Week 30 - Lapland, Sweden

This week was eventful. On Monday, I arrived in Lapland and I can't stop being amazed. Whether it's the endless forests, the lack of civilization, or the reindeer. I encountered the latter for the first time on Wednesday. During my drive, I saw reindeer groups about 10 times. Unlike moose, reindeer are not shy at all, they simply stop on the road when a car comes. Since there is hardly any traffic, you can easily stop and observe the animals and take photos.

Since it hardly gets dark anymore, I also sleep much worse. My body somehow doesn't cope well with it. In the evening, I don't get tired, but in the morning, I can't sleep longer because the sun is shining. Although I have optimized the blackout in the camper van, it's not really good yet. I hope I get used to it better because it won't get really dark for several weeks. On Friday, I woke up at 2:20 a.m. for no reason and experienced the sunrise (if you can still call it that here).

While in Spain or Sardinia, I often only drove a few kilometers per day, here it is never less than 100 km. This is simply because Sweden is so huge and my destination is still far away.

The fuel prices are quite high too. While in southern Sweden I paid the equivalent of 2.30 euros for diesel, here in the north it's over 2.50 euros. Choosing gas stations is not possible here because there are simply hardly any. Often there are 100 kilometers or more between gas stations. So, it's important to refuel in time ;-)

Otherwise, I went on great hikes. One went to the Gimegolt gorge, another to the Jan-Svensamössan mountain. From here, you had a great view of the surroundings and the parking spot was not bad either :-)

I experienced a real adventure hike at Trollforsen. This is a river section with waterfalls and rapids. Due to the melting snow, the water level is really high. As a result, the hiking trail had been flooded multiple times and I had to wade through, jump over, or bypass it widely off the trail. More than once, my shoe got stuck in the swamp, but after 3 hours, I arrived back at the camper van with both shoes intact :-)

On Friday, I crossed the Arctic Circle. Of course, I couldn't miss taking a picture with the sign ;-)

On Saturday, I went to Muttos National Park. On the 14 km hike, you reach a waterfall at the end. Here too, there is currently a lot of water flowing. I covered 10 km in pouring rain, so my equipment was thoroughly tested :-)

Today, I went to Stora Sjöfallet National Park, where I am expected to stay for a few days.

From here, you have a good view of the Sarek National Park on the other side of the river. This national park is considered the last wilderness in Europe. There are no roads, no residents, no trail markings, no shelters, etc... So, (long-distance) hiking is taken to a different level here. But I'll save the adventure for another time ;-)