Sunday 10/9
Ammarnäs
The day I left home it had rained during the night, and the morning was overcast and grey. Not many people were on the bus – a clear contrast to the last tour when it was brimming, probably due to Storsjöyran's just having ended then. The farther north I got the better the weather became, and upon reaching Vilhelmina the sun came out. From there there were varying amounts of cloud, but it was obvious that the bulk of the banks were in the south. In Storuman, where the bus makes a longer pause, I went to the nearby supermarket to buy dinner – just after embarking in Östersund I had realized that I had forgotten the food package I had procured earlier in the freezer... I disembarked next in Sorsele to switch to another bus, and while waiting for it to arrive I took a stroll; there was an appreciable wind blowing and the sun paid intermittent visits. Just as I stepped onto the new bus, in which I was alone save for the driver, it started to rain, but we hadn't been on the road for long before the clouds broke apart and the sun came out in full.
A park in Sorsele, beside...
...Vindelälven, bordered by...
...tinted trees
When I arrived in Ammarnäs it was clear, with some clouds off to the south – which were retreating – but the wind remained. My reservation at Ammarnäsgården was for a room in their hostel, but that is housed in a separate building, and since I was the only such guest so far the hosts – environmentally minded as they were – saw fit not to heat the entire hostel just for me, so they placed me in the older section of the actual hotel instead. Having installed myself, I went for a walk around the village.
I followed the main street, which took me to the most well-known feature of Ammarnäs: Potatisbacken (Potato Hill). As the name implies it is a pronounced hill on which the villagers grow potatoes; the cultivated side of the rise faces due south, giving a lot of warmth, and the moraine in its makeup has the ability to store this warmth long after summer has faded. The hill was first tilled in the middle of the 19th century by the first settler of Ammarnäs (Nils Johansson), and it remains in full use to this day, now being famous throughout the country. There is a path leading up the back of the hill, on the top of which there is a barbecue site – and a fabulous observation point, of course. I made the ascent and stood looking out over the village and its not-so-immediate surroundings for a while, enjoying the splendid weather. A view worthy of note is the eastward one, where the "beach meadows" of the delta land in Gautsträsk with their defining hay barns draw the eye.
Hembygdsgården in Ammarnäs
A number of different views...
...of the famous...
...Potatisbacken (Potato Hill)
View from Potatisbacken: north...
...east...
...southeast...
...south...
...west...
...and northwest
Next stop was the old church from 1912 and its adjacent church village, and then I proceeded to the workshop of the Sámi twins Margareta Grahn and Berit Nilsson, the works of whom can be seen in many countries around the world – in the EU parliament in Strasbourg and the UN building in New York there are permanent exhibitions. I found Berit inside, and she showed me the designs that were on display, speaking about what the incorporated signs mean in Sámi culture and tradition; many I had seen before, but some were new to me. After conversing for some time about the place for and status of handicraft in the world of today, I let her return to her bracelet-in-progress and went to locate the place where Kungsleden leads off to the north, completing my circuit of the village and coming back to Ammarnäsgården from the other direction.
The church of the village
The village of the church...
...which includes a Sámi hut...
...but is mostly made up of small cabins
Back inside I had dinner, noting that one other guest had arrived while I was out, with another two downstairs. I had a calm and quiet evening, which was as fair as the afternoon had been, and the wind had decreased too. Later on there were a few clouds in transit overhead and a moon which was almost full shone peacefully, and it was windless; I could make out a very dark bank in the western sky, however. I had the first evening snack of the trip and then retired to my room. As I was going to bed the front had reached the village, and even though the west remained dark it was merely "cloudy" above. Feeling a bit tired from a day of travel and anticipation, I lay down at 21:30 and promptly fell asleep.
