfound hiking buddies, we set out to complete the hike to Kebnekaise station. My buddies are three swedish from Stockholm and two Germans teachers. I became the crazy Asian guy.
We continued together along the way until horribly bad weather made us stop at Tjäktja. We were all cold and wet so we had to stop here. We had some time to get to know each other better while playing some board and card games. After Tjäktja, it was a relatively short hike to the highest point of Kungsleden, which is on a mountain pass. There we rested outside the small hut and had breakfast. An interesting thing for me, who is from the tropics is that there were still lots of ice and glaciers there and it is summer now!
One of the highlights of this trip was spotting reindeer running about in the mountains. The reindeer spend their summers on mountains and winters on the forests.
We then passed through rocks and stony paths, meadows under the blue nearly cloudless sky. Occasionally annoyed by mosquitoes, we made it to the next campsite in Sälka. I took a dip in the shallow stream with ice cold water and I felt numb all over! My friends washed their gear and took the chance to dry them.The next day, there was terrific weather and with my newfound hiking buddies, we set out to complete the hike to Kebnekaise station. My buddies are three swedish from Stockholm and two Germans teachers. I became the crazy Asian guy.
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| Fellow travellers |
We continued together along the way until horribly bad weather made us stop at Tjäktja. We were all cold and wet so we had to stop here. We had some time to get to know each other better while playing some board and card games. After Tjäktja, it was a relatively short hike to the highest point of Kungsleden, which is on a mountain pass. There we rested outside the small hut and had breakfast. An interesting thing for me, who is from the tropics is that there were still lots of ice and glaciers there and it is summer now!
One of the highlights of this trip was spotting reindeer running about in the mountains. The reindeer spend their summers on mountains and winters on the forests.
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| Reindeer crossing a river to get to the snow! |
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| The dog in Sälka that liked my biscuits. |
I started off earlier than the rest and camped in the mountains that night. The remaining journey to Kebnekaise Fjällstation was damaging for my knees as it went up and down hill almost all day! Eventually I made it to the station greeted with exorbitant bed fees and lousy beds. Note to future travelers: I would recommend that you skip this station if possible by starting your hike from Nikkaluokta. You might as well travel by helicopter as the price is almost the same!
Everything has been what I have imagined. Farewell Lappland, I will visit you again in the winter!
