Typically, because we’d decided against hiking this morning and chosen to move on, we awoke to a blue sky and sunshine! It cheered us up anyway. I washed my hair and tidied away the washing, while John topped up the water and emptied the loo.
Our first destination was Hällingsåfallet, a waterfall with a 42 metre drop into a gorge, about 3 hours away. The journey seemed quite slow, firstly because we ended up behind slow caravans or lorries, and later because of the poor condition of the road.
After a break for a snack and coffee in Namskogen, we headed further inland, crossing the border from Norway into Sweden, through pine forests and past numerous lakes. The Garmin sat nav wanted to take us a longer route than Google maps and we soon discovered why… we ended up on rough gravel roads!
The first one was 26 kilometres long and John was relieved to hit tarmac again. Not for long! The 21 kilometre road to the waterfall was also a dirt track… and we head to do that twice because it was an out and back! Molly is now filthy!
We’re not 100% convinced the waterfall was worth the effort either, partly because the bottom car park was full so we didn’t do the full walk, and also because the main viewing platform was closed. We could see cracks in the rock below it, so the closure was justified, but I was disappointed not to get the photo I wanted, with the waterfall shooting from the side of the canyon and visible all the way to the bottom, falling into the river flowing through the canyon and disappearing into the distance.
Nevertheless, it was good to stretch our legs and feel the sunshine, and we could see the impressive waterfall from other viewpoints. I loved the vivid rainbows that formed in the spray as we crossed the bridge above the falls, and the scenery was beautiful.
Having returned along the gravel road, we headed up to Stekenjokk plateau to do part of the Swedish Wilderness Road. It took about 2 hours to get there but was on good tarmac roads, and we’ve found a lovely spot to stay overnight. The plateau is about 800 metres high, so Molly’s done a lot of climbing today, as well as being bounced along bumpy, dirty roads!
We’re well away from the main road so it’s very peaceful, miles away from any settlements, and we have a lovely view of mountains and a river with a long series of waterfalls tumbling over flat rocks.
We had plenty of time to spare for a walk before dinner. John took his fishing rod, I took my camera and we spent a very enjoyable hour exploring the river. It was quite windy on the high plateau when we arrived, so we’d wrapped up warm. However, we ended up removing our layers in the sunshine.
Back at Molly we had dinner then climbed into our beds, reading our books and watching the sun go down over the stunning wilderness landscape. The area is supposedly home to thousands of reindeer. I hope we see them tomorrow.
Ramblings 
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