On a rainy day I was again browsing the internet to find inspiration for a next hike (like what you might are doing right now :)), when I came across a travel story of someone who had hiked the complete Kungsleden trail. Wow, this was definitely something for me! I am always looking for hikes where I can feel like being alone in the world and at the same time close enough to civilization in case something happens. And this hike definitely fits the bill!
The Kungsleden trail (or Kings trail) is in total 440 kilometers long and stretches from Abisko in the north to Hemavan in the south. We didn't have that much time so we opted for the popular short version of 117km from Nikkaluokta to Abisko . In June 2022 we flew from Amsterdam to Kiruna, then took the bus to the start of our hike in Nikkaluokta. The first day we hiked to the basecamp of Kebnekaise which is mostly flat (haha my boyfriend would disagree if he reads this). I had hiked to Kebnekaise already in 2012 so if you have questions about hiking the highest mountain of Sweden, please let me know in a comment below this story. Fortunately we had arrived just before the mosquitos came out and we really enjoyed the trail. At the mountain station of Kebnekaise we bought our last food and then we were really off. The days after we hiked along the path which was really well marked. We found the most amazing places to set up our tent, so nice that wild camping is allowed here!
The biggest highlight was when we had pitched our tent to a fast streaming river. First we saw a couple of reindeer trying to swim over the river super close to our tent, only one succeeded to conquer the strong current, the other one failed and ended up super close to our tent. We were having breakfast the next morning when suddenly a huge herd of reindeer came from over the hills directly towards our tent! It felt like we were in the middle of the great migration in Tanzania! After a couple of days we arrived at Sälka where we heard that the Tjäktja pass was not really accessible because of the snow so we decided to change plans and to make a loop back to the Kebnekaise mountain station. Quite a disappointment for me because I really was looking forward to going over the pass but that is also part of travelling. The hike back via another higher route was beautiful as well though and a coupe of days later we arrived at the station, just before a huge rain storm passed over! I definitely intend to go back again one day and finish this trail as planned...
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