Day 4: Gränsleden Sårgåjávrre – Røysvatnet

After we made good progress yesterday, we don’t have it very far to the hut today. The alarm clock rings at 7 a.m. so that we can get to the hut early and enjoy half a day in the hut. We dally a bit in the morning, but at 8:40 we starts. The first sunbeams warm us, there is a great light atmosphere and the weather promises to be better again.

Soon we come to the first of many bridges on our tour. This bridge is harmless – we are still on the Swedish side! – and the view shortly after the bridge is also worth a photo.

A lot of willow scrub awaits us on the middle island, after that the ford is possible without fordshoes. Then we climb steeply up the embankment and have to look for the way again and again. The slope goes up over several floors and soon we can see the hut Sårgå.

Here we have breakfast comfortably from 10:20 to 11:00 o’clock, then we continue. Today we have pleasant temperatures between 12 and 15°C, partly it is sunny, but thanks to the cool wind we go with fleeces.

After the hut it goes uphill again and then further over an area full of lakes.

There are only 2 km to the Norwegian border 🙂 which means two things: The paths are better marked from now on, the bridges become more adventurous (c) Markus or life-threatening (c) Elisabeth.

Soon we meet the Nordkalottleden and at the fork we are briefly confused: Only 2 kilometers to the Røysvatn hut? No, Røysvatnet is only an emergency shelter on Gränsleden and not the big hut on Nordkalottleden! So we continue as planned on the Nordkalottleden and arrive a little later at a small canyon. On our side we find a good way down, on the other side up it degenerates into a small climbing part.

A look back shows: Today we made good progress! The landscape is now rockier and more barren. It goes steadily uphill, always one hill after the other to pass.

At a small lake we don’t find the way anymore. The marking was just there, but now far and wide no red dot, no stone man or any other clue. We climb up a bit, but we don’t find a good way to get to the other side without a lot of hard work. But from above we discover something different. The path runs through the lake and was simply flooded (bottom left in the picture). Well then – the water isn’t high, no problem with high hiking boots 🙂

At 14:15 we reach the Røysvatn huts! Yippie! The first time we can try the hut key – and it fits! 😉
Markus has already written more about the key here.
There is (still) nobody here and we have the free choice. We have a short look into the big hut – big, beautiful and clean, but then we decide for the small hut only for both of us.

We wash ourselves and our clothes, heat the oven and hang everything up to dry. Then we eat comfortably at the table – better than crouching in the tent, you have to admit that.
Suddenly someone tears at our door and it is Lothar who made it to the hut today. But he doesn’t have a key to the hut and camps a little outside.
We write diary, drink tea and read. Soon it is so hot in the hut that we have to ventilate – and that after only 3 logs of wood. In terms of heating we still have to learn … We read until 23 o’clock, then we go to bed.

The exact observer of the photos will now think: Big hut, small hut, toilet hut – and what is in the other small hut? The Røysvatn expert, on the other hand, will ask himself: Why don’t they write anything about the sauna? The ingenious Røysvatn sauna, the only sauna on the whole route? Well – in retrospect I don’t know how we overlooked the sauna. We didn’t notice it either during the preparation or on site. We would have had it only for ourselves, would have been able to wash comfortably inside instead of outside in the cold with cold water. You can believe us, when we were asked about the sauna in Pauro, we bit our asses properly!