GB Day 37-38:

Svärfarbäcken - Hemavan

Via Viterskalet

Then rest day

Sunday 15 August 2021 - Monday 16 August 2021

On Sunday we got up fairly early and started walking right away. We started with a long hill, and saw some reindeer along the way up. When it stopped going uphill, it got very flat, and we thought immediately of Robban, who probably would've liked the nice terrain.

The view here was the best in many, many days. Probably one of the better along Kungsleden. A valley with steep sides, and the floor of it green and grassy.

By Syterskalet shelter we stopped to have breakfast. We decided we rather sit outside than inside though. After a while, three other groups of people arrived to the cabin as well. None of them even tried to go inside, and we joked about how we now did a social experiment. We sat outside, quite close to the door, so they probably thought it was locked since we weren't inside. But no one asked.

The walk from this little shelter, and all the way to the cabin in Viterskalet was pretty uneventful. Walking in the valley was really cool, and the terrain was super nice. By Viterskalet cabin we had a short break before moving on again. We just ate snacks instead of food today. We just wanted to get to Hemavan as soon as possible. From the pause by the cabins, the sun came out and shone down on us, so it was harder to walk for a while. It was all fine until we were going left on the mountain side and could now see Hemavan. A cloud from behind us blew in, and tried to soak us. In very short time it started raining like crazy, but we threw our rain gear on, and ignored it. It was soon gone again though. When we reached the top of the gondol, we took the gravel road down all the way to Centrumbacken where we just went straight down and went over to Fjällcentret where we had booked our room for the night.

We checked in, took a shower and crashed in the beds while trying to figure out where to go eat. We had been suggested to go to Auroras Kök, but they were closed on Sundays so we had to find another place. The choice fell on Fjäll's Kitchen - it didn't have to be fancy, just a lot of food. And it sure lived up to that. Lukas had a Kebab roll with extra everything and Kim just had some meat with French fries and bearnaise sauce. And we had no problem finishing it.

After eating we went to the store to buy snacks for the evening, tortellini, juice (Lukas needed new water bottles), fruit and of course ice cream.

When we got back to the hotel we didn't do much else than finishing the ice cream and go to bed. It wasn't as late as normally, but we were tired.

Monday was rest day and eating day. We had a short but cozy waking up at the hotel, then we got up to sort the washing. We then started washing our clothes while having probably the nicest breakfast so far.

Back in the hotel room we relaxed a bit, wrote blog posts, finished the washing and watched TV.

Next up was to go out for a fika. We did so at the little café on top of the supermarket, and sat there until they closed - probably more than one hour. Outside the store we found they sold Sia ice cream, so we bought one of those to eat while we took a little walk to the nearest geocache. It lay in the forest behind some building company, which felt a little weird and shady at first, but there were some signs in a forest and even a path!

The place led to a collection of old water-powered grinding stones that were used to polish the scythes used in the haymaking in Hemavan - the long winter required a lot of hay for the cows and horses.

It was now time for eating. This time we could go to Auroras Kök, where Kim took a pizza and Lukas ate a hamburger. When we had almost finished eating, someone suddenly showed up and started talking to us. It was Andreas Nenzén, whom we had written with a little bit earlier that day. We talked until we were done eating, then went outside and kept talking. We slowly moved over to the supermarket, where we finally split up to do our shopping. We were going to see each other for breakfast anyway, so we decided we could talk more then.

At the supermarket we bought a loooot of snacks for the coming 6 days of hiking, but also more juice, some foot cream, peanut butter and ice cream.

Lukas went back home, while Kim took a little steep detour up towards Högsfjällshotellet where she found another geocache.

Despite getting back to the room again almost an hour after we'd bought the ice cream, Lukas' had put it in a towel so it would keep cold, it was the perfect consistency.

Sunday's:

Favourite: Checking in at the hotel, eating fresh food and talking to Kim's family

Distance: 23.7 km

Start time: 07:49

End time: 15:43

Ascent: 532 m

Descent: 796 m

Snickers eaten: 1

Ice cream eaten: 1

Monday's:

Favourite: Hotel breakfast and relaxing

Ice cream eaten: 2

Gröna Bandare spotted: 1

Totals (from Treriksröset)

Distance: 746.8 km

Ascent: 17,379 m

Descent: 17,359 m

Tent nights: 28/38

Gröna Bandare spotted: 17

Via Suecia-hikers spotted: 2/4

Snickers eaten: 27

Ice cream eaten: 13