Day 31: Monday 17 July 2023

Lumsaluoppal-Katterjåkk via Riksgränsen (Ica)

Today is almost the same day as yesterday for us which is a bit confusing... Here's why:

It was hard to sleep tonight, with the gusts hitting our tent on and on. But it was blowing in the right direction and a hill was blocking some of the wind's force. Kim didn't sleep at all while Lukas managed to sleep short periods over maybe two hours.

But then THE FREAKING WIND TURNED!

Gusts of wind were hitting the tent from all directions and the tent stake that was securing Kim's absid got loose. She got out to put it back, but it soon got loose again. This time Lukas went out to try to fix it, and fetched an even bigger rock to place over the stake. Then after trying to sleep again, one of the more important tent stakes was ripped out of the ground. Again, Lukas ran out to fix it, but he couldn't find the stake... He was holding the line when the hard wind gusts hit the tent and it was so strong that Lukas struggled to hold it.

In between the winds Lukas ran and got a bigger rock and managed to somehow get the line stuck without the stake.

Back inside the tent we realized that we must get going, the wind was too strong.

Quicker than ever before we packed all our stuff and manged to put the tent down without it blowing away.

But now the wind suddenly weakened?! Well, that was kind of annoying that we put down the tent then.

Especially since we started to look for the tent stake that disappeared, but couldn't find it. We thought this would be easy because the stake is 190mm long, red with a lime green reflective line on it.

After searching for one and a half hours in an area we didn't even believe the stake could be in, because we didn't think it could have been thrown that far, we were about to give up. Kim decided to check the nearby water one more time before leaving, in a small spot she had not checked before because Lukas had mostly checked the area around the water.

Suddenly she shouts "I FOUND IT!"

It was 30 METERS AWAY???

How was it possible? It was in the muddy water but still very visible. Finally we could relax and start the early road walk. We had some nice conversations and reached a shelter by the road and stopped for a small breakfast. From here we listened to podcasts as we continued the road walk towards Ica in Riksgränsen.

We reached the store two hours before opening time. In some weird way we managed to sleep on the benches on each side of a fika table.

When it was finally 09.00 we ran inside together with some others who had waited outside the store. Immediately we bought juice, ice coffee, two buns and two bananas to eat in the sun outside the store and try to calm our hungry bodies.

We sat outside discussing what to buy, then we went inside with a cart 🛒 We are pretty god at this now 😂

Then we walked away with the full and heavy backpacks and with Lukas carrying shopping bags in each hand. All the way to Katterjokk Turiststation more than 2 km away.

Finally there we were warmly welcome and got a nice room with a small kitchen. We quickly put all our clothes (pretty much) in the washing machine and went to shower.

After the shower we continued with the regular rest day duties like repacking food and eating (sandwiches). We also spent some time in the sauna and relaxing area. Sauna wasn't that great because they were separate for men and women, so we spent most of the time in the relaxing area.

After relaxing we spent time updating Instagram, calling Kim's sister and for once made food (first time on our hike - a kebab salad!) and then went to bed 🛏️

Today's

Distance: 15.68 km

Start time: 03:16

End time: 10:25

Ascent: 197 m

Descent: 132 m

Tent nights: 26/32

Total distance from the North Cape: 754.29 km