Passing the polar circle. Has not much publicity.

Tosca has fun with antlers

Crossing creeks.

Flock of rendeer. Very exciting for Tosca.

Gradually more snow.

Moors and bogs.

Samen cabin with a rendeer hunter!

Our tenting spot.

Another 70 km. to the next settlement, Kvikkjokk. Should I do that in two days? It supposedly takes 3 days. Three days means two times more tenting. Because of the wind the canvas has been slapping loudly all night. Jan therefore also had a bad sleep. So the slapping is not due to my way of setting up a tent, I reasoned. Yesterday afternoon Tosca already didn’t like it any more . So should I sleep one extra night unnecessarily in the tent? What shall I do? Two more days (long stages) or three days (shorter stages, but tighter food rations)? Yesterday evening I was pretty tired and Tosca yesterday too. We’ll see how fast we go today and then I’ll decide. On verra!
This day would be one of the heaviest. Thirty km. high mountains, swamps, mosquitoes, snow fields, in which you sink deep, areas with large boulders, where you have to try to jump or climb from rock to rock and that with a young dog on the leash. Sometimes hopeless. If I let Tosca go and she might go after a reindeer, you’ll have a chance the samen will shoot her. Today we arrive at the highest point, above 1000 m. The tree line is at 800 m. And above it there is snow once in a while. Fortunately, we already did the first five kilometers of this stage yesterday and this afternoon the last kilometers will be by boat. So that eases the pain.
Yesterday evening I was pretty much fed up with it and Tosca yesterday morning too. Because we will camp three days on top of the high plateau, I have to take food for Tosca with me for 4 days. That means 8 kg of extra meze.
Unwashed, unshaved we go on our way. Not that that is so bad, because they say that mosquitoes do not like people’s sweat, although I myself have the opposite experience. It is relatively warm weather: some 17 degrees C in the valley and the Lapland mosquitoes celebrate funfair. Whole swarms around us. Tosca’s belly is, like most women’s belly, not very hairy, so she was just about punctured. I lost my mosquito net. I had to save myself with a very small bottle of mosquito oil, which I had taken with me, as a bonus. Fairly Tosca and I share the bit that is in it. But whether that will do for 4 days? Everything is on ration: food, mosquito oil, little chocolate, little cheese, bread, sausage and c’est ca .. It is always balancing on the one hand carrying more energy and on the other hand keeping the weight as low as possible.
Two hours after our departure, a crooked sign indicates that we are passing the polar circle. Apparently no big deal. Tant piss. Photo. We walked through the marshes until there was no path at all. I walked 10 minutes before Jan. So I would have been lost here without hope. I just hope that Jan runs the same route as me, because otherwise I have a big problem in orientation. Jan is good at the gps. There is no building or habitation here in the farthest distance. I started walking back, but, to my great joy, Jan came out of the bushes in the distance. Jan has a GPS, which perfectly indicates the route. I also have one, but the batteries were somehow not fully charged, so … empty. Am I glad that I am not alone, here in that deserted wilderness. I do not want to become a second Ötsi, the ancient Swiss snow body. If you get lost here, you are not so easily found, as witnessed by the many skeletons I saw and from which Tosca found bones. I attribute it to reindeer for convenience, but who knows ? The landscape is truly breathtaking, but then in two meanings. I would not want to miss it. I hope Tosca will keep up. From mid-July to mid-August the mosquito plague is the worst. Juzzus, Mária, Joezef. Will it get even worse? Because of the musquitos we can only rest above the tree line, but underneath it one also gets tired.
When we finally get back to the mosquito-free tree line, Tosca turns out to be the old one: she’s pulling like a horse again, especially since she sees the herds of reindeer in the distance. We walk past a traditional earthen peetee, where the Samen used to stay in overnight. But it was too filthy to qualify for it. Photo.
What did I start, old crazy idiot. Hold on!