August 4, 2023, Kungsleden day 12
Jan and Eva, head of the family that settled Vuonatjviken have four cabins for rent. We rented one for two nights, 1100 SEK per night. Finally, we could rest and dry out. Everything was either damp or soaking wet. The shared bathroom, with a hot water shower, was in a cabin some distance away.
Inside the cabin, Patsy and I moved two of the mattresses to the living room floor and went to bed, and almost immediately fell asleep, at 9 pm.
August 4, 2023, Kungsleden day 13
We awoke at 6:40 to sunshine. Everything looks better in sunlight, but my pain hadn't gone away, or even diminished.
Robert, and the Irish girls, Caoimhe, and Aislinn, caught the 9 am boat. I went to get another pizza for lunch and, this time, also a beer.
Patsy discovered that this family’s restaurant is renowned and is a foodie destination. We made a dinner reservation for 6 pm, asking specifically that we be served char, the Arctic salmonid caught fresh in the Riebnes lake. A young Swedish couple came in, Niclas and Lisa. After chatting a while and telling them I’d suffered an injury, Niclas asked if we'd like a ride to Arjeplog with them in his boat and car. Hell yes!
I reserved a room for two nights in Arjeplog at the only hotel Booking showed in the centre of town, Simloc Hotel Drottninggatan, rated 9.0, 1,345 SEK per night including breakfast.
August 5, 2023, Vuonatjviken to Arjeplog
Niclas appeared at 11:00 and said they were ready whenever we were. He’s a carpenter by trade, but a fisherman at heart. We stopped in the middle of Riebnes Lake so he could run out a line. He showed us some of the lures he'd made himself. Lisa said Niclas spends many long, dark winter nights making lures, sometimes jumping out of bed in the middle of the night to jot down a new idea for a lure.
Niclas drove to Arjeplog (pronounced something like Are-ee-plūg) and dropped us off at the Simloc Hotel where I'd booked a self-catering apartment.
Niclas told us about Arjeplog while he was driving. Arjeplog is a gem, unspoiled by tourism, somewhat akin to Mojkovac in Montenegro. We would never have come here if I hadn't injured myself.
Arjeplog is home to Test Management and the Colmis Proving Ground. European and Asian automobile and parts manufacturers congregate in Arjeplog, December through March, to test their cars and components under Arctic winter conditions. Testing has made Arjeplog rich, but it’s unspoiled.
Niclas and Lisa returned at 7:00 so we could take them out for dinner. After dinner, Niclas drove us up to the 800 m peak, Gáldbuovvda. "Do you know what Volvo means?", Niclas asked me. I'd never given it any thought, assuming it was a made-up name. "It means 'I roll' from the Latin 'volvo'", he said. Of course! The company's first product was ball bearings.
Sunday, August 6-13, 2023, Arjeplog
Breakfast was excellent. Scrambled eggs, cheeses, meats, salmon, herring, breads, all kinds of things. A thick candle was burning on each table. There's always a candle burning at the meal tables in Sweden. It was also very quiet. Everyone talks together in low, restrained voices, which is so unlike other countries. I went to reception and booked another two nights, paying only 2,190 SEK per night.
We went to the two grocery stores, ICA and COOP, one on each side of the hotel, each about a block away. We love going to grocery stores in foreign countries and seeing what they have to offer. These two stores offered a good mix, including reindeer meat, lingonberry and cloudberry jams, plus lots of dry breads/crackers that Patsy is particularly fond of, and Gudbrandsdalen (or “Gjetost”, brunost generically) cheese.
I was no longer in as much pain, only a dull pain that was confined to my lower back.
We looked inside the hardware store, "XL Bygg” which, although small, was really well-stocked with all the different camping gas cylinders and backpacking stoves.
We did an easy 7 km loop hike, "Vaukaleden", along the Vauka streams, a fair bit of which was on wooden boardwalks, and climbed to the summit of Öberget (553 m). Unfortunately, there wasn't much of a view from the summit as it's all wooded.
Around 17:00 that night all the power went out ahead of a really violent thunderstorm that delivered torrential rain.
Moradi, the friendly Afghani immigrant working at the hotel, said he could extend our stay to a full week at an additional cost of only 1,000 SEK per night.
We climbed Renberget, a 628 m peak. Near the summit, there's a cabin with tables, chairs and cooking facilities, available for everyone's use.
On another day we walked to the NW of Arjeplog along an archipelago. There were dams along the way, separating Hornavan, Sweden's deepest lake, and Uddjaure lakes. Sweden generates 80% of its electricity from hydroelectric power.
There were also a few homes dotted along the way, more when we reached the small settlement of Rattik, at which point we turned around because the road ended there.