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| I grew stir-crazy waiting for the boat to arrive.... (Don't worry, I'm just jumping up and down--not into the water!) |
*********** Karolina's blog post *****************
Initially I wasn’t
going to write this post, but at the end of that day I had certain adventure in
a sauna which Ryan didn’t witness and he told me I MUST tell my story to the
readers of his blog, so here I am again.
Even though it had
rained at night, the morning was sunny and beautiful. Ryan and I took our time
having breakfast and packing up camp—our motor boat transportation wasn’t
supposed to arrive until 9:15, so we had plenty of time. I took the opportunity
and had my breakfast hot that morning—I cooked oatmeal and brewed tea. Life was
good!
To our surprise,
around 8:00 we heard a motorboat approaching. That couldn’t be our boat ride, could it?! It was way too
early! The boat brought a few hikers to our side of the lake and was now
sailing away. Ryan and I wished we had known about that extra ride—we wouldn’t have
minded starting our day’s hike an hour earlier, while the weather was perfect!
A half hour later, the
situation repeated. The motor boat arrived, left a bunch of hikers on the shore
and quickly left. Arrrghhh!! Now we had missed not one but two early rides!
Finally, 9:00 o’clock arrived
and Ryan and I walked over to the dock. The motor boat arrived a few minutes
later, bringing a group of four Swedish ladies. Once the ladies got off the
boat, Ryan and I threw our backpacks in, put on the safety vests and took our
places in the boat. We were the only passengers traveling with that ride. And
what a ride it was! Little did we expect how fast that little boat would be traveling, nor how it would zigzag between poles marking the tight, shallow
channel through the lakes. I clung tightly to the bench I was sitting on. I
wanted to make sure I wouldn’t accidentally fall overboard when the boat was
taking one of the sharp turns! That ride almost felt like a roller-coaster!
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| And our chariot arrives! |
When we arrived at the
other shore, the woman who drove the boat told us she had to go that fast to
keep the boat riding high due to the very shallow water. “How shallow is it?” I
asked. The boat driver spread her arms maybe a meter apart. We couldn’t judge
that just by looking at the water, though, as it was full of glacial flour and
all we could see was its surface.
The woman also told us
that the day before she had increased the price hikers had to pay for the boat
ride—it now cost 400 SEK per person instead of 300 SEK. The high season for
hiking the Kungsleden was coming to an end, which meant there were fewer hikers
for each boat crossing. Also, the hunting season for moose had just started,
and—since the boat driver was a hunter—she now had her hands full with chores
other than transporting hikers from one side of the lake to the other. That meant Ryan and I had to pay a whopping €40 each for a 4 km roller-coaster lake
crossing by motorboat. It was a lot, but still better than having to row across
that lake. I later found out that even though the lake was shallow, there were
strong currents in it that made rowing quite challenging. Allegedly, every week
there were hikers who failed in their attempts to row across the lake and needed rescuing.
Anyways, Ryan and I
paid for the ride, put our backpacks on and hit the trail. We walked for maybe
a quarter of an hour when the path divided in two. We weren’t sure which way to
continue. We couldn’t see any trail markers on trees or rocks. Checking the map
didn’t help much either—mapping of the Kungsleden around this area seemed to be
inaccurate. The trail must have been rerouted after the map had already been
printed. We had little choice but to turn around and go back to the lake shore
to make sure we were following the right trail. Which we were. So we had to turn
around once again and walk the very same path we already had walked twice. We
not only wasted about half an hour for backtracking and finding out we already had been on the correct path, but also
as we were approaching the lake shore Ryan stumbled on a rock and sprained his
ankle. Now he was in pain and limping, but assured me it wasn’t serious and
he’d get better soon.
Back at the trail junction,
we realized that if we only had walked about five steps further, we would have
noticed an information board and clear trail markers indicating which way the
Kungsleden went.
The day’s hiking was
pleasant and easy. The terrain was mostly flat, the sun was shining and the
views were spectacular. The only nuisance was the wind—strong and chilly—which
prevented us from taking long breaks. At some point, we passed a tent pitched
by a lake that I recognized as Claudia’s tent. How did she pass us?! She was
supposed to spend two nights near Skierfe, which means she would be leaving
that place this morning—and now she’s suddenly here?! Ryan didn’t even want to
believe me that tent was Claudia’s, but I was sure of what I had seen. I
started convincing Ryan that Claudia must be a witch. She must have used her
magic powers—maybe her witches broom?—to
travel from Skierfe to here. “She’s probably traveling around the Swedish Arctic
and collecting endemic herbs which she wants to use to brew her magic potions!”
I told Ryan. “I bet that’s why she collected all those reindeer antlers—to do
magic!”. I am not sure Ryan believed me, though.
For a lunch break we
stopped in a small emergency shelter. Soon after arriving, we were joined
inside by two girls from Czech Republic traveling southbound. We asked the
girls about the trail ahead and they complained a lot about how crowded it was
with French tourists—especially near mountain huts. One of the girls said she
had some “typically French conversations” with those French tourists. I was
curious what she meant by “typical French conversations.” According to her, it
went something like this:
French: Yes, we’ve been to Czechoslovakia!
Czech: There is no Czechoslovakia anymore…
French: Really?! Since when?!
Czech: Eee… for about 25 years…
French: Oh, ah! So… what are you called now?
Czech: “Well, our
country is called Czech Republic, and
the one we split from is Slovakia”.
Other annoying things
they say, the girl told us, include: “Prague is a very beautiful city, you
don’t see the communism at all!” or “How come you managed to learn French?” As
if learning a foreign language was rocket science…
“Did you speak English with them?” I asked.
“No, French.”
“See? For them
learning a foreign language is rocket
science!”
The rest of the day’s
hike went by quickly and was rather uneventful. Around 4:00 pm, we arrived at
the Saltoluokta Mountain Station where we managed to get bunk beds for the
night. We also picked the second mail drop that we had sent from Ammarnäs.
The fee we paid for
the beds included access to the sauna, which I was very happy to use. I took my
towel and went to another building where the saunas were located (there were
two of them, one for ladies and one for gents), leaving Ryan—who isn’t big on
saunas—to do whatever he wanted to do.
The sauna was very
nice. It had a big window through which I could see the beautiful panorama of
the lake Långås, the Lule River (which enters the lake) and mountains
surrounding the shores. Except for me
there was just one other woman in the sauna. She was from Germany and had just
finished her hike along the Nordkalottleden. We talked a bit about hiking,
saunas and mountain huts in Sweden. I asked her about hiking to the top of
Kebnekaise, the highest mountain in Sweden, which she did a few years ago, and
I hoped to be able to do that in a few days’ time—if the weather conditions
permit. Just when we were done with the conversation, another woman (this one from
Sweden) joined us and the three of us sat there in silence, enjoying the warmth
and the view.
After about twenty
minutes of sweating, I finally decided I was getting hot and went out into the
shower room where I quickly rinsed my body with cold water. Then I returned to
the sauna. After another ten minutes, I repeated the cold shower. This time,
after returning to the sauna, I started feeling funny… It was that weird
feeling when you know there is a chance you’ll pass out. I wanted to avoid
passing out as much as I could, so at first I laid down on the bench inside the
sauna, hoping that would help me feel better. It didn’t, so after a while I
went out to the shower room, which was much cooler. I laid down on the floor
under the shower and tried to take deep breaths. None of it was helping and I
was feeling nauseous.
A few moments later
the German woman emerged from the sauna and as soon as she saw me laying there
on the floor, completely naked, my face pale as a sheet of paper. She got
worried and started asking whether I was okay. The Swedish woman heard the commotion
and joined us in the shower room. She said she was a nurse and knew what to do,
and that I was in good hands. She asked whether I had eaten enough that day and
taken enough salts. She also called another woman from outside of the sauna to
bring me a glass of water with salt and sugar.
I told the ladies that
I felt like vomiting. I was a little embarrassed, but they told me to go ahead
and vomit—after all we were under the showers, so we could easily clean up the mess
afterwards. And I did that—I vomited, laying naked on the floor of the shower
room, in the presence of two ladies with only towels wrapped around their
bodies.
After vomiting, I
started feeling a bit better and the German woman told me that the color
started coming back to my face. The Swedish nurse told me to keep on laying on
the floor and put my legs up against it, which I did (still naked). The third woman
came back bringing me a glass of water with salt and sugar. She said that she’s
“been there, done that”—she had also passed out in a sauna before. Now, that really made me feel better! Knowing
that I wasn’t the only one to pass out in a sauna made me feel a little less
embarrassed.
Eventually, I felt
good enough to get up. I immediately wanted to clean my vomit from the floor,
but the women who had helped me told me to go get dressed and take care of
myself and that they would clean the shower room. It actually felt more
embarrassing to have other people clean my vomit than to be laying there naked
on the floor, but I didn’t have much to say. I got dressed and went back to the
building where Ryan and I were spending the night. I was still feeling a little
funny and weak, so I walked slowly.
When I told Ryan about
my adventure in the sauna he was concerned about my well-being but he also
found the whole story funny and told me I had
to write a guest post for his blog about it. Later he was so kind to make
mashed potato dinner for both of us, so I didn’t need to cook that night and
could sit down, relax and focus on feeling better.
Some more funny things
happened that evening—when I went out to check outhouses, I lightly sprained my
ankle going down the steps of the hostel. In the kitchen, I was hit by cupboard
door that got loose and fell down when I was reaching for plates. In the
kitchen when we had our dinner, an older Swedish couple was sitting, eating and
listening to the radio. When the broadcast they were listening to finished we
chatted for a while. They came from southern Sweden and were here on holidays.
They stayed in the Saltoluokta Mountain Station and did day hikes in the
surrounding Stora Sjöfallet National Park. Ryan told them he would be doing the
same when he’s old—staying in hotels and hiking light. That totally—though
unintentionally—sounded like he was telling them they were old! Ryan realized
that when the words had already left his mouth and he couldn’t take them back.
Before the Swedish couple left the kitchen, they offered me some chocolate. I
put an innocent smile on my face and nodded shyly, but Ryan laughed out loud. “And
is the pope catholic?” he asked. Ryan knows I like chocolate and wouldn’t
refuse when someone is offering me a piece. He even says that if he made a path
from pieces of chocolate leading to the edge of a cliff, I would totally fall down
it. I just hope this won’t be the way he shakes me off one day…
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| The reindeer curse had finally been lifted! We saw reindeer today--and it never rained the whole day!!! |
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| This was the small emergency hut where we stopped for lunch to get out of the cold and wind. |
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| This was, I think, the only water source on the entire trail that looked... not right! Why are all the rocks in it so red?! Pollution from a former mine, perhaps? |
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| You can see a couple of small white dots on our side of the shoreline near the middle of the photo. That's the hut where we'd be staying the night. The next day, we'd take a boat across the lake to the civilization you see on the far shore near the right side of the photo. Then we'd walk up to the road you see cut through the trees near the shoreline to catch a bus to the next section of trail... but you'll read all about that in the next blog post! |
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| Karolina was excited to find this moose antler in front of one of the dorms at the mountain station. |
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| I (Ryan here!) called my mom to give her an update on my progress and mentioned that I had washed clothes which were now drying in the drying room. She had never heard of a drying room and wanted me to take a photo of it. So this is your photo, mom! =) It's not very exciting... just a warm room (kind of like a sauna, but with fewer naked people) for clothes to dry. |
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| One of the most awesome bathrooms ever! Comics, comics everywhere! |
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| There were several tastefully-decorated bathrooms to choose from. *nodding* I'm not going to post photos of all of them, however. You'll have to drop by for a visit if you want to see the rest. =) |
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