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Hello, good viewers!
It is September 10-th
I am in the Kingdom of Sweden
Down there in the valley (if it can be seen) is a small town called Hemavan.
It is situated 700 kilometers to north from Stockholm
It's population is about 200 people
In winter it is a well known skiing resort
But in summer it is a great place for hiking
because from here starts the 'King's Trail' Kungsleden
It is a hiking trail going 440 kilometers to north from here
I had a plan to start walking the first part of this trail today
But destiny had plans of it's own
My luggage decided to stay in Arlanda airport for a day
And as I was forced to stay here
I decided not to waste time and did a small walk in surrounding nature
And so far I have seen the first mountain river,
I've seen the first reindeer droppings
And I have ascended to mountain
which name I do not know
because my map is also in Stockholm with the rest on my luggage
But this is not a big deal
As you can see the nature is beautiful in here, the views are magnificent
And tomorrow I can hopefully start the real hiking trip
Enjoy watching!
A new day has arrived
Finally I have got my backpack
And now I am ready to start my journey on the king's trail Kungsleden
I next 5 days I will walk about 80 kilometers of this trail to the next settlement called Ammarnäs
Let's see how it goes
I lost one day while I was waiting for my luggage
So I have less time for journey
But it should be possible to walk these 80 kilometers in 5 days instead of 6 days
It sould not be too hard
But so far the trail is going up in this birch brushwood.
Actually it is a side of a mountain where I'm walking
And soon we will probably see wider views
So here are the wider views I was talking about
Yesterday I walked on this mountain
But today the trail is going to the other way
And now the sign is saying that we are entering the Vindelfjällen nature reserve
Most of the journey I will walk in the same nature reserve
Last frames were filmed from the top of this hill
It was no point to talk there because of the wind noise
I had nothing reasonable to say anyway
But now I am going to descend to valley where Syterbacken river flows
I can't see it yet, but it can be heard already
What I saw so far was nothing special, because only now I am starting to get close to real mountains
And here behind the corner I am starting to see even higher peaks and bigger mountains
Hello, good viewers!
We have reached the mightiest natural monument of this area
It's a big U-shaped valley, high peaks on both sides
It is also called the gate of Lappland
But local people do not know that this place is related to Kalevipoeg from Estonian national epic.
Actually to his father Kalev
Because as we know Kalevipoeg did not come so far north
But Kalev came from north riding a mighty eagle
and landed on Estonian coast as national epic tells us
But the national epic does not tell us that Kalev as well as his son Kalevipoeg
loved to consume strong beverages
And as he was riding on the eagle
he wasn't good at navigating any more
the flight became unstable and the eagle started flapping
And at one moment Kalev fell down from the eagle - exactly here
And this valley was formed here because of the impact
And after falling down he said a curse word
which means intimate part of female body in Estonian language
In time the word became more Swedish
And that's why the river there is called Viterskalet
And the mountain hut nearby is also called Viterskalsstugan
And I believe our cultural scientists have not much to add here
Thank you!
Good morning! It is Wednesday
I spent the night in this place
The night was quite interesting. It was raining pretty heavily.
The wind made my tarp flap and pressed it to the ground
But as a surprise the morning is quite nice
Now I will make my breakfast and continue the journey after that
Good viewers, now you can see full beauty of this valley
which was formed when Kalev fell down here from the eagle
But now I intend to start climbing to the top of the left mountain
which is called Norra Sytertoppen
Whwn you look at the mountain, you can guess it is not going to be too easy
Let's see
Here starts the trail which leads to the mountain
But I must cross Syterbacken river before that
So far I have ascended a little higher from the valley
As it can be probably heard I am breathing quite heavily already
But the real climb is still ahead
Relative height of this mountain is about 900 meters from valley to the top
So I need to climb approximately to the height of three Tallinn TV towers
This looks a little bit like mountaineering
Oh no, the climb is far from over
I have reached to the first spots of snow
And now finally I can see the peak
And the weather changed rapidly
It started snowing and the clouds are coming in
I was attacked by a snow cloud, but it seems to be near miss
There is hut made of stones here near the peak
for emergency situations
Now I need to make the last effort to get to the peak
The same thing happens again
You think you have climbed and struggeled for a long time and now you shoud get to the top
But what a surprise - you need to climb more!
Last effort to make and I am about to reach my goal
And here I am! The peak of Norra Sytertoppen, 1768 meters from sea level!!!
And another grey cloud is coming
Now I have written my entry to the top book
and I need to stark walking downwards
Descending route is on that mountain ridge over there
As you know every ascend must be followed by descend and that's exatly what I am doing right know
I don't know the temperature at the moment, but according to this ice it must be sub zero
And this ice does not make the descent any safer
As paradoxal as it is, but I must start to climb again and cross that mountain in front of me in order to get back down to flat land
Just like I haven't climbed enaugh already
But I have to manage - there is no other way
This mountain there is Norra Sytertoppen where I was a little time ago
But now as I said, I must climb again to cross this mountain in order to get back down to the flat land on the other side
Actually I am starting to get fed up with climbing
Not easy at all
I have reached to top of the mountain with Sami name Morhtetjåhke
Whatever that means
And the height is 1586 meters
The view from here is magnificent, of course
But actually I wish to get back down to the flat land as soon as possible
I had a little rest
I wish to be down there, but actually I am still so damn high
A pretty steep descent is ahead
It is 6:15 PM, so I am starting to get short of time
I need to move on
Good viewers, you probably can't imagine how good it feels to walk on flat land again
I feels like floating in the air compared to stumbling on those rocks
This one there is Norr Sytertoppen where I was climbing today
And some words of afterwisdom - don't do this alone!
Because there are million ways to break your bones on those loose rocks
And if you happen to be on a place without mobile phone coverage
Then your situation will be quite difficult
So you better do it with your friends
The experience will be worth it
But now I have a few kilometers to go
Until I reach a mountain hut. I plan to spend this night under solid roof to have a good rest before tomorrow
I spent this day on that damn mountain
I spent Monday waiting for my luggage
Now I need to walk longer distances next days to get back on schedule
It is Thursday
On yesterday evening I came from those mountains, walked across this bridge
And I reached to this mountain hut
Where I spent the night in comfortable bed
I desperately needed a good rest after climbing on mountain yesterday
It was raining hard at night
So I was really happy to be under solid roof
Now I need to continue my journey
Now I need to walk at least 17 kilometers a day to be on schedule
I think it is doable, if I don't do any stupid things like going off track to mountains
It looks like I am walking on Jussi moorland in Põhja-Kõrvemaa, Estonia
The only difference is that rocks are bigger and the hills are a little bigger
But the colors and views are quite similar
The track starts to descend towards a lake
The track descends to a birch forest
The track continues on bridges and small islands across lake Tärnasjö
Big part of todays walk will be along the coast of this lake
I am crossing another bridge on lake Tärnasjö
It's already fifth or sixth bridge
Meanwhile the sky turned gray and it started raining
But this is not a big deal
I hade a little drawback with my hiking equipment
It appears that this hybrid of trekking pole and tripod is not made for hiking
So you need to use real trekking poles
I saw two reindeers over there for a moment
Let's see if they show themselves again
Todays path has been much more boring than previous days
Most of the time I have walked in such birch brushwood without big changes
A have walked about half of today's distance, so it is good moment to have a lunch brake
I am reaching to another mountain hut called Tärnasstugan
But I am not going to stay here
If i walk on about five kilometers, then I will be on schedule
The track started to ascend again after the mountain hut and I am not very happy about it
The birch forest ended and the view is wider again
It looks nice, but it also means that I have to camp on clear area open for winds
I don't like this idea, especially because some slushy stuff is falling from the sky
Let's see what happens
Do you want to see how tired I am? Be my guest!
The wether is fu***d up, slush if falling from sky
I am soaking wet
And the only thing I can think of is a warm room and roof over head
So I am going to stay in the next mountain hut for the night again. It should not be far.
I really don't want to sleep outside in this condition if there is another option
Yippee, I can see it! The next mountain hut Servestugan!
It is Friday
I spent the night here in Servestugan
The hut warden met me at the door with warm drink when I arrived here cold and soaking wet.
The dream of solid roof and dry place for sleeping
gave me so much strength that I walked my personal record distance of 28 kilometers yesterday
It was snowing this morning as you can see on the mountains
The weather should not improve today, so I chose an alternative route for today
I am not going to the mountains, because I can't enjoy the views anyway in this weather
I am going to walk on another trail on flat land in forest which is covered from winds
The hut warden approved my choice and he would have done the same thing in my place
The hut warden also told me that there was a rescue operation
To bring back two hikers from Norra Sytertoppen with helicopter
Because they couldn't get down by themselves in bad weather
So I guess I was lucky. But I wouldn't have gone to the mountain in such weather after all.
I have walked two kilometers today and I have reached the crossroads
To the right is official Kungsleden hiking trail leading up to mountains
You really can't enjoy the mountains in this weather
So I am choosing a little shorter trail leading to the forest
The views are probably not so nice there, but there is less climbing, I have better protection from the wind
And by the way it was old Kungsleden trail. So I am heading to the left.
Turns out there are nice views on this trail also
Oh yeah, and back to long grass and brushwood to make my close wet
Todays path looks like a typical hiking trail in Soomaa, Estonia in birch forest
I made a little detour from hiking trail to have a rest and enjoy the view to lake Tjulträsket and the mountains on the opposite side
It is really beautiful - can't complain!
An old house unexpectedly appeared at to the trail
And the chimney of this house is really ineresting
I wonder how this chimney corresponds to EU regulations?
This is an old Sami village
This river has Samish name Ravriejuhka
I have about four kilometers to go to today's destination
As you can see I have to be extra careful on this wooden path today
I have already fallen a couple of times
I am seriously sick of this trail
There is some mud an stones for a while and after that - what a surprise, wooden path again!
Which is f***ing slippery as you can see and you can only walk very slowly and carefully on that
It has been like that for about 3-4 kilometers
It looks like the trail of misery has ended for today
I have reached to parking lot and resting place
There is a place for fire and I can spend the night quite cozy here.
Wow, this kind of fireplace! Very well!
It is Thursday morning
I moved my camp down here close to the lake yesterday
Because here is a nice open fire place where you can sit by the fire
The view is great again
The night was peaceful. The stars were shining for a while
Before the morning it became cloudy and there was some light rain
Now the sky is getting clear again and the sun starts to shine on mountains
I had again two choices for today's trail
7 kilometers of asphalt or 9 kilometers of hiking trail
I chose the hiking trail of course, because after all I did not come here to walk on asphalt
Today is the last and the shortest day of walking before arriving my destination Ammarnäs
Info board says, that this is a moose trapping hole
Luckily I didn't step in
I really didn't expect so nice views on the last day
As you can see from the sign I have a little bit more than half of today's distance to go
Actually I have temptation to walk down the stairs to have a closer look at the river
There was an information board a little further saying that this is supposed to be another historic moose trapping hole
There are many of these in the row
But local people don't know that the origin of these holes is totally different
Kalev flow over this place on the great northern eagle
The eagle had a descent meal before the flight
And all of this food had to come out of somewhere at one point
So these holes here are actually not moose traps, ok, maybe they were used for trapping later
But these holes were actually formed as bombholes
As the eagle came from this direction and flow this way
that's why there are many of these holes in the row
And I believe our cultural scientists don't have much to add to this
There are two options: did the trail marker run out of paint or am I on the wrong track
But actually it doesn't matter any more
I had a look at the map and I am sure I can not get lost if I follow the river
I have seen the first houses, there seems to be a road on the other side of river. So the civilization is near.
Good viewers, I am walking the last meters of my trip.
I have reached to Ammarnäs and my 80-kilometers journey on Kungsleden trail is coming to an end
This is it! At least for me it was interesting.
Thank you for watching!