NPL Day 38 & GB Day 14

Day 38: Monday 24 July 2023

Gårssåjávrre-Boarkka via Kutjaurestugan, Låddejåhkå hut

Today was such a crazy day! In a lot of ways...

When we woke up today we were VERY tired, and decided to sleep in. A drizzle started, and therefore it felt okay to sleep longer. We started packing everything - including the tent, as if we were going out in the rain. But once we were ready, it had stopped. So we repacked the tent and put the inner and outer tent together again, then got going. The first few km had soon passed and we arrived at Kutjaurestugan. There we met the really nice cabin host Ulf whom we sat down with while eating our breakfast.

On the way there we had discussed how it works when you are a cabin host for STF, so we took the advantage and asked Ulf about it. Ulf was nice to talk to - very knowledgeable about most of the mountain range, about Gröna Bandet and Norge på langs and the history of the "Abrahamsson" hut, which is a type of STF hut. We also talked about food, in particular home-dried food, and he even let us taste his home-dried meat (fransyska). Very delicious 😋

After almost 1,5 hours of eating and talking we decided that we had to move on. Kim was really happy to be back in Padjelanta, with a nice trail to walk on and good weather. We had a lot of nice conversations so the time passed quickly. For some time we walked at the edge of a rain cloud which dripped some on us while we walked, but soon we had escaped it.

Then we reached Låddejåhkå. After visiting the toilet we walked over to the kiosk to at least see what they had. In the end, we bought tortellini and carbonara to have for dinner (better enjoy it while we can, we won't find it in Norway!) and also 200 grams of chocolate and a bag of olives.

Then we sat down by the table. Here were two Germans and one Swiss person that we talked to while making and eating dinner. While we sat there, suddenly someone came by and asked us if we were hiking Norge på langs and if we were Lukas and Kim!

Apparently it was Eva from the account @blandfjallbjorkarna. She had recently been joined again by Frida who had been injured previously but now had come back to keep her company again. And since Frida and another friend (?) had already started up the hill, Eva was somewhat stressed. We tried to keep it short while still having time to talk about everything we wanted, but we soon had to finish so Eva could keep going and join the others.

It was so cool that she recognised us! And cool that she made it so far. Not much more and she will have finished a Gröna Bandet! :)

We also talked a lot to the very sweet and nice cabin host here, Lena. Apparently she was cabin host here when we walked past last time as well, two years ago. Really nice and kind person, and we kind of wished we could have stayed there longer. Just before leaving she talked to us a bit about loneliness and we felt very affected by this conversation, another reason why we felt like we wanted to stay.

When we left we got a hug ❤️

After saying goodbye to Lena we wrote our names in the Hyttebok and decided to keep going. But just as we were about to put on our backpacks and go, some other hikers sat down at our table. We started with the regular questions, and once we had explained how far we were walking one of the guys suddenly asked if we had a YouTube channel.

It seemed he had watched our videos from Gröna Bandet two years ago which is really insane!

Our first YouTube fan!

Then it was REALLY time to go. We had stopped for as much as two hours here, which is a lot.

While hiking, we talked to the camera about what had happened, and walked across the bridge with lots of "jättegrytor” and filmed it. Then suddenly, Lukas saw two hikers that he recognised.

It was Helena and Jonas!

Extra funny that Kim had guessed we would meet them between Låddejåhkå and Stáloluokta! That's what we did.

We stopped to talk to them too, for probably as much as an hour. When you haven't met for two years and both of you are out hiking quite long trails... There is lots of information to get, to give, and to catch up on.

When we said goodbye to them we headed over the next hill, before putting up camp on the way down.

Today's

Distance: 28.33 km

Start time: 09:06

End time: 20:53

Ascent: 753 m

Descent: 662 m

Tent nights: 32/39