Ib.10    Section Sorjushytta - Staddajåhkå   31 km

Overnight it had rained heavily with strong winds. Luckily the rain had stopped in the morning. Later in the day the sun shone for a while. The trail started along the southern shore of Lake Bajep Sårjåsjávrre and later Lake Vuolept Sårjåsjávrre. Around 10 am I arrived at the last obstacle short of the border. which was already visible. All I had to do was crossing the runoff from Glacier Sulitjelmaisen. The map showed a bridge across this river further upstream. When I arrived it became clear crossing it was really life threatening. Some of the planks were missing and only one hardly connected hand rail existed. Looking into the water it was clear slipping off the "bridge" into the deep, rocky and fast running river would be fatal. I decided to walk back downriver almost until reaching the lake. Here I noticed a more recent marking. Here in the delta the river is very broad with a number of deeper stretches and a number of islands. Same procedure as every time: putting of the Crocks and rolling up the pant legs as high as possible and up into the water. The water was very cold and often running very fast. It took a long time until I arrived at the other shore; my legs where frozen ice cold. Back in my boots it took a long time until the feet became half ways warm again.

Soon I arrived at the border. A yellow information sign and a covered information stand are there. I continued along the lake. The first hut in Sweden is Sårjåsjaugestugan. Here starts the trail Nordkalottleden. The little hut is normally not staffed. This year there was a host due to corona. He had to stay overnight in a tent. There is not much traffic going on this year. I could warm up inside the hut and had my lunch. Then I continued at first crossing a large snowfield until slowly descending to the next hut STF-Staddajåhkå. Here I staid on my own in a large hut with gas heating. This made staying rather comfortable.

This rock in Lake Bajep Sårjåsjávrre reminded me of a surfaced sub

I had to ford this very wide and deep river thereby slowly turning to the right

Since years it is really life threatening to use this broken bridge

View back from Sweden across the border into Norway

Reindeer at E1

Between meadows E1 crosses again and again rocky stretches