ROAD TRIP (Day 7) - Real Poblems & Reindeer

Our first real problem occurred on Day 7 of the trip. Mosquitoes were a problem, but that was more of a nuisance than a problem which could seriously affect the continuation of our trip itself. This happened at the end of a very long and eventful day.

We had spent the night at a Campsite at Docksta, just outside the Skuleberg Nationalpark at Höga Kusten. This is, according to the Insight Guide to Sweden, one of Sweden best kept secrets. The coast and the national park have much to offer, but is probably not popular with non-Swedish tourists (I had already mentioned previously that there were hardly any non-Swedish campers at the campsite) because it is so far in the north. I do not exactly how far north of Stockholm it is, but we did spend two nights in between on the way there.

Hunny Bear having a go at via Ferrata

Anyway, we had but one item on our agenda for that day, and it was very close to the campsite: via Ferrata! I had never done it before, my travel companion once. I had of course known about the possibility of climbing (is that the correct verb, or does one do via Ferrata??) at Skuleberg, but did not seriously consider it as something we would be doing. But, after a very short discussion, we decided to head over to check out the price, etc. Apparently, it would be something I would like because it is not as challenging as actual rock climbing, and it gives climbers the chance to get to greater heights. It turned out not to be exorbitantly expensive, so after the few minutes it took us to go through the safety briefing, get geared up and get directions as to where the trail was, off we went.

I did enjoy it. The view, once we got above the trees, was spectacular. And they were many opportunities to stop and appreciate the view and take photos. The climb itself was somewhat challenging, mostly because a lot of rain from the day before still slowly making its way down the rock face. That made things very slippery at certain places. It felt weird initially to be climbing without climbing shoes, and it took me a while to trust my hiking boots to do the job of my climbing shoes. After a while though, I got a bit more into the “grove”. I began to remember the old climbing moves and it became a lot easier. I was really glad to have done it, and would certainly go for via Ferrata again if the opportunity arose. Whether I prefer it to climbing though, is another story. With every step, I was very painfully aware of the length of the fall if I were to slip. I missed the security of top-rope climbing. At least on a top-rope, I knew that I was unlikely to fall more than a few feet, and the fall would be straight down while I would most likely remain upright during that short fall. Of course it would be different on lead, but that is another story. With via Ferrata, you´d fall until the next eyehole or hook or whatever you call it. And you would fall in the direction of the rope, which could be at varying angles and steepness within the same line. I was sure it would be painful. But, thankfully, I did not have the unhappy opportunity to personally experience that. The advantage it has over actual climbing though is that it is less strenuous and there are many opportunities to rest along the way, even if only for a few seconds. The entire climb took us one and a half hours. I would definitely not have been able to climb to that height for that long if it were rock climbing. 

Hunny Bear trying on to fall into the falls.

After that adventure, we got back into the car and headed further north. The plan was now to drive as far as we could until we stopped to rest for the night. With a slight detour to Bjuröklubb for dinner of instant noodles with a spectacular view, we continued north until Piteå where we left the E4 and headed inland towards Jokkmokk. Along the way, we passed one of the must-sees on my list: the Storforsen. It is supposed to be Sweden’s largest waterfall. I am not sure what ‘largest’ means, because I have also come across another waterfall which is supposed to be Sweden’s highest waterfall. No matter. It was on my list, because it was the only waterfall we could make it to, without going too far out of our way. It was awesome. I cannot think of a better adjective. Awe inspiring. It was perhaps less waterfall and more giant rapid, but for that it was a very GIANT rapid. It was only for a stretch of about 80m and was perhaps about 30m wide. But force of the water could not be denied. God was not being nice when He created that. I took quite a few photos, but I don’t think the photos do it justice. After admiring the Storforsen for a while more, we continued on our journey.

In the end, we drove almost 600 kilometres. It was about midnight when we stopped, possibly later. We found a little alcove in the trees just off the road and pulled in. As we were building our tent, we heard a “snap!” Never a good thing to hear while building a tent. One of the poles had broken. It was late and raining, and there were ten thousand mosquitoes around us. It was a break which could not be taped up or fixed by any means which we had at our disposal. Thankfully, we were prepared. Boy scouts would be proud of us. We had a second tent with us. A smaller, less comfortable tent, but a tent nonetheless. We erected that and went to sleep.

Our attempts to find a solution the next day were not successful. By this point, I was beginning to get quite worried. The prospect of continuing on the trip while having to sleep in the small tent was not at all appealing. Sleeping in hostels and cabins for the next three weeks, with at least two of which in Norway, was going to increase our expenditure tenfold. Fixing the tent was crucial. My travel companion was coming up with all sorts of MacGyver solutions to fix it, which could have worked but did not sound very fool proof to my ears. I was of course not given opportunity to comment how to fix it (not that I could anyway), but contributed by making helpful suggestions about finding an outdoor shop in nearby Kiruna. We were given directions to such an outdoor shop in Kiruna. There, not only did they sell us the parts to replace the broken bits, they helped us to fix it! Yay! Big sigh of relief.

So, our tent is now up and operational again. I am now sitting and typing this in the roomy luxury of the living room of our tent (and mind you, I am sitting on a camping chair, which my legs propped up on a second camping chair, and me and the chairs do not even take up half the living room space), while my travel companion is reading in the bedroom on our double air mattress. I do like this tent!

The other thing that happened before we stopped the night the tent broke, was that we finally saw some wildlife. Well, more wildlife after the fox on the road. We saw reindeer! Three, one of them white, which I never knew reindeer could also be. They were just running along on the road in the opposite direction (and on the correct side of the road) stopping every now and then to eat some grass by the side of the road. As far as I could tell, they did not notice us heading towards them on the road, nor that we stopped a few metres from them, nor that one of us (me) jumped out of the car and took a dozen photos of them. If our lives were defined by acknowledgement by random reindeer, we would so be in for an existential crisis… 

The trip so far:

Day 1 –Visited with Anya and Daniel at Daniel´s parents´ place at Sandsjöfors. Stayed in the summer cabin at Uppsjön

Day 2 – Campsite in Stockholm

Day 3 – Campsite in Stockholm

Day 4 – Sala Silvergruva, Övre Hedesundsfjärden (the site of one million mosquitoes)

Day 5 – Close to Hällan (the imaginary horse)

Day 6 – Campsite close to Docksta

Day 7 – Via Ferrata, dinner at Bjuröklubb, camped somewhere along the E45 between Storforsen and Jokkmokk (broken tent incident)