Day 18 – to Vemdalsskalet

I spent a very pleasant evening with the Dutch couple, Ester and Jonas, last night with a couple of beers and conversation eventually moving away from VanLife to other less serious affairs. The dogs got on well, and thanks to their mosquito technology we sat outside until after 9 pm.

We reconvened over coffee this morning. They are both self-employed, Ester in skin care, and Jones as a photographer, both in Amsterdam. They are trying to wrangle more van time, as they currently return home after four weeks. It’s clearly not easy for self-employed people, I’m their early fifties, so still a distance from retirement. Their van is also a self-build, a Ford Transit, and strikingly green. Jonas had done almost all of the work himself, so for him to turn his attention to my Lagun table was no problem; it actually only needed a screw undoing, and a squirt of WD40.

We parted just before 11 am, and I headed up to the Nipfjället massif, and took on a tremendous circuit that took in the peak of Malun, at 1191 metres asl. Though just over 10 kilometres, it isn’t an arduous hike, as the car park in almost at 900 metres. But once having gained the plateau, making our way between the moose, the path fizzled out and it was boulder hopping for a couple of kilometres, which meant slow going for me, and ankle testing for anyone. There was no one who took this route. The occupants of the many cars had ascended a stair case to a view point at 1000 metres on a saddle on the massif, between its two peaks. The scenery is something quite new for me, well above the tree line from early, and boggy ground giving way to the strewn boulders. It was a really enjoyable few hours.

Roja getting to grips with his first moose.. (above)

Once back at the van, I drove north for a couple of hours up to a ski resort, then followed minor roads to the back of it for a park-up. It is forested, and their are views of the valleys below. It’s a drizzly evening though, and humid, all preceded by a heavy shower as we arrived.