<\/p>\n
Today is dedicated to organizing and planning. <\/span>It will not interest others, but I’m writing it down, not to forget. And then the question remains whether I’ll meet German Jan. <\/span>He is also on his way to Abisko, where I am now, but he is coming to Abisko by a longer route, called Padjelanta, leaving him behind me some three days. <\/span>Just like me during the last days, of course, he has no phone range. <\/span>So I’m not sure when he will arrive here. <\/span>I would like to walk along with him, the next two pieces, 376 km. t<\/span>o Kautokeino, for safety reasons. <\/span>Jan has a decent GPS. And that really helps.<\/span> <\/span>And if we encounter a bear, then probably the bear is frightened when he sees me. That might help Jan<\/span>. <\/span>After 375 km, from Kautokeino, our roads will split again.
\n <\/span>The remaining 629 km. f<\/span>rom here, Abisko, to Cape North is divided into three pieces:
\n <\/span>1) 188 km. <\/span>From Abisko to Kilpisj\u00e4rvi
\n <\/span>2) 186 km. <\/span>From Kilpisj\u00e4rvi to the capital of the Samen, Kautokeino
\n <\/span>3) 355 km. <\/span>From Kautokeino to Cape North
\n <\/span>That can be covered in 3.5 weeks, say 4 weeks. <\/span>Then I can arrive at Cape North around the 18th of August , exactly 10 months after the start of my trip on Oct. 18th. 2014 i<\/span>n Tarifa-Spain.
\n <\/span>However, after the first piece, in Kilpish\u00e4rvi, after 7-8 days, will be the first possibility to get food again. Holy shit<\/span>. <\/span>Tosca eats at least 3\/4 kilo a day and more. <\/span>So up to Kilpisj\u00e4rvi I definitely need to carry at least 10 kg.<\/span> extra. <\/span>That does not even fit in my backpack. <\/span>I also have to buy a burner and cooking boiler extra because I want to carry only dried fodder for myself, such as pasta, or dried foods. <\/span>These are less heavy than all kinds of canned food. <\/span>And for cooking that dried-up stuff, cooking equipment is needed. <\/span>Also, there is only one option left: walking for a week without one resting day and without extra food supply. <\/span>Then I’m faster in Kilpisj\u00e4rvi and so have to drag all that weight one day less. <\/span>I’d better go soon to Kilpisj\u00e4rvi and stay there one day longer than to walk slowly with that heavy plunger and meanwhile being deprived of electricity and other amenities. <\/span>The same considerations apply to the two pieces after Kilpisj\u00e4rvi .
\n <\/span>The first two parts resort under the Nordkallotleden, a total of some 800 km. <\/span>international hiking trail through Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish Lapland. <\/span>There are at least cabins, with or without a guardian. <\/span>But the third piece, the 350 km. f<\/span>rom Kautokeino to Cape North has no cabins and there are hardly any settlements. <\/span>How to spend the night there and how to get food, I’ll have to find out tomorrow or after tomorrow.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>So reasons anough to take a few days off here in Abisko. <\/span>Moreover I want to send unnecessary items home, if at least there is a post office here. <\/span>And finally, I have read that in Kautokeino there is a museum about the culture of the Sami, the Indians of Europe. <\/span>An almost forgotten and anyway very much neglected minority population whose culture is collapsing in the major Western consumer society, which is becoming one great grey, unitary blend .
\n<\/span>What brought the day? <\/span>Clothes in the loundry machine, searching for food packages and and cooking gear, planning the route for the remaining 629 km. It takes many h<\/span>ours to find out which photos of the last few days belong to which day’s blog and what place names belong to it. <\/span>SMS, phone, dog care. <\/span>And then I’ll spoil myself tonight with a meal at the cabin \/ hotel restaurant here. A beer<\/span>: 9 E! <\/span>I ordered a cup of delicious mushroom soup, but probably it was intended for leeky bones, so small. <\/span>Two pieces of herring, with three small potatoes and some stalks of parsley-like stuff. Haute cuisine, but not for hungry trekkers! <\/span>Then one more ice cream: 2 half balls in a sweet sauce. <\/span>I asked if they had some bread, so that after dinner at least the bottom of my stomach would be covered. <\/span>I got two pieces of bread. <\/span>I thought Holland was known for being greedy. <\/span>Eg. <\/span>The sliding piece of cheese. <\/span>Every time you bite into the sandwich, the slice of cheese moves back a little so that after finishing the sandwich you can use the slice of cheese again for the next slice of bread. <\/span>Well, here they are good at it too! <\/span>I also took the two pieces of bread from the basket of the neighbors after they left.
\n<\/span>So today nothing spectacular, just a lot of infrastructuring again. <\/span>What I won’t get done today I will do tomorrow.
\n<\/span>Nota bene (by the way). <\/span>Whenever I cross a border, I appeal to donors to think of Mama Alice. <\/span>Tomorrow I will cross the Swedish-Norwegian border. <\/span>In about a week I will go to Finland, to come back to Norway shortly thereafter. <\/span>For those who do not know: With my trip, I support Mama Alice. <\/span>An organization set up by “our” Fr\u00e9derique Kallen from Hoogcrutz-Noorbeek (Nl). <\/span>Fr\u00e9derique lives and works in Peru and, with her organisation Mama Alice (named after her deceased mother), she saves street children and supports them, in Peru. <\/span>One of my daughters-in-law also is from Peru, and so I feel a connection between my residential area and the country where two of my grandchildren stem from, at least half. <\/span>We have already collected 10,000 E and I hope we get the E 15,000.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"