NPL Day 27 & GB Day 3

Day 27: Thursday 13 July 2023

North of Rákkasgurajávri-Dividalshytta via Daertahytta

The day started out good, with a cozy morning in the tent. Both of us were quite tired after the long and tough day yesterday.

When we got going it didn't take long until Kim had to stop. It burned on her heel, and since it could be the start of a blister she thought it best to take care of it immediately so it wouldn't get worse. It was literally just a sore small red spot, probably because she was wearing her shoes without socks and insoles again (because she wanted to keep them dry...).

When we were taking our break we saw a huge herd of reindeer just above the next hut (Daertahytta). We made our way down, and discussed how to best proceed since they were blocking almost the entire valley down, and they were at least the same size as the Finnish herd we had seen a few days earlier at Pitsusjärvi, maybe even bigger.

A loooot of reindeer🦌

We started to try to go around them on the left side as far away as possible, and after some time they saw us and moved off, up on the other side of the mountain. Hopefully we didn't disturb them too much as we continued down in the valley.

Here we also took a short detour from the trail and found a geocache. An old one but in really good shape that no one had visited in as much as four years!

Found a geocache!

Down at the hut we had a breakfast break before continuing. It was a little bit windy. Not enough to be annoying and not too little to have insects around.

After breakfast we were not in a good mood any of us, and started arguing about something ridiculous like how we should walk. We ended up being a bit moody and not talking to each other for some time.

The terrain got a bit worse with lots of small up and downs and stones in the trail. The wind also completely disappeared and lots of mosquitoes appeared. It soon got so unbearable that we had to spray ourselves with mosquitoe repellant.

We kept going, sweaty but more calm, and suddenly some nice winds were back again.

Not much later we noticed something in the distance. Lukas wasn't sure, was it a hiker? Was it a cairn? Then we saw that it really was another hiker in the distance. Was it Mats? Could it be?

We squinted but couldn't see if it looked like it could be him or not. But as we got closer and said hello, the hiker immediately asked if we were Kim and Lukas.

Yes!

And was it Mats? Of course it was.

We stopped and talked for a while, and it was really nice to talk to another hiker (especially Gröna Bandare) and we hope Mats is not the only Gröna Bandare we will meet this year. But it very well might be.

Then we met Mats, the first Gröna Bandare for this hike.

After talking about gear, about Gröna Bandet, about the hike and the trail further ahead it was time to say goodbye.

After Mats left we were really happy and excited for some time, talking about the meeting. Buuuut it didn't take long until we got annoyed at each other again over something stupid.

But we talked it through and it got better during the day.

Then the weather was tricking us. We put on clothes because we thought it would rain - but just a drizzle came. So Lukas took off his rain clothes again, and Kim soon did the same with her jacket.

We continued down in another valley, and saw the rain in the distance on the other side. Ever so close, but yet so far away.

It was hard to see if it was coming closer or not. It was a bit windy and there was a drizzle (enough to make us put the rain clothes back on) but any proper rain never came, and the mosquitoes just got more and more aggressive.

We also walked through a mud hellhole. Kim ended up with orange-brown mud almost all the way up to her knees, on the inside of her legs.

The next part of the trail consisted of a lot of mud…

We walked and walked. And it felt heavier and heavier. Soon we started going uphill, but because of the crazy mosquitoes Kim didn't want to take off her rain clothes.

We also met a Czech couple that we talked to. Really nice with another meeting, and we stopped for small conversation, asking about the trail uphead and giving advice to the other hikers. They were hiking from Abisko to Kilpisjärvi.

Something we were warned about was that we would cross a river. Not very deep, but the widest one so far on the entire hike. We had hoped to clean up there. For Lukas it worked out fine... Not so much for Kim.

Next up came some REALLY intense altitude meters. Kim who still wore her rain clothes were boiling on the inside, and the mosquitoes were still after us. Even at the highest point of that pass - at around 980 m, they were still around.

When we started to finally walk down again we saw some grey clouds pass above us. It didn't take long until some strong winds and rain came. We tried to hurry, but the hill was long and steep. Down below we could see the hut. The trail got worse, small stones and sand combined made the trail slippery and it just got steeper and steeper. But finally we came down in the forest and soon we reached the huts.

There was no arguing. We were sleeping inside tonight.

While there we had an amazingly nice Carbonara, washed ourselves, had some snacks and just sat down to try and recover from the very tough day.

Today's

Distance: 28.34 km

Start time: 08:46

End time: 20:14

Ascent: 673 m

Descent: 1 022 m

Tent nights: 23/28