10-Aug-2003 -- I set out from Boliden on Friday afternoon 8th August in attempt to visit the two remaining confluences on land in Sweden. I visited 68Nx19E on Saturday (not as the first visitor on the place though) and continued to Jukkasjärvi and Vittangi river in order to make an attempt on 68Nx21E.

The Lounattivaara road was 18 km long and very slow to drive, but took me to Vittangi river, 9.5 km from the confluence. I slept a few hours and started the raid towards the confluence by wading Vittangi river just after 09:00. 350 m east of the river, a four wheel motorcycle road is going north 2.8 km, then east about 1 km, then north again (now just as a track trough the forest) to the Sakkalavouma bog. There I took a picture in the direction of Taavinunnanen mountain, with the confluence at 5.7 km distance just beyond a ridge on the south side of the mountain.

The motorcycles have been driven across the bog. I walked, but had difficulties to find a way where the ground was firm enough to carry me. At many places I had to turn, because I was sinking so much that water almost came in to the rubber boots (Wellingtons). It took almost an hour to pass the bog. On the north side, the ground was more firm, but the vegetation was very dense and big tussocks of grass with clay in between made progress slow. It was also difficult to find streaming water to drink. At higher elevation, above 500 m, it was easier to walk. I found a big scratch mark in the ground and some twenty meters from it a heap of fresh excrements. I think a bear was there. I continued towards the confluence above the tree line at 620 m, so I had a chance too see the bear (if it really was one). The terrain was easy to walk. I reached the confluence at 14:25, so now Sweden's last confluence on land was conquered. The confluence is 50 m from a small creek, just below the tree line, in a sparse birch forest sloping south. The elevation is 580 m.

I dressed in the T-shirt I got from my friends as a memory of the completion of the primary confluences in Sweden and took pictures of the spot and myself. At 15:00 I started walking back, now above the tree line for 3 km, the down in the forest of birch, spruces and a few pine trees, and a lot of willow. I crossed the bog on a dryer part 1.5 km east of the motorcycle crossing, walked through forest and wet bushland on the Sakkalavaara north slope until I reached the motorcycle path again. Now my feet were very sore, so the last 5 km were rather slow. I reached Vittangi river and waded it at about 20:30, and drove home, taking a few naps along the road, at Polcirkeln (the Arctic Circle), and at the Pite river bridge. Planet Mars, near its closest position to the earth in 50000 years, was shining bright a few degrees above the horizon. I arrived home at 05:45 on Monday morning and slept 1.5 hours before I went to work. The walked distance to the two confluences exceeded 60 km.