GB Day 19

GB Day 19:

Wednesday 28 July 2021

Wow, what a day! Where do we even start...?

Kim slept in a bit this morning, and then we hurriedly packed our things and started cleaning our room so we could check out at 10 AM.

Then we had breakfast. We had bought bread, butter and ham the day before, but Lukas came up with the idea to buy even more bread and salami so we could finish the butter. So we had a huuuge breakfast, and even had bread later in the day too, and shared a few pieces with our friends as well.

Then there were some stuff that didn't, at first, seem to work as planned. We had tried to reach Kvikkjokk mountain station to see if they had our depot box, and the day before they hadn't found it, but today we were supposed to call again. So we called and called, without an answer. Finally we could reach them, but they hadn't had time to look for our box, so they would call us back.

Meanwhile, our friend Johannes who was going to join us today was coming by train and bus, but the train was late. About 6 hours late! So we, especially Kim, was really stressed out about this because at 6 PM we were supposed to take the boat across Ritsem to Änonjalme. Finally Kvikkjokk called back, and told us they found our box! Yay! And we could breathe out a little bit.

Lukas, Kim, Ismaël and Helena played Alphapet until Helena and Viktor had to leave to go home with the bus some time before 2 PM. So we said goodbye to them, and then Lukas and Ismaël went down to the lake to have a swim. Kim stayed behind and was relaxing on the bench, when someone suddenly called out her name. It was Jonas (wayfaringinthewild), together with Sofia and David. So we sat down and talked for a while on the bench. Suddenly someone else showed up and asked if this was the table for Gröna Bandare. It was Agnes, who had arrived from the North, while the others had arrived from the South. We had a long and nice conversation together, before we finally had to split up to do different things. Lukas had managed to say hi to them, after coming back from swimming, but then he needed to prepare dinner. The clock was slowly getting closer to 6 PM, when the boat was supposed to leave, but we had heard that Johannes was on an extra bus, and that the boat would wait for that bus, and we didn't think the bus would arrive until around 7 PM. So we had dinner in peace, expecting to hear from Johannes to know when to walk down to the boat... Little did we know...

As we finished the last food, Lukas started cleaning the kitchen and Kim went to the toilet. She sent a text message to Johannes to ask where he was, because now the clock was 6 PM. Just as she had pushed send, another number called. It was Johannes, asking where we were. "In Ritsem" she answered. He said he was waiting by the boat. Panic rose again - By the boat!? Already? She asked if he could ask the boat to wait for them, and they got 10 min to reach it.

Kim ran out from the toilet, literally screaming to Ismaël and Lukas to pack their stuff and run. Grabbed a few things Lukas were holding and shoved them in her bag, and then we were off, running as fast as we could with our backpacks on. It felt like we were dying, but managed to run the 800 m to the boat in 6 min, and we got there maybe a minute before our time would be up from when Johannes told them to wait. We arrived out of breath, and the entire ride we couldn't think of much else than that we almost missed the boat. Apparently the bus driver had driven like crazy to reach the boat before 6 PM, and that was how Johannes managed to arrive in time for it to leave.

We thought that was it, but the troubles for today were not over. We took some photos, filmed a little and talked to Johannes during the ride over to Änonjalme. When we stepped off the boat, we walked straight to the little Café - Café Eno, that the other Gröna Bandare had told us to visit. We must have seemed like a confused little group at first, because we all spoke and did things at the same time, and the poor lady couldn't keep up with us being a confused mess. I guess we were still a bit shocked from almost missing the boat. After we had finished eating and drinking - Lukas had a beer and Kim had a gahku and mudcake, Kim walked over to the woman to ask about Sofia, Jonas and David. Lukas joined, and we then started talking about Gröna Bandet, adventuring, travelling and all of that, and had a really long and nice conversation. She also took a photo of us, because this year she has a goal to take a photo of all Gröna Bandare that comes over to visit her. Just as we were about to leave, we find that Lukas phone is gone. We all run around trying to look for it, we empty our bags to look in our pack, the owner of the café is even nice enough to ask the people on the boat for the phone. But it seemed to be completely gone. Until Ismaël walked into the café, and found it lying on a table in the corner, and everyone was happy but very confused because we hadn't even been there. Lukas must have just put it there when passing by.

We said goodbye and thank you, and finally started our walk through Padjelanta. The first km were easy to walk, and as we crossed the bridge over Vuojatädno and walked up above it we had the most magical view, easily top 3 so far! The Áhkka massif behind us, Vuojatädno stretching out far and wide below, and the golden hour making everything shine. It was breathtaking.

We walked just a little bit more, to find a spot with great views but no tents close by, and made camp there.

Today's:

Favourite: Meeting the other Gröna Bandare - Jonas, Sofia, David and Agnes, and meeting up with Johannes.

Distance: 5.7 km

Start time: 18:06

End time: 21:44

Ascent: 123 m

Descent: 125 m

Ice cream eaten: 1

Gröna Bandare spotted: 4

Totals (from Treriksröset)

Distance: 354.2 km