Day 40 – 29 Jul, N foot of Jalle to Valtarjakdaien Hills

(37.5 km, total 1075 km, 12h25m, 0700 to 1925).

During the night the wind either changed direction or significantly gained strength as it was really shaking the tent. It was cold when I woke with the sun hidden behind the hill.

I walked briskly when I started to warm up and I could see the sun not to far away.

After 30 min I passed a tent which I assume was the couple from last night and saw a few reindeer above the tent on the skyline. The track was in good condition but still needed attention for foot placement but no attention was required for navigation as the track was good enough and there were heaps of markers.
The trail followed the side of the hill then dropped down and crossed a flat area. After enjoying dry feet for the last few days I had to cross a river so wet feet again. Most of the swamps I was crossing were dry or only shallow water.

There were a few bridges to cross and it was into an area of lots of little hills to either go around or up and over to avoid little lakes and swamps. To the right was a glacier on the nearby mountain.

Not long after the last lake I could see people in front. Two were coming towards me and we had a short chat. I caught up to two on the downhill to the big lake. It was a beautiful turquoise blue lake with steep hills around the edge and an interesting river system below.

There was an intersection with the track I wanted doubling back at little so I did a shortcut and found the track not long before a bridge over and impressive river, coming off the glacier I think. There is no way I would be able to cross that river with the sheer power of the water.
Now I was on an even more remote trail and it sidled along the side of a hill, of course climbing it a little way. Sometimes the trail was clear and sometimes the trail was overgrown and very small, especially going along the steeper bits. It was very pretty with lots of flowers and of course the views of the lake.

The trail was meant to cross a bridge and head up the hill and when I came to a tiny wooden bridge I didn’t think that was it. I had it in my mind that it would be a big bridge.

Now it was a gradual uphill and to the boarder. This is the last boarder crossing and now I am back in Norway I will stay there for the rest of the journey.
Once over the top the trail dropped to the lake and the hut appeared at the lake edge.

My right foot had been hurting all day so I decided to have a long lunch and rest it a bit. I sat with my foot elevated and enjoyed a full lunch now I was not rationing lunch anymore thanks to the fresh bread and chips I had yesterday.
I was planning on taking a full hour but this stretched into one and a half hours before I finally left. The sun was gone but the strong wind was picking up even more. Thankfully itwas a tail wind and helped to push me along. The trail was now following up the lake and started off keeping low but then started climbing to avoid some diffficult areas.

It started to get more rocky and by the end of the lake was big rock slabs. There was a small community there, I assume Sami, and the trail went high above them. Then it was following another lake, winding through the rock slabs.

This lake looked like it was low and was a strange colour, I am assuming it was a dam. Several of the Swedish I have talked to said this year is a really dry year and normally there would still be a lot of snow around. Lucky for me.

I was planning to camp at the intersection where I left the lake and headed up the hill but there was nowhere to camp so I started up ready to stop at the first suitable spot. Unfortunately everywhere was really windy and the places that were sheltered were swamp or lake. I ended up going up and over the pass and nearly down to the bridge before I found somewhere.

It was threatening to rain but I got my tent up. There was one very short flurry which had me scampering for the tent but it was only 10 or so seconds and stopped so I had time to find rocks to reinforce the pegs as the ground was stony. There was a slight breeze but nothing much as I was well sheltered, or so I thought. I had finished dinner and looking at my maps and started typing my blog when the wind picked up and it started raining – hard. Unlike normal it rained continuously for quite a while. The rain was earlier than it had been other nights so I was glad I stopped when I did instead of my normal time

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