When I woke this morning, I opened my blind to see if I could see reindeer because I’d read they were often near the Stekenjokk road first thing in the morning. Scanning the hills, I was amazed to see a long trail of them coming along the horizon! And when we looked more closely, there were hundreds of them camouflaged against the grass and rock. Fantastic!
After drinking our tea, we washed and dressed, and headed to the road to see if we could get nearer to them. And we did! John pulled off onto some gravel and we spent half an hour or so watching them. They crossed the road, stopping the traffic as they ambled across before wandering along the hillside, eating as they went. Some larger reindeer with big antlers appeared to be guarding small groups. They seemed to round them up and hurry them along, as well as eating nearer the road, looking up as vehicles stopped to check there was no danger.
Finally, we dragged ourselves away and drove to the top of the Stekenjokk plateau where we stopped for some breakfast, enjoying the view. Then we continued to a Sami church town called Fatmomakke about 45 minutes away.
This was more interesting than we’d expected. Sami church towns were originally established because everyone was expected to attend church several times a year. The nomadic Sami people needed huts or cabins to spend the night in, and the towns were used for their weddings, baptisms and funerals.
Fatmomakke was established in the 1700s and is still used for gatherings today. It’s located on the shore of Kultsjön Lake, near the mountains. There are around 80 Sami huts, most of which are privately owned.
We enjoyed exploring the different types of huts and cabins, and the other timber buildings, such as the prayer room, church and gathering space. It was a beautiful and peaceful place and it’s good to see it being preserved.
Our next stop was Trappstegsforsen, half an hour away. The name literally means ‘stepped rapids’, and the River Kutsjöån tumbles down wide natural stone steps for 100s of metres. Although the overall drop is only about 10 metres, the size of the cascades is astonishing. I spent a while there, attempting some long exposure photography.
After that, we drove for about 4 hours. The journey went well, apart from the occasional caravan or A-traktor (old cars driven by 15-year olds and limited to 30 kph) slowing us down. We were heading to the coast without an end place in mind, but when we reached Bredbyn, John spotted a pretty bell tower that had an aire nearby, so we decided to stop. We now just have a 45 minute drive to reach the east coast of Sweden.
The current Anundsjö Church was built in 1437. It’s a simple late medieval design, and is made of stone with a thick wood panelled roof. The bell tower was built more recently in 1750, and is more striking. It has three wooden tiers with curved shingle roofs to keep the rain off the wood, and it houses two bells.
We’re now parked on the aire, overlooking a pretty lake, and where we have use of a toilet, kitchen and gym in a neighbouring building. It’s been another good day, with lots to see. I’m not sure what we’ll do tomorrow yet, except that we need to do some shopping. Maybe we’ll visit a town… maybe we’ll hike… some research is needed!
Ramblings 
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