Day 7: Vistas – Alesjaure

At 7:15 the alarm clock rings, today we continue our tour. After the lonely huts of the last days we hike to Alesjaure today and we are a little afraid of the crowds.

After breakfast (porridge with cranberries) we pack our backpacks, clean the hut, say goodbye to Vintervik and at exactly 9:19 😉 we start our hike through Visttasvággi. It is cold (approx. 5°C), it rains and it is really windy. The first 3 – 4 km we go through the forest, which protects us a bit from the weather. The way is quite good – a forest path with roots and stones and a few moose footprints on our path over several 100 m. We hope to see a moose, but unfortunately we have no luck.

When come out of the forest the wind is quite strong. Positive: It’s tailwind, negative: but also crosswind. Just like in Iceland: the wind is so strong that you can’t put your foot where you planned. Despite rain and clouds we enjoy the great landscape. The autumn colours are so intense and the rain makes the mountain shine even more.

The way is alternately stony and swampy due to the rain, but easy and we make rapid progress. My shoes are already wet inside and it feels like “walking on clouds”.

Today we see a lot of birch trees in beautiful autumn colour, which have to endure the weather conditions in the mountains.

Because of the weather we don’t take many breaks today and when we do, there are very short, it is too cold and too windy. We hardly see any other hikers – just a young Swede on his own and we meet a Swedish family at the bridge over the Moarhmmájohka.

After the bridge follows a short ascent and we pass two small lakes. The weather shows no improvement today and we are already really wet, despite our rain jacket and trousers. Both shoes and trousers already look like the muddy ground.

Later we descend towards Alisjávri. Towards the end we pass the sami settlement, which we only saw from the distance last year. The settlement is quite big, but not inhabited at the moment.

Soon we see the Alesjaurestugorna, which is further away than it looks. At the very end there is a small bridge/bridge challenge for me before we reach the hut.

At about 16:30 we arrive in Alesjaure. We buy some food and get two beds in room 3 in hut 1. It is a 4-bed room already occupied by two German hikers. First, we get out of our wet clothes. Fortunately there is a drying room, in which we still find room for our clothes on the already well occupied clotheslines. The humid-warm climate in there has something of a sauna, but not a fragrant one :/
Apropos sauna: we are quite frozen, we urgently need warmth. The ladies are first, the gentlemen are allowed in an hour later. I chat with two nice Finns who tell me about the “real” saunas in Finland.

The common room is freezing cold. We dress warm, eat hard boiled eggs, olives and sausages for starters and pasta with tomato sauce as main course. We also treat ourselves to a beer.
A group of Israelis and Germans are talking loudly about history, politics and racism. We listen a bit and then look at the photos on Markus´ camera in fast motion. Already great, what we have experienced so far.

Then we are already drawn to bed. We fall asleep well, but our roommate snores quite well, so that we wake up again and again. We need to get some Ohropax for the next trip! Or bring our tent! ⛺