Day 74. Hemavan weather and rest day
Posted by: James on March 15, 2009Distance 0km | Time 0hrs | Ascent 0m | Descent 0m
I slept very well and when I woke at 0630 felt refreshed. However I rolled over and fell asleep again for another 3 hours. When I went through for breakfast I found they had cleared it up long ago. Luckily I had other food from the shop last night.
The sun was out and the sky was clear. My legs however felt very tired. I had to rest. In addition I had two long days of the blog to write up and photos to chose and label. This office work would take about 3 hours. Then once the blog was done I had loads of emails to send which had been hanging over me for a while.
The dairy did indeed take 3 hours. I was not finished until 1330. My legs were not up to a 3 hour ski to the first cabin on Kungsleden even if it was just an 11 km ski so I went to the reception and paid for two nights for my bunk bed.
The lady there said that this had been a military base where courses were run and it was still used by the military. The STF or Swedish hiking club had taken some of the base over as the army used it less and less.
She let me use the internet a while to investigate some of the Kungsleden sections ahead. The section I really wanted to find out about was from Jakkvik to Kvikkjokk. There seemed to be a dearth on information on these 100 km
I then sent some 20 emails on my fiddly phone which seemed to be misbehaving a bit before supper. I was starting to have some concerns about the customs and my kayak. If the jobs worthy officers made such an issue over a 150 pound rucksack what would happen with a 2500 pound kayak and 1000 pound dry suit.
After the buffet supper in the main hut where I was one of two guests I returned to my hut to get up to date with my diary and pack for tomorrow.
There were three cabins I could head for tomorrow Viterskalstugan, Syterstugan and Tarnsjostugan. The distance between each was 3 hours so hopefully I would quickly pass through the first at Viterskalstugan.
It had been a boring day. I had spent at least 7 hours on my phone keypad. Still all the office work was out of the way for the moment and my body had had the rest it deserved. Hemavan did not really invite much exploration being an downhill ski resort with a smattering of closed shops so I gave it a miss. I am sure there are some cultural gems here but I think it would be difficult to find them in a day.