GB Day 48

GB Day 48:

Thursday 26 August 2021

Today we had an alarm for 08:40, but we were really tired. We had a slow breakfast, packed our bags and cleaned our room and just had time to check out before noon. We then used our last shower tokens to have a long and nice shower together. Then it was time to finally start walking! We tried to find an FTI station (so, recycling station) and normally Google Maps is really helpful with this. This time, not so much. We followed Google Maps to a place not far from Gäddede Church, but there were no recycling station there! It just showed us to someone's private house. And there was nothing nearby. So we went to Ica to see if they might have somewhere to throw the recycling there, but they didn't! So for the first time on our entire hike, we had to throw the trash we had carried and carefully separated, in just some random trash can. Kim felt pretty pissed by this, and a bit upset that they didn't have any FTI Station in Gäddede. Seriously, most places, even smaller villages have had it. Shape up, Gäddede!

After throwing our trash at Ica we recycled our bottles and bought some more bars for the coming days. Then the hike started for real. Quickly we caught up to two loaders that cut the grass at the sides of the road. They were kind and stopped and turned off their machines to let us pass by safely.

Then we turned left from the asphalt road and onto a dirt road. Here we had thick forest on both sides, and just sometimes passed houses. At one point something landed on Lukas' neck, and as he flipped it away, we took a closer look at it. It was an Urocerus gigas or Wood wasp! We had never seen anything like it before, really big and very impressive.

We then continued for the next 20 km or so with podcasts in our ears to make the boring roadwalk better. We also ate two Billys Pan Pizzas again as we walked. Other than that we just made short breaks sometimes before continuing.

Our friends Linus and Mikael (who was with us for the first section between Treriksröset-Abisko) also called us and talked to us for a while which was really nice!

Finally, we reached the parking lot about 2 km from the waterfall. Here we sat down to rest our legs a little bit, and we saw some people there barbecuing, which made us really hungry from all the nice smells. So we hurried away to the waterfall, had a look at it, had a look in the little hut there and found that we couldn't sleep in there because it was too small, then headed back to the parking lot by the waterfall where we found Helena and Jonas who'd pitched their tent there. So we decided to do the same, and ended the day by eating all of the other Billys, and then went to bed.

Today's:

Favourite: The shower before we headed off

Distance: 25.9 km

Start time: 13:14

End time: 20:10

Ascent: 358 m

Descent: 279 m

Totals (from Treriksröset)

Distance: 1,010.6 km

Ascent: 23,986 m

Descent: 24,075 m

Tent nights: 33/48