Days 11-13 - Resupply Disaster!
To put your mind at rest, no one is hurt, nothing is damaged and the journey continues, but there has been what I consider to be a disaster.
We collected our resupply boxes today (Monday 21st February) containing food and other supplies for about 8 days. Horror of horrors, NO CAMOMILE TEA BAGS!!!!!!
I told you it was a disaster. What do you mean, you “..only opened the blog because you thought something bad had happened”? It has!!
Well, since you’re here, you may as well stay and see what’s happening.
Total distance traveled (since Nordli): 270.1 km
Total number of days traveling: 13
Let us go back in time…
Saturday 19th February - Seterstad Gård to Steikvasselva
Saturday saw us finally come to the end of lake Røsvatnet. Now we love frozen lakes. They are so much flatter than mountains and allow a much more direct route, but, 3 days for one lake!?
Asking some locals if this lake ever ends
Sunday 20th February- Steikvasselva to the Gressvasshytta
It was good to return to the hills for a while. Though poor Trond got the tough uphill bit for the first hour. Again!
Deep snow and a 160 metre climb. It snowed steadily for most of the day and visibility was never great.
Incidentally, sometimes, it turns out that the weird shaped rock we had all been heading towards is actually not a rock but, not just 1, but 3 elk! A mother and two juveniles. 200-300 m away, so not a bad view as they jumped up and disappeared pretty quickly into the distance.
Both Neil and the weather spoil Trond’s photo of the highest mountain in northern Norway
We are heading for the Gressvasshytta, which others report difficulties in finding. However, David’s GPS track helped us get there relatively easily.
Another thing that others have reported is how nice the Gressvasshytta (hut) is. So, you can imagine our disappointment when we arrived to find the main hut locked for renovation. We therefore had to use the tiny emergency hut. Only about 3 metres square. Inside is a tiny wood stove and a gas burner for melting snow. There are 3 bunks. 2 side-by-side and a single bunk above. A table and one of the two chairs has to be moved into the woodshed to make room for our rucksacks.
Trond tried hard to make the place look bigger.
Chillin’ out.
The throne room at the Gressvashytta (note photo of Norwegian King & Queen on wall)
Once we got the fire lit it was pretty cosy (followed shortly by way too hot!).
Monday 21st February - Gressvasshytta to Umbukta Fjellstue
Beautiful views looking back the way we had come today, as the highest mountain in northern Norway, Okksskolten, 1916m, put in appearance, having been completely obscured by the low cloud and snow of yesterday.
David and Neil pretending to know what they are doing
We passed from lake Grässvasnet to Umbukta lake over a shoulder of a small hill called Fjällfipfället Stråmhpoe (well, that’s what the map says, so who am I to argue?) very roughly following a fence marked on the map. Good conditions and visibility allowed us to avoid a lot of flailing around in steep ground.
Taken on our short (3 hr) foray into Sweden
Tonight, Monday 21st, we are staying at a place called Umbukta Fjellstue. The owner, Thor Inge, organised pizza for us and collected some post from a town 30 minutes away. Great service. Thanks Thor.
Home for the night at Umbukta Fjellstue
Here we have picked up our resupply boxes. Enough food for each of us for about 7 days, so the pulk (sledge) is going to be pretty heavy for the next few days (though light on tea bags!!!!!!).
We will be a good few days away from sufficient signal for more blogging, but, if you hit the subscribe button you will get a lovely little email to let you know when the next one is published.
