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| POINTING THE WAY |
Just back from an eight-day hike in the Norwegian Arctic,
and to tell the truth it’s hard to find the words, yet, to tell the full story.
Let’s just say that in a hundred miles (158 kilometres) of walking over eight
days we saw not a single gate, nor a fence, nor a motorised vehicle; not even a
light bulb. Just mile after mile of superb mountain scenery with the occasional
fellow hiker – perhaps one or two a day.
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| THE REMAINS OF LAST WINTER'S SNOW |
At altitudes no greater than 1000 metres, and often nearer
500, the weather – despite the ever-present snow-banks – was what you’d expect
in an English summer, the temperature varying between 15 and 23 C (60 to 73 F).
At night, with the sun up for 23 or more hours a day, it never dropped below
about 10 C (50 F). We had one thunderstorm, which drenched us, but the joy of
this trip was that, as members of the Norwegian Trekking Association, we had a
key to their beautifully equipped huts.
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THE HUT AT VUOMA; I'LL SHOW SOME INTERIOR SHOTS NEXT TIME
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Each hut had a four-ring propane stove for cooking on, a
large wood-burner with log-stack, and bunks with mattresses and pillows. All we
had to carry was a sheet sleeping-bag, a change of underwear, some foul
weather-gear, and all the food we would need. (More on that in a day or two)
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| DRYING MY WASHING |
The scenery ranged from grassland to long stretches of
glacial boulders and the occasional woodland at lower levels. The abundant
rivers and lakes provided clean drinking water and a daily opportunity to bathe
and do a little laundry, using a suitably ecological detergent fluid.
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| ONE OF MANY BOULDER-FIELDS WE HAD TO PICK OUR WAY ACROSS |
There’s an awful lot more I could say, but it’s late on a
Sunday night and tomorrow morning I must be a ghost-writer again. So I’ll pick
this up later in the week and throw in a few more photos.
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| OUR WAY HERE LED BETWEEN THE TWO LAKES AND OVER THE FIRST MOUNTAIN |
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| AFTER THE STORM |
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