Teusajaure to Singi, Kungsleden - September 2019

I managed to mostly keep everything dry while I broke camp this morning.

It was a wild old night last night with lots of wind and rain, however for the most part I slept pretty good, only the occasional stronger gust of wind flapping the tent fly really interrupted my slumber. I woke this morning to showers still passing through but thankfully, after eating breakfast and packing up in the tent I was mostly able to get the tent down between the showers. Setting off it looked like the cloud had lifted a little since yesterday afternoon, although things are still looking decidedly grey and miserable.

I only had a little more to climb after leaving camp this morning.

The snow level had dropped down pretty close to my camp last night.

I managed to get a few kilometres in this morning before the rain arrived again.

Having done the steepest bit of the climb away from Teusajaure yesterday afternoon my walk started of pretty easy today. I was now climbing fairly easily to a high saddle before dropping just as easily down into a large valley that I could see the Kaitumjåkka River flowing through. Dropping back down towards the tree line my weather window closed on me again and I was soon pulling on my wet weather gear, oh well I’d managed an hour of reasonably dry walking!

I was now starting to drop into this valley.

Early morning on the Kungsleden.

As I dropped down into the valley it was time to pull on the waterproofs again.

Apart from the rain the walk down into and then along this valley was a pretty nice one. The Birch trees had now well and truly changed colour which enlivened the grey morning a bit and there was also a multitude of little lakes and tarns around to add interest. The Kaitumjåkka River was the main game in town though, the river violently cascading down the valley. After tracking the river on it’s south side for a couple of kilometres I arrived at the inevitable suspension bridge which allowed me another vantage point of the gushing water. Crossing the Kaitumjåkka River I only had another half hour of walking before I arrived at the Kaitumjaure Stuga.

It was time to break out the waterproof camera again...

....so everything got a little soft focus like now!

Conditions were pretty rocky and slippery again now.

Coming from Australia I found the colours amazing on the Kungsleden - even in these somewhat sub-optimal conditions.

It was before 10am when I arrived at the Kaitumjaure Stuga this morning so it was a little early to be able to access shared kitchen area, not to worry though as the wardens invited my to sit in the office and chat to them while I waited for last nights visitors to finish up in the kitchen. After paying a visit to the small shop the last of the paying guest from last night had left so I was able to cook up what turned out to be a bit of a Kungsleden favourite - Swedish Meatballs and Raman Noodles - it sounds pretty ordinary but I just needed to get carbohydrates into me by this stage of the walk. After relaxing for awhile chatting to a couple of south bound Aussies who were having a rest day I reluctantly decided that I’d better head off again, although the good news was that the rain had more or less stopped while I’d been at the stuga.

The substantial Kaitumjåkka River....

...was crossed on an equally substantial suspension bridge.

Kaitumjåkka River

Approaching the Kaitumjaure Stuga the sun made another brief appearance.

Kaitumjaure Stuga

Padje Kaitumjaure Lake from the Kaitumjaure Stuga - time to head in, dry off and have an early lunch:)

After a couple of hours at Kaitumjaure Stuga I managed to head off between the showers.

One last look back to the Kaitumjaure Stuga.

Setting off again I had a rough plan, and that was that I’d walk most of the way towards Singi before finding a camp for the night a kilometre or two before the Singi Stuga. Leaving Kaitumjaure Stuga everything was going pretty good for awhile, I even got some nice views along the length of Padje Kaitumjaure glinting in the weak sunlight. I was now climbing gently up into the Tjäktavagge Valley, a valley that I’d now be climbing up for the best part of the next two days. Initially the Kungsleden sidles the side of the valley before crossing some large, bare rock slabs as it headed towards the suspension bridge that spans the Tjäkjavagge River. Unfortunately for me I didn’t make it to the bridge before once again the weather closed in on me though.

I was now climbing into the Tjäktjavagge Valley, a valley that I'd be gently climbing for the next couple of days.

Kungsleden

Approaching the Tjäktjajåkka River bridge, my day was about to change for the worse again!

Yeah, I'm not sure why I'm smiling either?

Tjäktjavagge River

Tjäktjavagge River

Tjäktjavagge River

Now while I’d had a bit of average weather on the Kungsleden so far, the weather this afternoon got a little more serious. After crossing the river I climbed a little into a wide open section of the valley that had the skeleton of an old kåta still standing on it. Normally on a big grassy plain like this I’d be thinking that it might be a good camping option however this dose of rain had come with a biting strong wind which meant that I was definitely going to need a bit of protection from the wind this afternoon.

In hindsight it was all about atmosphere today.

I was heading up this long valley.

The skeletal remains of an old Kåta.

Once again field of vision on the Kungsleden was reduced to what I could see out of my storm hood on my Gortex rain jacket. Sloshing my way north along the Tjäktavagge Valley I was hoping to see some kind of sheltered spot to call it quits for the day but it never came. I did explore off the track in a couple of likely looking spots but really I didn’t find anywhere that looked like I’d get a comfortable nights sleep. After around three hours of sloshing my way north I looked up and noticed the buildings at Singi on a rise a few hundred metres in front of me. After a quick risk versus reward calculation I came to the conclusion that a good nights sleep was probably more likely in the stuga tonight than in a violently flapping tent, and that’s how I came to spend my first night in a stuga (in the dog hut to be precise!). There were only 4 of us in our 8 bunk cabin (and no dogs) so crowding wasn’t a problem and to be honest it was nice to be able to relax and cook out of the rain. After sitting around eating and chatting for a couple of hours I crawled into my sleeping bag with the sound of the rain splattering on the window beside my bunk.

The wind was howling along this valley this afternoon...and then the rain got serious!

The further I trudged this afternoon the more the weather deteriorated.

Approaching the Singi Stuga this afternoon.

The Dirt.
I walked 20.1 kilometres today and climbed 269 metres on what I’d call a medium-hard grade days walking on the Kungsleden. Over the 17 days of my Kungsleden adventure so far I’ve walked 378.9 kilometres and climbed 9605 metres. In reasonable weather there would be numerous spots to camp today, in dodgy weather things are a little more limited. If you don’t want to camp them you can get a bed in both the Kaitumjaure and Singi Stugas. Kaiumjaure has a small shop, Singi doesn’t. Once again I used the notes and map out of Cicerone’s Trekking the Kungsleden book along with my GPS topos.

Relevant Posts.
Previous Day on the Kungsleden, 2019.
Day 1 on the Kungsleden, 2019.

I enjoyed my first night in a stuga tonight.

My bunk at the Singi Stuga.