Journey: Gimegolts Nature Reserve – Arvidsjaur – Grodkallen – Storforsens Nature Reserve – Arctic Circle near Jokkmokk
Blimey what a scorcher – it was 33 degrees for most of the day despite us being in Lapland! When it’s this hot our strategy has to be short shady walks and driving with air-con as the van gets so muggy and warm.
Our first walk was at Gimegolts, a short trail along a canyon edge out to a scenic point overlooking the lake. The walk was lovely, not too close to the edge or too steep, still Mark kept his distance as it’s not his idea of fun. There was a shepherd hut we could have slept in overlooking it, but we would have been eaten alive by the midges. It was quite funny last night Mark stayed up looking out over the pond trying to spot wildlife while I was busy trying to kill midges that had snuck into the van with evil intent – my veganism doesn’t extend to midges, I’m covered in bites. Hazard of parking near water ☹️
We wanted to do a little research on the local area so stopped in Arvidsjaur for an iced latte. They had a cool moose sculpture…our closest encounter with them…quite possibly our only but fingers crossed not. We were recommended a couple of nice spots and I’d been intrigued by Grodkallen which is a natural bubbling spring with a beautiful turquoise colour.
The spring is beautiful and such a surprise in the landscape. It was a resting place for the Sami people and it’s name translates to the frog spring as they observed frogs hibernating there over winter. Given it is a boiling spring you might think it is warm…it’s not…it’s really not! I braved a swim and oh my gosh my whole body was tingling with the cold. Jasper was barking at me to come out as he wasn’t allowed to join me and I tried to reassure him through gasping breaths. It’s…ok….Jasper..mummy…just…needs…to..catch…her….breath. I did a couple of laps round and climbed out. God it was cold. I’ve since googled and it’s around 6 degrees 😨 Still I was instantly warm again as soon as I got out. Sadly Mark was struggling to hold all three dogs so doesn’t have a photo of my shocked hyperventilating face 😂
We had been recommended Erik-Lasaberget as a nice mountain trail but had to turn back a couple of kilometres from it when the road got so bad part of our ceiling came down from the rattling 😂 It’s only the sun roof blinds and I soon fixed it with my screwdriver, but it was a sign of things to come.
Hoping for better roads we drove on to Storforsens Nature Reserve. Here is the largest waterfall in the Nordic area and the sight and sound is quite a spectacle! Around it there were also rock pools and little tributaries and on such a lovely day it was heaving with people who had come to relax, eat and play.
Even though I’m driving Mark really hates gravel roads and to his dismay we encountered yet more. It seems the main inland road North is having major roadworks and we had 30+km of dusty bumpy gravel that I confess is a bit tricky to drive on especially into the sun. By the time we got to our campspot we realised we had lost our back number plate and waste water tap…things to add to tomorrows to do list 🙈 On the plus we saw more reindeer who trot along quite merrily and even a baby white one ❤️
Our magical campspot for tonight is the Arctic circle! We crossed it at 9pm, just outside Jokkmokk and it was still 31degrees which is crazy. We have done the obligatory family photos and then our exciting Saturday night was spent filling as many empty water bottles as possible as we are drinking masses – we did 22 bottles which is much better than recycling the empties and buying new. Should last us 3 days if we are lucky
SofaWolves 