Monday June 15th 2015. Still in Hemavan, 0 km

15- 06- 2015   |  
Harrie Huijben
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Over 2 w. bewandelen Han en ik dit pad. Hopelijk is de sneeuw dan merendeels weg

In 2 weeks, after returning from home in the NL, Han and I will walk this path. I hope the snow will be gone by then.

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Wat een bof, zo'n rendierpoot

Lucky girl, that rendeer leg.

 

David komt met zijn moeder Tosca ophalen. Rendier mag mee

David comes together with him mom to pick up Tosca. Tosca may take her rendeer leg with her.

 

Zwaar afscheid. Maar Tosca mag op achterbank

Difficult to say good bye. Tosca may sit in the rear.

Samenhut met centrale stookplek

Saamen cabin with central fire place

Nagebouwde samenhut met een Saam ernaast

Restaurated Saamen cabin with a Saam in front of it

Nog een paar

Some more.

Yes, such a ride through 70 km.  nowhere nowhere-land, that hurries up. This saves an extra day of walking. So now I am in Sweden. In about one week my plane will leave from Mo I Rana in Norway, 130 km. to the North from here, to Dusseldorf (Germany). From Dusseldorf it’s one hour driving home in the Netherlands. Meanwhile I have time to seek shelter here for Tosca, when I am away to the Netherlands for a few days to see my daughter Lilian and the newborn grandchild. Moreover I have time to prepare for the 450 km. long Kungsleden, the long-distance trail through the wilderness of Lapland, that starts here in Hemavan. That Kungsleden path begins here. Photo. So 8 d. from now I’ll go home to admire my newest grandchild. Perhaps I can take an earlier flight to the Netherlands . Also, I still have to figur out how to get to the airport in Mo I Rana, 100 km up North. There is no public transportation that way. So again hitch hiking. But you never know for sure how long that’ll take. So I already start googling looking for overnight accommodation in Mo I Rana. Here in Hemavan is no official dog shelter. In the neighboring village Tärnaby, 19 km. here, neither. The Husky kennel over there does not respond to my attempts to contact them. So imagine, you get up in the morning and the question is, how do I  organize today? Google doesn’t really help me. I better first go to the supermarket. Everybody knows everybody here. The lady at the counter  says she might know someone where I can host Tosca and she writes down my phone nr. I immediately go on to the adjacent sports shop. Yeah, I might know someone, the lady there sais. The lady leaves the sporting goods store and goes straight to the supermarket next to it and deliberates there with the same lady I just came from, about the same potential dog sitter. Again my phone number is written down. I go straight to the gas station. For the umpteenth time I tell my story. Maybe your dog can stay  me, says the boy behind the counter. I live with my parents. They have three English setters dogs, but they happen to be away for a few weeks. I will call my parents, if I can take care for your dog. Tomorrow I work from 10 am till 3 pm. Come on in then. You have to work until  5 pm. reminds him his older female colleague. I think, damn, why don’t you call to your parents right away. Then at least I know where I stand. But o.k., I’m the underdog. Tak, tak (thank you, thank you), and I leave.
Let’s discover the beginning of the path of Kungsleden. The guy at the gas station had expressed his doubts about the possibility to walk the route. Possibly too much snow. Inquire at www.stf.se he advised me. After 30 minutes of walking on the Kungsleden path I passed a nature information center. Are you open, I asked. The door is not closed. Actually we are closed, someone replied, but come in anyway. We’re just having lunch. Of course here too I explained my Tosca-problem, but in vain, because the lady had a  pussycatt. I should have known!

Het is hier nog vrij winters. In dit vandrerhjem logeer ik in een stapelbed. Tosca ook binnen

Here it is still pretty much winter. In this vandrerhjem I sleep. Tosca is inside too.

In Hemavan begint het langeafstandspad 450 km. Kungsleden, door Lapland

In Hemavan in Sweden begins the 450 km. Kungsleden, through Lapland

Camera scheef, maar de foto geeft toch een indruk

Camera not right but the picture nevertheless gives an impression.

Tosca begaajt me ( maakt me smerig) op de Kungslede, het Koningspad

Tosca Is making me dirty on the Kungslede, the Kings Road.

Samen met een beer het natuurmuseum even bezocht

Together with a bear I quickly visited the museum.

After a quick visit along stuffed Golden Plovers, a lynx, a bear, a glutton and inspection of the maps they offered for sale, I wanted to leave again. Visit our botanical garden, the operator advised me proud while she worked her spaghetti inside. I did, but I  only saw signs of plants that didn’t grow yet this early in spring and an imitation saamen dwelling: photo. Still nothing visible of the hibernating plants. However, I understood at the museum, that this quite common meadow bird here is the golden plover. In the Netherlands only a winter visitor. I once saw on a menu in the Nl. ‘golden plover breasts. Sounds nice, but it seems to me a bit decadent. What wine will fit to this?

After having inspected and photographed the route for a kilometer or so I turned around to go back. Tosca liked the snow a lot. I dared not let her go, because on the way I had seen tame reindeer at a distance, but O.K. then, just for a moment. She might go after them. She ran like an unchained puppy, dragged muddy branches, the bigger, the better, preferably dirtying my last night cleaned pants and she jumps in every puddle that I gently tried to evade. Even walking at the leash she pulled me over at the narrow gangways (photo), and she made her function, being the cozy difficulty factor of my trip, make quite true again. Will Tosca ever learn the command “follow”?  I was advised to teach her so with candy. I never did , ‘çause then I would have to give candy all day. But maybe they were right.

 Here the winter only starts to end. Kungsleden seems to me a wonderful, crazy route, really “cool”, because of the harsh conditions. Is just blitz. Pictures.
On the street in Hemavan I met a man with a poodle. I tied Tosca very quickly to a pole, walked up to the man again and told him my problem of lodging Tosca. I work at the gas station, he explains. We will ask customers and maybe you’ll have success with that guy behind the counter. He lives with his parents and … I’ve been there already, I replied.
Next attempt: coffee at a burger place. Do you speak English? No! The next customer who came in I asked again: also no English speaker. Then I returned to my room. This morning I had checked out in Troll Tune Hostal and I moved to the neighboring vandrerhjem . Spending the night in the latter was a lot cheaper.

In my room I just google a little, for lack of better. And hup, my handy rings. Who might that be? Maja Hey! Ah, that’s the person who at my arrival in Hemavan was recommended to me first by the handsome Swedish waitress. Her old dog was run over. Her new puppy shortly afterwards too. She worked at a vet and now had lunch. At telephone, in bad English, I think talking is difficult. Do you live in Hemavan, I ask. Yes. Tonight she will call me when she’s home and we’ll meet. So a dogsdate. I hope that will have succes, because then I can anticipate at least my flight to the Netherlands. Great if it works. Persevere. Without effort you don’t get anywhere. Yeah, you always are lucky, people might say, but it’s just a matter of perseverence. I’m curious. On verra.

It’s 9:06 pm. already. The sun is shining now and then and it is still clear day light. Maja called me. She knew no address for Tosca. So I missed our dog date. Well, Maja, I said, thank you very much for the effort, but I don’t need it any more. Do you know David? No, she did not know him. Then David will be a lot younger than she is, I think, because everybody knows everybody here. David wil take Tosca for two weeks. It’s a bit embarrassing for me. Like a mother, who goes on vacation and must leave her small children back home !!! If the shoe fits, wear it. But the grief was softened because Tosca just happened to find a reindeer paw and David, the dog sitter, allowed Tosca to take the stinking paw  with her in Davids car. Photo. I think David was a little nervous whether I would come back and pick up the dog again after 2 weeks. I gave him my website, to show that there was a continuing line in my story. Hopefully this helps him feeling more sure.

Now I wonder if hitch hiking I’ll get in time in the Norwegian town of Mo I Rana, to anticipate there at the airport my flight home, next Tuesday. If I fail in doing so, I unnessesarily left Tosca an extra week alone, which I find a bit sad and it also costs quite a bit. But o.k., we’ll find out . We’ll  see again tomorrow. Boys and girls, ca va bien.

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