Sorry to hear that Phil. As for joining us midway, I'd recommend you leave us midway rather than join us. That way you get some of both parts of the trip.
Thank you very much for your offer of training :You_Rock_
As for where to leave, Nedre Soppero is near ish the beginning of the river, and has good connections with the world (could get a bus or train to Kiruna perhaps?).
Thanks all for the info on fishing. I'm about to buy that book you suggest falling rain, so I'll have a look
I think spinning is better than fly fishing as there are many other species in the river too, and we just want all the food we can get, rather than being picky!
Gill nets did occur to me, and IMO they seem a good foolproof way of getting a large catch, which will be important. I'll see if I can find out whether they are legal.
I'll try to learn fly fishing too :roll:
Eel nets sound good to me, question is whether there are any eels there :?:
As regards towns, large towns along the way are Kilpisjärvi, Nedre Soppero, Antis, Pajala, Pello, Övertorneå & Ylitornio, then Tornio. There will naturally be other smaller ones but my map doesn't show them, and we can't necessarily rely on them for supplies.
multimap.com will show you a map of them
Speaking of maps, there is complete 1:100,000 coverage of the area, and in places larger scale. When I get some money together I'll buy them... in other words never