Europe

We packed our camp and went back about 5 kilometres to the village, because we got information, that there were people who deal with shipping parcels between Norway, Sweden and Finland and will be able to help us. Finally, we managed to find the right person. A nice lady from the supermarket, on our behalf, called Russenes post office, explaining the situation, and asking them, as soon as our parcel will arrive, to send if forward to one of the post offices located further in the south of Norway, to which we will be able to get during our walk.

With food supplies we moved on towards Kautokeino. We have long considered the option of trying to get on to the trail that was an old post road at this stretch. However, we managed to call one of the shelters and a lady quickly dispelled our hopes, saying that getting on foot through this stretch is impossible. So we followed the roads. The traffic was heavy, but we got used to it a bit, and the farther from the city, the fewer cars there were. People sounded their horns and greeted us, and from time to time someone stopped by and offered us a ride. We politely rejected, it was a walking expedition after all :)

There is no doubt an advantage to leaving for the walk of the campsite, you can pack in peace and have breakfast somewhere else than in a tent. We had to find new ways of packing our backpacks, as now we had less equipment and more food. The backpacks weighed roughly the same, but this time they were packed with “good” stuff, which will disappear in time.

Expeditions have this thing about starting with minor or major misfortunes. And so it was in our case. After arriving in Honningsvåg we didn’t buy any food supplies, because we decided to do it next morning without rush. Unfortunately it turned out that next day was a national holiday, so everything was closed: shops, tourist information, even buses were not running. Our last chance was petrol station, the only open service, which served us as a point of information, supplies and our eating place. Later it turned out that this “unlucky-day” last until the end of our trip.

And it happened, we left everything behind us, to face ourselves and the challenges of long distance walk. After many months of preparation, the day has come when we got onto the plane with two backpacks to start our adventure.