A day of a lot of ascends. Of course, it was inevitable when looking at the landscape. I've looked at the map and many of these hills or mountains around are closer to 400 meters tall with some reaching around 600 meters. Many fell in Finland don't even reach that high.
Besides climbing up there were many natural springs along the path. The famous one is St. Olav Spring. Legend says that Olav Haraldsson's men were complaining about the lack of water. Olav hit the ground with his staff and water poured out. Their horses were also thirsty but they had no buckets. Olav sat down on a rock to think about the issue and the rock melted under him forming a bowl from which the horses could drink.
For myself I got to experience thirst as well as I ran out of water about 3 kilometers before the place I thought to camp. When I got to the spot it was no good as getting water was too difficult through the thick forest and steep hill. No matter how I felt, exhausted and thirsty I had to hike another 4 kilometers to the Altar Stone where there is a stream.
Water has never tasted this good or looked this nice. And the three blueberry muffins that I carried all those 24 kilometers. 😋
Oh and at one point I thought I was hallucinating from lack of water as I stumbled into two reindeer who were just as curious about me as I was about them. 🤣Read more
May 17–18, 2024 in Sweden ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C