Saturday, 23.08.03
Ok… not far to go now!
Within the last month I used the time to have a closer look at some sleeping bags and to tune my gear a bit! Definitely didn’t feel like carrying a two-persons tent with 3.5kg, so I searched in the internet for a good one-person-tent and decided that I want the Hilleberg Akto in red. Very lightweight, good to see (red flysheet) and pretty durable. Bought the 2002 version. Didn’t see the point to pay another 100 Euros just for a small change in the fabrics.
I also bought the Joutsen Halla sleeping bag which should keep me warm even in the coldest nights in the Sarek at this time of the year. www.wetter-online.de says that in the last couple of years the lowest temperatures in September were not below –10 degrees. So that should be fine then…

Saturday, 30.08.03
I can see the light at the end of the way... soon, it'll be done - soon I'll be on tour again.
Feels great. I can also feel the well known excitement shortly before every tour.

Here are the daytrips I plan to walk. I copied them from Sal's homepage because it is his tour that I plan re-walk.

Kvikkjokk -> Njunjes (16km)
Dem Padjelantalden nach Westen folgen.

Njunjes ->Tarrekaisestugan (7km)
Dem Padjelantalden nach Westen folgen.

Tarrekaisestugan -> Såmmarlappastugan (13km)
Dem Padjelantalden nach NW folgen.

Såmmarlappastugan -> Tarrauoppalstugorna (15km)
Dem Padjelantalden nach Norden folgen.

Tarraluoppalstugorna -> Mángitjårro (10km)
Südlich des Berges Låptåvárásj durch, entlang des Nordufers des Sees Låptåvákkjávrre. Camp südlich des Mángitjårro.

Mángitjårro -> Pårek (16km)
Nach Osten bis zum Lauf des Njoatsosjåhkå, diesem nach SO folgen. Entlang der Nationalpark Grenze bis Alep Várdojavrre.

Pårek -> Pårtestugan (12km)
Nördlich der Seen nach Pårek, zwischen den Bergen Gállakvárre und Nuortap Sjábttjakvárre nach Osten. Dort nach Süden bis Pårtestugan.

Pårtestugan -> Kvikkjokk (17km)
Dem Kungsleden folgen bis Kvikkjokk.

still Saturday, 30.08.03
I definitely have to start thinking about some details now. For example how much food I will need to bring along.
I just have to stay under 30kg of backpack weight this time. Don't feel like doing it again. Once in Scotland was enough. And as far as I can remember Sal's tour-diary, the way, if you could call it still a way, will not be well walked. So I'd better travel light. My knees and hips will thank me for that!
But that also means that I have to cut out certain things. The clothes of course (3 T-Shirts are enough, ...), but the food as well. No cereals anymore every morning. No soup before the evening meal. I could do with loosing some weight anyway ;-)
Gosh!... I can already see myself sitting in front of a beautiful lake, surrounded by the hills and the autumn colours of nature, smoking a self-rolled cigarette and drinking hot tea...

from www.wetter-online.de ... looks like it could get a bit wet up there

Reiseplaner: Kvikkjokk

Reisezeit : 03.09 - 17.09

statistischer Witterungsverlauf

Die mittlere Witterung stellte sich für Kvikkjokk in der Vergangenheit folgendermaßen ein:

Die mittlere Tageshöchsttemperatur lag zwischen 10°C und 16°C. Nachts kühlte es sich auf 2°C bis 8°C ab.

Im Mittel fiel im entsprechenden Zeitraum an 8 Tagen Niederschlag. Über Ihre Reisezeit gemittelt wehte ein schwacher Wind der Stärke 3 Bft. Diese Analyse beruht auf Beobachtungen der letzten 6 Jahre.

WOW… Stockholm is just insane concerning the amount of beautiful women walking around there. I regularly almost bumped into things and other people because it was so difficult to concentrate on the way when you always have to look back ;-)
A piece of advice: If you need to buy meths (T-brod) in Stockholm, go straight to PUB (and in there to John Walls). It took me two hours to finally find a shop that sells meths (called AB-brod in John Walls).
Sarek, I’m coming!!

Thursday 4.09.03
6:00 The night was not too bad. I have had worse. The conductor told me that a bus would leave from Murjek station to Kvikkjokk half an hour after our arrival. Sounds good. The weather is great. Barely a cloud in the sky. Trees as far as you can see.

21:00 I’m lying in my new tent, wondering how I should put it up in the rain without getting totally soaked….
I met Jasper (from Holland) when I left the train to Murjek. We took the bus to Kvikkjokk where we met 2 other Germans who just came back from a trip. They told me that the country is dry and the rivers all passable. Sounds good.
I was a bit annoyed that the women at the Fjellstation refused to take my tour plan (in case I need rescue). Never mind. We took the boat (with Bjorns wife as captain) to our starting point. She actually took my tour plan. Relief!
At 14:00 we set off to Njunjes where we arrived at 17:30. Weather is getting worse. Strong wind and rainfall. Jasper an me thought of staying in the hut. But 270 Kronas are just too much and if I can’t cope with camping in bad weather… well, what am I doing in the Sarek??
Jasper just found out that his cooker (multi-fuel) doesn’t really work. Glad to have my Trangia. Don’t know what he will do now. 9 degrees C, the wind is getting stronger. Hope that the tent will hold. The plan was to arrive at Njunjes only tomorrow. That gives me another day. Nice!
Don’t know what I will do if the weather continues to be like that. Not much fun hiking in the rain. I might need my Ohropax tonight to get a dose of sleep… What a great first night.

Friday, 5.09.03
8:30 Wonderful… the weather is shite. All clouded, fair wind and light rain. I also lost one of my contact lenses, because I was stupid enough to try put them in outside in the wind. Don’t ask, why I did that… Plainly stupid!
Said goodbye to Jasper and set off.
14:45 I should be shortly before Sammarlappa. Managed about 17 km. Difficult terrain. The weather was bad for the first 2 hours, but then it eventually stopped raining. Nice walking. Had my first proper meal today. Pasta snack with cheese sauce. Gosh… I could have jumped into it right away! I noticed that I will have too much time in the end if I don’t need the resting days. Maybe I’ll enlarge the tour a little bit. Only met two other hikers the whole day. Must be the right season for hiking ;-) I slipped a couple of times on the wooden walkways. Pretty happy that I have my walking sticks along. There are still some mosquitoes around, but not too many to be a real pain.
I can’t move without causing pains in my legs, hips and shoulders, but still I’m happy and feeling good! Early night tonight.

Saturday, 6.09.03
9:15 What a great idea with this early night. First time I woke up at 1:00. Never mind. The sky is clouded but it doesn’t look like rain. Time to get going.
9:45 Just passed Sammarlappa. Great places for camping there.
13:45 The weather is just perfect. Lot’s of sunshine. I almost had to sit down when I reached the Padjelanta. It was so beautiful. Everything seems to be going just perfect. I decided to take a break for an hour. Drying my tent / airing my sleeping bag and eating Tomato soup. Yammi.
17:00 Shortly before Tarraluoppal. This is where I will turn east to the Sarek tomorrow. The land is so beautiful out here. Beyond description. I decided to be in Kvikkjokk Thursday evening, get the bust to Murjek Friday, be in Stockholm Saturday so that I can maybe visit a good friend of mine in Copenhagen. 7 days of hiking are just fine.
Already yesterday I noticed strange pains in my lower left belly. I’m a bit concerned because of that. Maybe I didn’t drink enough. I’ll change that.
Tomorrow the real adventure begins. Off-track straight into the Sarek. No turning back from there. A lot of bloody midges today. Drawback of the great weather I suppose.
Met a Swedish women on the way. She said that the rivers in the Sarek are all very strong. She actually had to turn back because she couldn’t cross them.
I will not have an early night tonight ;-)

Sunday, 7.09.03

7:30 5 °C during the night. I feel sorry for all the midges waiting outside of my tent ;-) The weather looks good. Bring it on!

1300 I don’t know why I am doing this! By far the toughest part so far. These never-ending hills… It also got pretty cold up here. Lost the way. Didn’t have a clue where I could have been. Just went east, hoping to hit the right valley that leads to Mangiaterra. It worked!
I bumped into a group of deer a couple of times. Gave me a good shock to have them standing just a few meters in front of me. Decided to shoot them (with my camera) and walk a good deal around them. The way down to the lake was pretty nasty. More like stone-hopping than walking. Glad that nothing happened there.
But it came even worse. The south side of the lake was even worse (although Sal said that the north side should be the nasty one. Don’t know how I managed to get through this without breaking my legs… a wheelbarrow full of luck, I guess.

1600 When I finally managed to leave the lake behind I realized that I had to cross this f****** river. Should have chosen the north side of the lake. After a lot of searching and cursing I eventually dared to cross the river with my sandals on and trousers up. It was not as bad as I expected it to be.
Now I’m lying in my tent at the foot of Mangitjarro, with a stunning view on the Sarek mountains. Tough day and I feel pretty finished but still… it was worth the effort!
The weather was … and still is… just perfect. I expect a cold night though. No sign of civilization wherever I look. Feels so great!

Wednesday, 10.09.03

Right now I’m sitting in the sun at Murjek train station. How come?
Let’s start with...

...Monday:
I took it quite easy in the morning. Started off pretty late. Going down the mountain was not as easy as I expected it to be. I took the north side of the river Goabrekjagasi because I expected a good crossing of the Njoatsojahka river rather in the north. Not the best choice. Had a hard time fighting my way through the thick bushes and trees, trying to follow the reindeer trails. Spotted a tent at the east side of Njoatsojahka.
When I reached the river it was more like a swamp in the jungle. The water went into my shoes and the head high trees and bushes gave me a lot of trouble getting through.
Found a possible crossing “just” 1 km up the river. There was a little island in the middle of the river, so I thought that it should be possible to cross there. The first half up to the island was fine with my sandals and hiking poles, but at the second half I noticed that the river was getting so deep that my poles did not reach the ground anymore. So back I went all the way and spent another hour looking for a possible crossing, fighting my way through the marsh.
Totally frustrated I eventually reached the tent I had spotted from above. A German couple that arrived with the helicopter the day before. They actually told me that there is no possible crossing point for this river. BUT… they had a foldable Canadian along!! So, after having a cup of coffee with them they shipped me over! Don’t know what I would have done without them.
On the way to Sähkok I got hit by a short rainstorm and I lost the way. Crossing Sähkokjahka was another thing that gave me a lot of adrenaline.
When I was going down to Boarek I lost my way again completely. I spent 2 hours in the swamp with soaked clothes, calf deep in the water, looking for Boarek. No chance.
When it finally was getting too dark to be walking anymore and being on my feet for almost 11 hours I decided to give up. I would have cried if it would have been of any help. Unable of having a clear thought I chose to rest and wait for the next day. I don’t know what I hated more… myself for loosing the way or this bloody swamp.
I put up my tent near a small stream, ate a pasta snack and added two chocolate puddings which managed to increase my mood slightly.

Tuesday…

Got up early. Temperature below zero. Water was dripping down on the inside of my tent. A terrible muscle ache, wet tent, wet sleeping bag, wet clothes, wet shoes made me have only one thought remaining: “Out of here… by any means!”
I packed my belongings and set off without breakfast. Just out of here. After an other hour of fighting through the marsh (with waterholes you could possibly drown in if you are unaware of them and thorny bushes taller than me) not knowing where I am or where I’m going to, I decided to send an SOS and let them get me out of here with a helicopter. There was just a slight problem… I did not have any signal with my mobile. So only one choice remained… to keep on cursing me for not taking a GPS along and to keep on walking in the direction I thought to be right. Strange but true… as I thought back at the moment I wanted to send an SOS I now think that it would have been so easy to find the right way… I would have just needed to look at the mountains around me and make a bearing with compass and map. Don’t know why, but I did not do it. Must have been because of my physical exhaustion and the thought of falling into one of those water holes… I just couldn’t think rationally anymore.
And then there it was… a path leading straight to Boarek.
From there I followed a path through the lakes towards the Kungsleden and then to Kvikkjokk. Took me another 8 hours. Not much to tell about that day otherwise. Just full of cursing and swearing. After finally having arrived in the Fjellsation I took advantage of the modern civilization. Sauna, shower, toilet, food shop (finally cheese!!) and all the other things.

So this was my Sarek-Solo tour 2003.
A great tour with a lot of luck and a lot of unlucky things as well. But one thing is for sure. Sarek is definitely the most beautiful spot on earth I’ve ever been to. I’ll come back. That’s for sure. But never off-track solo and without GPS.
I did not have a signal for most of the trip. One wrong step (which is easily done!) and the chance would have been good to die out there, not to speak of the pure luck I had not to fall into one of those water-holes in the swamp around Boarek.
If I will go for another solo-tour in the Sarek I’ definitely stick to the paths or take a friend and a GPS along. A happy ending to a great but dangerous tour.