How time flies! The month of July passed by as fast as the last snow was melting under the scorching heat of the midnight sun and I had so many things to do that I hardly found time to climb a mountain. We tried to walk up on Ravntinden, the second-highest mountain in the municipality of Sør-Varanger in the county of Finnmark in Norway. But suddenly heavy clouds were covering the mountain and baffling our attempt to reach the peak.
Now it is beginning of August and it is time to escape from the rat race and to load up the batteries in nature. All things are packed and we start driving a long way from Kirkenes to the starting point of our hiking trip which starts at a parking place that is situated approximately three kilometres from the Levajok Fjellstue (a “fjellstue” is a kind of a simple hotel in the mountains).
I’m a slow traveller and need my time. I am also that kind of person that prefers to check-in at the airport one hour too early and rather enjoys a cup of coffee while waiting for departure instead of getting under time-pressure and stressed. Therefore, we also start this hiking trip with a cup of coffee. And while the multi-fuel burner is fizzling furiously and the aromatic smell of freshly brewed coffee filling the air, we have enough time to really arrive at this place, to repack some things and to take care of our dogs Taiga and Koss.
Finding the way up to the mountain was never so easy as this time because there is only one way going from the parking place to the top of the mountain. In addition, the way is wide and marked quite well. Probably this is also the reason why the old signpost hasn’t been replaced yet. Hidden and forgotten it is laying on the ground under a birch tree. Finally, we get going! But, although it is a warm summer day, heavy rain clouds cover the sky and rain is softly pouring down on us. In addition, we are not the only ones starting on this hike. It is week-end and a whole bunch of black mosquitoes eager to attack us are starting at the same time. What makes it worse is that they keep the same speed like we do. No chance to escape them!
On the first kilometres, the way is going parallel to the orographic left side of the riverbank of the river Levajohk and later the river Dárjohka before the way continues on the other side of the river.
Slowly but steadily it is going uphill, the way becomes more and more stony, it stops raining and the wind begins to blow. On one side, the wind is chasing away the mosquitoes, but on the other side, I have to build a proper wind protection for the burner during our break in order to make some tea.
After the break, we continue going uphill. But after having covered a difference in altitude of almost eight hundred meters, we are both hungry and tired. We pitch the tent and neither Taiga or Koss have any problems falling asleep immediately. They don’t care about the noisy wind blowing around the tent. But I toss and turn around in my sleeping bag quite a long time before I can fall asleep. And as soon as I was falling asleep, Taiga wakes me up again because she has to go for a pee. But it was worth crawling out of the sleeping bag because there is a magical atmosphere outside that is hard to describe and even more difficult to capture on a picture.
Finally, the wind stops early in the morning and I can sleep. But when I wake up some hours later, the peak of the mountain is covered in a thick layer of white clouds. It is still calm and it seems like as if the bunch of mosquitoes caught up with us and wants to compensate for the time being away from us. This morning, they are even more eager to attack us. While eating our breakfast, we hope that both the mosquitoes and the clouds are going away. But we are badly disappointed. Neither of them will go away. Since it is no option for us continuing in heavy mist without seeing anything even on a wide path that is marked so well, we have to decide to head back with a heavy heart.
The further we come down from the mountain, the warmer it gets and when the temperature rises above 20°C, it is definitely uncomfortably warm, at least from our perspective. A refreshing swim in one of the cold mountain lakes on our way down is cooling us down. Afterwards, I let my body dry in the sun and I watch the clouds passing by. Oddly enough, the mosquitoes are gone. Probably they have found a new victim.
Tired but happy we reach the parking place in the late afternoon. And, although we couldn’t reach the peak this time either, it doesn’t matter so much. Being outside and having a good time is more important for us than enjoying just a short moment of happiness.