02/07/08 - Light Night

Images taken at 22.38 and 01:53

Our morning walk was not the most comfortable; we had to cover up as
much skin as possible from the mosquitoes and at the same time the sun
was breaking through the clouds making things very very muggy!! But
we found some cross-country ski trails in the forest which made some
very nice summer walking paths. Marea seems to be getting keener and
keener at giving cross-country skiing a try somewhere in this world.
I (Daniel) tried to imagine skiing up these hills and thought maybe
via chairlift could be more fun??

We then went back into Jokkmokk where we spent a good portion of the
day working our way through Ájtte - the Swedish Mountain and Sámi
Museum. This gave us a little more insight in the Sami people's way
of life and the area in the north. One of the coolest things was a
display of various Nordic animal scats (poo). Now we can be real
professional trackers out in the forest!!

By the mid afternoon we had written off the midnight sun for another
day, and headed for the Muddus National Park hoping to see some more
of those animals responsible for the poos. We parked up and as it was
crappy weather, decided to catch up on a few chores like sorting
through our hundreds of photographs.

Then 20:30 rolled around and our previous yucky rainy day turned blue
sky and brilliant; not a cloud in the sky. We looked at each other and
it was on the road again headed for Gällivare and Mount Dundret with
an anxious eye out for any clouds on the horizon. We got to our
destination at 22:30 where I (Marea) was thrilled to find we could
drive almost to to top of the 800m mountain. We set up 'camp' and the
tripod with Daniel taking photos of the sun every 10 minutes. The most
amazing observation was that the sun did not sink toward the horizon
and then rise again, but sunk, then tracked parallel to the horizon
for about 2 hours before rising again.
At 00:30 I ordered waffles with cloudberry jam to takeaway (from the
cafe which is conveniently open from 21:00-01:00) and we enjoyed these
with a shared tipple. Daniel did have a bottle of local arctic berry
flavoured cider to enjoy when midnight came around, but he let the
kiwi boys down when he a) didn't have a bottle opener on his keyring
and b) couldn't open it using a rock!

Obviously it is the 'midnight sun' which is the big tourist (by the
bus load) attraction and by 02:00 we were the last vehicle in the
carpark when we too retired to bed, but with a view of the 'midnight
sun' out our windows.

When I was growing up we always had a couple of framed old black and
white photos of the midnight sun on the wall and for me this is truly
a highlight of our trip; seeing the wonderous phenomenon that is the
midnight sun and on such a beautiful cloudless 'day' too.

01/07/08 - 66°33' north.

The first day of a new month, I got in first with the pinch and a punch!

This morning we got to the Moskosel Navvy Museum before it opened. The museum depicts life and conditions of the railway builders in the 19th century, but what we were really there for were the genuine northern Swedish dumplings. But we had to wait til about 11:00 when out they came steaming hot! I'm sure we were doing something wrong by eating the savoury dumplings with berry jam though.

We then continued on the road to Gällivare sidetracking when saw the
sign for Storfosen only 28km down a side road.
Storfosen was impressive! Over a 600m stretch, the river descends
about 50m making these Europe's largest rapids. It was quite amazing
seeing the power of the water hurdle down!! Even the eddies that were
rushing back up stream was about the size of a grade 2 rapid!!

We had an interesting conversation with a local who pointed out that we are at the same latitude as the north of Canada, and the Antarctic coast. The difference here though, is the warm gulf stream currents which keep the Scandinavian region fertile and not barren - making this area possible to live in over the centuries.

Well worth the little side trip, the next stop was the latitude of 66°33' degrees, otherwise known as the Arctic circle - the most southerly point that the sun stays above the horizon for a whole 24
hour period, I guess it also means it is the point where the sun doesn't rise in winter. Ironically though, this evening it is the darkest we've had in Sweden, as the black rain clouds have descended on us!!!

Our plan to climb Mt Dundret for the midnight sun has been put on hold, instead we have parked up outside the Jokkmokk information centre and taken advantage of the free wifi internet access!

30/06/08 - The mosquitoes are bigger up north!!

Today was a little bit of a failure in terms of getting out and about
and seeing all the scenery. After taking in the view of Lake
Storumond from a handy vantage point, we headed down to the lake and
navigated numerous causeways and bridges hopping from island to island
all populated with summer houses. We found a promising walking track
but, after 5 minutes walking it petered out to nothing (we think it
went under the lake) and before we knew it we were back at the van.

On deciding that there wasn't alot else on offer at Storuman we headed
up to Sorsele to try our luck. The information lady didn't 'think'
there were any walks around the Sorsele area, so we found our own walk
in the Gimegolts nature reserve that leads out to a small canyon. We
would have had the whole place to ourselves, except the mosquitoes
thought it was a pretty cool place too. I bet they thought it even
cooler when we showed up!!! Marea had to take on the role of
photographer's assistant which involved swotting mosquitoes away from
Daniel's shorts clad legs for as long as he stopped to take photos. We
didn't hang round for too long, though the canyon was definitely worth
the walk, but headed back to the van to continue north!!

29/06/08 - Getting up close and personal with the bears!! (Daniel version).

The plan was to leave the coast behind and head in a north-westerly
direction for Storumond. First sight for today was the three rail
viaducts spanning the Tallberg River near Nyaker All three bridges
are built within 100 metres of each other side by side. The first
one, built in the 1890's was replaced after only 20 years as bigger
and heavier trains came along. It is now the road bridge. The second
bridge, built in the 1910's is the only redundant bridge of the three,
as in 1994 the current rail bridge was built to replace the second
aging concrete bridge.

Onwards through very pleasent Swedish villages and forests, our next
stop was the Lycksele Djurpark - an animal park boasting only Nordic
animals. We managed to see seals (they only seemed sociable when
children showed up - they didn't care about us), otters (this little
fella was very good and seemed to pose for our camera), arctic fox (we
thought they were cubs at first they were so small), red fox (alot
more normal size to our expectations), reindeer (the male's antlers
were as big as the rest of his body), forest reider (just looks like a
scrawny reindeer if you ask me), european bison (they had almost lost
their big winter coats), musk ox (still had their winter coats and
must have been very hot), moose (very long legs), fallow deer (they
all looked like Bambi), red deer, roe deer (tiny), wild boar (couldn't
see Asterix and Obelix), wolverine (we were looking for something that
looked like a wolf, but instead found a bear like creature - very
cool), lynx (a very mythical like creature sitting on its haunches up
on the rocks staring at us), wolf (just looked like a big dog), and
last but not least the bears. The mother bear with her two cubs was
the highlight, as they were very interested in us, and what started
with us feeding long pieces of grass through the fence to mummy bear,
finished with us fealing confident enough to let her and her cubs lick
our hands - still through the fence of course. They were all very
very cute.

They only animal we couldn't find was the beaver - their enclosure
wasn't that big, but obviously big enough as we went round and round
it looking for them - to no avail.

Our resting spot for the night was a little south of Storumond, right
next to a lake - where the gas stove was ditched for the night, and a
fire lit on our little sandy beach where we cooked up pork chops!!
Scout master Graham - you would be proud!!!

29/06/08 - Bear tucker (Marea's version).

After yesterday's non-accomplishments, we thought it necessary to put
some miles on the clock. We now have a destination (Gällivare to see
the midnight sun from the top of Mount Dundret) and plan to get to
Finland before this weekend.

So today we have driven little south of Storuman. We stopped along the
way at the Lycksele Djurpark which is a zoo with only Nordic animals.
The animals were all in enclosures which mimic their natural habitats
as closely as possible, but it did make finding them a little
difficult. It was fantastic fun and we managed to spot everything
except beavers and sheep (not really bothered about the latter for
some reason). We saw seals, an otter, bears, wolves, reindeer, moose,
bambis, bison, musk ox, foxes, lynx, a wolverine, cows and goats. Alot
of the animals had babies too which were soooo cute. Daniel and I do
need a bit of help though, because I thought moose and elk were two
different species but the swedish translation of elk is moose!

We arrived just after feeding I suspect, because most of the animals
were snoozing. But later when other people had all gone home they
became more active. The zoo shut at 1700 and we were the last to leave
the park at 18:45 because we kept getting distracted, especially by a
bear and her cubs. I can now truthfully say I've now had my fingers
licked by an adult bear! Quite a petrifying thought even now.

To sleep this evening, we have found a darling spot down a side road,
beside a lake/dam with a little beach but evil looking mosquitoes. So
we lit a fire (to smoke out the little buggers), cracked open our low
alcohol beer and cooked pork chops over the coals.

28/06/08 - Housekeeping day

Daniel insisted we sleep with the tent door open facing the gently
lapping sea, so that we had the best view of the rising sun. He then
promptly fell asleep and Marea lay shivering til the sun rose about
04:00. We later awoke about with the sun high in the sky and another
blue sky day. Marea eventually ventured out of the tent about 10:00
for a wash in the rather cold sea but Daniel didn't feel the need 2
days in a row.

The rest of today was for chores: shopping, gas and other
housekeeping. This was accomplished in the town of Örnsköldsvik, Which
had two massive ski jumps visible from the main street!
On the pretext that Mcdonald's have free wireless internet, Daniel was
persuaded that cheeseburgers, fries and McFlurry were a good idea.
Yum.

With the day all gone we drove down a promising side road to the coast
to a place called Kräken. There, by the setting sun, Marea ate four
tacos for dinner to Daniel's eight washed down with a cold beer.

A little side note here about getting sloshed on a budget in Sweden
(and Norway)... You can't! Apparently there are government liquor
stores but we are yet to see one and the supermarkets only sell beer
and cider up to 3.5%. Sweden had alot of historical problems with
excessive drunkedness(on homemade scnapps) and I'd conclude that the
measures introduced to combat it are very effective. So I'm looking
forward to Finland with its Soviet inspired liquor laws because I'd
still like a glass of wine occasionally!

27/06/08 - Geological lesson of the Höga Kusten.

After a 10 second swim (no not Au Natural), we explored the UNESCO
world heritage site and nature reserve near the coastline around
Norrfällsviken. We began to appreciate a little more why this area is
called Höga Kusten (High Coast). It is not 'high' as in large cliffs.
It is high for the fact that way above the sealevel (in some places
up to 286 metres), fields of rock worn down by the wave action of the
sea sit in the middle of a hillside like a shingle beach. Of course
it once was the beach. You can still see the wave pattern of the
'beach'. This was caused by sea ice pushing up against the shoreline
during winter.

All this reshaping of the landscape only began around 20,000 years ago
(in geological terms, that is yesterday), and it is rising at a rate
of 8mm per year as the land 'bounces' back from the sea after being
squashed down by 3km thick glaciers during the last ice age.

Having taken in the landscape, and beautiful coastline with pine trees
growing around the shingle and red rocks, we headed further up the
coast to Skuleskogen National Park. Here we took an evening walk up
to a 40 metre deep, 200 metre long, 7 metre wide crevice called
Slàttdalsskrevan. This crevice appears to cut through the middle of a
280 high metre peak. It was formed as a weaker type of rock used to
sit where the crevice now is. Then while still under the sea, the
water and ice action eroded this weaker rock layer away.

The 10 km walk gave us fantastic views of the coast line and islands
dotted about. It reminded us of the Bay of Islands back home
(although there was alot less boats buzzing about here).

We also came across a number of ant nests that appeared to be made up
entirely of pine needles and old leaves, and where piled up to a metre
high. It was a very cool site to see the surface of this huge pile
constantly moving as the thousands of ants scurried around doing their
jobs (Daniel's description). Marea's description - "GROSS". Getting
a photo was a little ticklish, as as soon as you get close enough, the
ants start climbing all over your shoe and up your leg!!

We also saw a number of trees that had been felled by beavers.
Unfortunately they all seemed pretty old, and we didn't see any
beavers hanging about.

With about 2km til home we found a beautiful little beach with a
couple of tents right on the sand beside the sea. It was so delightful
and alot nicer than where Pat is currently parked, so we hoofed the
last 2km, grabbed our tent and sleeping bags and headed back to the
beach!! With a fire going and a couple of cans of cider, it was a
beautiful evening as we watched day turn into dusk (we haven't seen
night since we were in the south of Scotland).