Tours › 2010 › Unna Allakas › Summary

Summary

Going into this assignment I did indeed expect a fairly calm time, and especially a slow start, but not quite as slow as it turned out. First five and then nine full days without overnight guests was a downer in some regards, but I did not suffer overly. On the contrary, being able to take things slow at the start without an onslaught of expectant people is not amiss, and when still no one came I had all the time in the world to explore the land. There were a few day visits, though, so I was not completely isolated, even though the feeling of solitude was strong. Good thing I don't mind such – and certainly not in a place as Unna Allakas, where one like in Kutjaure can just sit and look at the view for pretty much hours on end.

So, beautiful location and all that, but I was a bit, well, worried right there at the start, arriving to a complete lack of leaves despite midsummer's being just a couple of days off. The summer was late in coming this year, and I did wonder how long I would have to wait before it reached the border regions. Not long, as it turned out; almost immediately buds started to appear, and within a fortnight summer was in full bloom. Flowers sprouted one species after another, and though they were of lower varieties than the high, jungle-like things in Tarradalen and similar places I found them satisfying. I had about a week or so with very nice conditions without mosquitos, but then the latter appeared in force. I am not overly sensitive to the little bastards, but it was really bad at times.

On the whole the weather was rather shifting, never quite stabilizing. In the fjelds the Swedish-Norwegian border is largely just an abstract construct (as it should be!), but quite often I could sit in (or outside) my cottage and watch the clouds and the showers do their thing "over there", mostly keeping to the other side of the imaginary line. But, often enough they pushed right on, disregarding the unobtrusive yellow-painted marker entirely, bringing somewhat large amounts of wetness. This would always follow the same pattern: first there would be a haze forming at peak 1727, spreading to Nuorjjovárri proper, touching by Storsteinsfjell and then come rolling over Rádječohkat – invariably the same each time. It did rain quite a bit, and I heard from Jesper that according to the Abisko Scientific Research Station it had not rained this much since the 1960s or 70s (don't remember which), so the collective feeling of everyone out in the field (including me) was justified.

As for the longer day tours, I did pretty much all that I had a mind to do, even though the last one was somewhat close – I was a bit anxious not to get the chances I needed what with all the rain, but it all worked out in the end. I visited some interesting sites and looked upon some truly spectacular sights, and I will gladly confess that that wide view from Čoalmmeoaivi over Alisjávri and all the peaks from Abiskoalperna almost to Giebmegáisi itself ranks at the very top of my experiences to date. Turning to the walk home it did not quite transpire as hoped, but it was not really bad as such, and I was happy to see the clouds lift at Hunddalshytta and get those glimpses down the precipices at Katterat. Besides, I had gotten a very grand view of the area around Storsteinsfjell from up high earlier.

There were four people (or groups of people) who had announced their intention/wish to come visit me, but of these only one succeeded in doing so; two of the others were thwarted by weather/terrain conditions, and the third was unsure to begin with. Well, they missed that splendid shower, they did! It has come to be a bit of a hallmark of Unna Allakas, and deservedly so.

Since my sojourn would be as early as it was, and as far north as it was, the midnight sun would be in session for a couple of weeks at the start. Now, the northern rises blocked any direct view of it from the cottage site, but as presented there were quite a few late evenings/nights where I could enjoy its warm light playing over the Norwegian peaks. Also, the light itself was a joy to have; up there the night is as bright as day in the height of summer, and even at the end it was nowhere near dark, or even dim. It was therefore a sharp contrast when I returned home in early August, a considerable distance further south, and found true night again. With that my thoughts turned to the season at hand, and the possibility of an autumn tour later on...

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