GB Day 43

GB Day 43:

Via Tjåkkele

Saturday 21 August 2021

Today we had a late alarm at 8 o'clock because we weren't in a hurry. We packed some of our things together and went inside to have breakfast. While we were eating, we suddenly heard footsteps outside on the porch. Lukas had a look through the window, and thought he recognised the man, and went to open the door. It was of course Peter Bergström (who was a little early if he meant to arrive 10 o'clock in the morning). He came inside and we had a pleasant conversation while we had breakfast. Not long after, Dirk left, but we said "see you later" rather than the usual "goodbye" because we were all heading for Tjåkkele. When we were done with breakfast, Peter got going while we started taking down our tent and packing all of our things. Just as we were about to leave, we heard footsteps on the porch again, and Kim thought that maybe Dirk or Peter had returned because they had forgotten something. She was wrong though, because another man showed up. His name was Samuel Hedman, a photographer from Hemavan who had taken a trip to the cabin to take a photo of an old log that he'd made in this cabin back in the 80's. We had a little conversation, and he also took a photo of us outside before we left.

The walk today was nothing like the previous days. Perfect hiking weather - not much wind, and not warm and sunny, and perfect terrain as well. A really nice path all the way that was easy to walk on. So keeping the pace up was easy, and it felt good, so we kept it up.

After a while we noticed we had coverage, so we decided to call the store in Klimpfjäll both to see if they had our depot box, and to see if they were really closed tomorrow. They weren't. While celebrating these news, which meant we could stick to our original plan, we called our friend Elin who was having her birthday today. Then we headed off again, at full speed now knowing that the store was open.

While walking today we also saw a lot of reindeer all day, and we had several funny conversations involving reindeer.

After a little more than halfway, we caught up to Dirk. We exchanged some words with him before moving on at our crazy fast speed on this mountanous highway.

Finally we reached Tjåkkele and came to a super warm and cozy cabin. Peter greeted us when we arrived, and showed us "his (favourite) cabin". We could really see why when we saw the area, but also the tiny cute cabin.

We had "lunch" inside, and after a little while, Dirk also joined us. It was like a sauna in there, but really nice and pleasant. When here, we also told Peter what we've learned about the store. But he had already made the fire going, and this was his favourite cabin, so he said he would sleep there anyway and leave early tomorrow. We joked about how we would be competing to get to the store tomorrow before opening time, and that if he passed our tent in the morning while we were sleeping, he would remove tent stakes until the tent would crumble and we would wake up.

Because we were going to have a slight headstart.

In the end, we decided to head for Durrenstugan. About 10 km away, we thought we would be able to make it before nightfall. So we said goodbye, or rather, see you tomorrow, and got going. The walk from Tjåkkele was good, not as good as from Åtnik, but close enough. Our feet were also getting tired again so that didn't really help.

But we made it into the mighty valley with steep mountains on either side, and got to the cabin. We decided, to be a bit faster, to not have dinner tonight, just eat snacks, and get going early tomorrow. The joke about the competition felt real, and we really wanted to reach Klimpfjäll before Peter. So we said that if he got going around six, maybe we could make it before him if we got going at seven.

Today's:

Favourite: Meeting Peter, and then meeting Peter again

Distance: 28.2 km

Start time: 11:38

End time: 20:25

Ascent: 746 m

Descent: 574 m

Snickers eaten: 2

Gröna Bandare spotted: 1

Totals (from Treriksröset)

Distance: 875.8 km

Ascent: 21,347 m