Swedish Nature – Hiking the Kungsleden

The Kungsleden trail is a 440km hiking trail that crosses Lapland (a region in the north of Sweden) from north to south. It is often ranked in the top 10 of the most beautiful hikes in the world, and there is a reason for this: It is spectacular! This summer I decided to go there and see for myself… And it was AMAZING!

One of the coolest laws in Sweden is the Allemansrätten, which basically allows you to camp ANYWHERE you want (even in private property) for a night (except within 100m of a house), as well as to pick berries and mushrooms to your discretion! In addition, in Sweden it is legal to do fires wherever you feel like, so you can have a nice camp fire and some barbecue with your friends without asking for permission, as long as you are careful. Of course, I took advantage of this law during the hike:

Basically, during the Kungsleden hike you will go through vast amounts of uninhabited territory, walking through emptiness, waterfalls, valleys, rivers, lakes… Getting lost in your own thoughts and admiring the wonderful arts that nature has crafted. And you will even go past Sweden’s highest mountain, Kebnekaise (2,106m), which you can climb (like I did in the picture below):

During this hike you will also see plenty of reindeers roaming in freedom. The Sami people (the indigenous community living in the north of Sweden and partly Norway/Finland) has traditionally herded these beautiful animals, and once a year in summer they gather them to mark them and mark the new-born. I got really lucky and managed to see a large group from very close:

You don’t have to worry too much about food, since there are some stations along the way where you can replenish your stock, but since these are quite expensive, it might be a clever idea to bring most of the food with you from the start. Also, there are plenty of cabins along the way where you can sleep in case the weather gets bad… But these are also quite expensive (about 300-500SEK per night), so consider bringing your own tent, so that you can camp in awesome places and have a swim after a long day of walking:

You will go through plenty of valleys, mountains and rivers, and you have the choice to take many diverging smaller paths, so that you can go exactly wherever you feel like going. If you are like me and travel without maps, you can just follow the main trail and don’t worry about getting lost. A great thing about hiking through such pure nature is that you can drink the water from rivers directly, without any need to use iodine tablets. And hey, having a great view is just an extra plus:

From time to time you will need to cross lakes or large rivers, and the STF (Swedish tourist association) has placed some rowing boats that you can use for free for crossing those… And I also used them for getting some sun tan 😛

If you like hiking and nature, look no further. Just buy your train tickets using the Swedish Train system to Abisko, and start your hike! You won’t regret it! Oh, and also bring some mosquito-repellent spray! And perhaps the best part…. You’ll have an awesome adventure picture to show to all your friends and family:

PS: I didn’t manage to do the whole hike because of time-constraints, but I’ll finish it one day! 😀

Jesus