Hiking in the Fjäll of Sweden

Last week I took you on a tour through southern Sweden. Today let's go to the north of this beautiful country

The landscapes here void of any trees or undergrowth are referred to as Fjäll here. And this hiking tour taking 10 days took me through fjäll regions, woodlands, on top of hills and into ice cold lakes. This was an official hiking trail, so I wasn't out in the wilderness by myself. But even so there were only a handful of people I met every day. The place itself is very near to the Norway border south of town of Storlien.

This is where I started the tour. I decided to stay for one night here before taking off as I arrived in the afternoon and wanted to have a fresh start early in the day as I was preparing myself to walk for at least 20 km. As the terrain here is not too hilly and is out in the open this was a realistic goal.

The next day was cloudy, but the smell was amazing! I'm not sure where it came from as there was almost no vegetation, but the air was filled with aromatic fragrances. It can be daunting to start such a journey as you realize very quickly that you are by yourself here (again, this wasn't a survival situation as I knew I could buy some food along some shelters). But you just start by taking a step and many more. And soon when you look back you can see that you have come a long way! This landscape, although quite like a void, is very beautiful in its own way. I never walked through such empty space before this journey so it was quite an experience.

Finally I arrived at a little hut. It was some hours since I started hiking and it was time for some lunch. I was carrying everything with me to prepare my noodles with pesto (a classic cuisine ;) For this I had a little stove which burnt with alcohol. Although it takes about 10 minutes for water to boil with it, one does not need a lot of fuel and 800 ml would be enough for the whole trip. There was the usual graffiti inside which left me wondering who had come before me here...

The last part of the day hike ended up going a bit further downhill where at first I saw some smaller lakes which was a nice change of landscape. The water is so clean here that you could drink it, but I still had enough so I just enjoyed the scenery. Later on I descended further where the wind was not blowing as strong and so I ended up being with some trees again. Where it was wetter I was lucky enough to find some wooden boards on which I could walk on. This made the hiking trail very obvious and I was able to safely arrive at my destination for the night...