Arvidsjaur

Look for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities, forget about your worries and your strife…

Our day went exactly as these well-known lyrics say. Yesterday we extended our stay in the remote cottage above a lake near Arvidsjaur by one night, and tomorrow we drive on to Hoting, at four and a half hours the longest leg of this trip so far. In between lies a rest day.

We slept in and were woken by the sunshine. In the morning we planned our onward journey. After a few Airbnb bookings we grabbed our sunglasses and books (in Nicolas’ case his e-reader, of course) and set up the deckchairs outside on the meadow overlooking the lake. So we lay in the sun all afternoon and enjoyed the relaxed day.

We did have to wrap up quite warmly, though. After all, there was still a lot of snow here a few days ago. In between we had lunch and wrote a nice entry in the guest book. When we arrived the day before yesterday, our hosts had put freshly baked cake and cinnamon buns on the dining table for us.

According to SMHI, May 2021 was cool throughout Sweden, most of all in the far north. In the first half of the month, night temperatures in northern Sweden locally fell below minus 15 degrees. At the beginning of May almost all of northern Norrland was still under snow, and after that the snow cover shrank steadily. Even so, the snow is not completely gone: Yesterday, on the way to Reivo nature reserve, we were still driving up steep, snow-covered, muddy roads. In winter, test drivers from the car industry come here. According to Swedish Lapland, the municipalities of Arvidsjaur, Arjeplog and Sorsele then become a meeting point for the world’s car testing industry, and direct flights from Germany land at Arvidsjaur’s airport.

After another spell of sunbathing in the deckchair, we cook dinner: Potato gratin and salad. While the gratin is in the oven, we do a workout. Afterwards, as on the evening before, there is a lovely fire in the fireplace, and we look forward to our well-earned meal overlooking the beautiful, still lake. Around midnight a dramatic, picture-book sunset unfolds before us, which will probably last well into the night. In Arvidsjaur the sun itself set at 10:59 pm. It is at its lowest at 12:40 am, just under three degrees below the horizon, and at 2:22 am it is already rising again. And the best part: The hares come to visit the meadow again, just as on our first evening here.