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... walk the walk and talk the talk ...

Further down along Kungsleden there were quite a few people around me, not all but most of the time. I enjoyed their company. When you travel alone you feel warm with someone around you. I have already mentioned some of them in my entries. 

People going the same direction you might meet again and again. There was Russel from New Zealand, Jeff and Christoph, two fabulous guys from Belgium. We had time to talk in the sauna - a great place for relaxed, deep and open talks. Two sisters, Bella from UK and Francis on her overdue odyssey from New Zealand, Paul from Berlin, Germany, Elias - have a look at his great homepage extremos.com - and Laura from Brazil on their kungsleden expedition. There were also Swedish hikers, of course, like Lennart - a man at my time of life, but taller, stronger, faster, and all the grönabandet hikers. Meeting more than once is great, you have a chance to get to know each other better and build up a closer relationship. These are relations for a certain time though -  since everyone is following their own plans you will lose them again and have to let go. 

Sitting opposite of me at the table at Sitojaure a woman was busy fileting smoked and frozen fish they had bought at the Sami settlement nearby. She worked as a tourguide for an STF group. She was Swiss, so we spoke German - but had lived in the Swedish mountains for years. There was a lot of fish (mainly arctic char) and so we had time to talk ... about a tour in Himalaya she had taken ... searching for something she felt she had missed in life, or some inspiration, for her peace of mind ... That is why she had planned to go solo, spend time on her own, camp in the wilderness. But then Nepalese women invited her to stay at their places. They were so insistent - and I understood in need - she just couldn't refuse. So she was still looking for ... "Maybe going grönabandet ..., maybe next year". She and her group were going the opposite direction. 

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How does it feel

How does it feel 

to be without a home

like a complete unknown

Like a rolling stone?

Bob Dylan

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There was another chance meeting that evening. Anna - one of the grönabandet hikers - had just crossed the lake and I met her at the Sami settlement. Though it was later in the evening she was about to continue her hike to camp in the fjäll. The very reason was the 'call of the waffles'. She wanted to reach Saltoluokta the next day in time for the boat and to have some waffles before. We had never met but had been connected via Instagram for a while. She had posted regularly about progress as well as problems on the trail. So we already knew about each other in a way. We spoke German - Anna has a good command of five or six foreign languages. A short but an intense meeting. Anyway, the Internet is a great option to stay connected with a lot of people you would never ever see or meet again. And even on the trail you feel less lonely with people taking the same challenge following you online and you following them.

Once she had left I met Paul again. Paul, 17, tall and strong, from Berlin. Standing on the terrace of the Sami settlement - a modern Swedish prefab house - he straightened out fishing nets.

"Ich arbeite hier, dies und das, helfe ein bisschen aus. Gehe mit zum Fischen..."

"Und wie wirst du bezahlt?"

"In Fisch. Ich bekomme Fisch. Lars sagt, ich esse mehr als zwei Schweden und das heißt mehr als drei Sami." He laughed.

Lars had also taught him how to light a fire under difficult circumstances using birch bark and pitch. Days later we met again at the Tsielekjåkka stugan looking for a dry spot on a rainy day. He managed to light a fire though the wood was really wet. 

When I met him for the last time he had just got rid of huge and beautiful reindeer antlers he had found and been carrying on his backpack for a couple of days. Too heavy!

Fazit (conclusion) 3: There will be lonely times. So what! You will meet a lot of great, interesting and amazing people. Enjoy company - whenever, wherever.