Wednesday July 20, Tolga, NORWAY

 

Reindeer, hogging the road!

Another very peaceful night by the river and another leisurely start to the day. We weren’t very far up the road when we saw our first wildlife of this trip…..a family of reindeer. A couple were on the road and the rest of the family were grazing beside the road, not at all worried about the vehicle. Ian had to stop while they ambled off to join the others. Some had neck collars on, wondered where they had come from. And a bit further up the road we came across a few more. A real highlight. Were surprised that they were smaller than we expected.

Found on P4N that the next town of Funäsdalen had a really good motorhome dump, and had to queue up, obviously everyone else reads P4N!! But it was a goodie, Ian said the room where you empty the toilet cassette even had hot water and soap to wash your hands! Emptied the grey tank and filled with fresh water then on into town to get some fresh buns for lunch.  We were expecting a small country village but so surprised to find people and vehicles everywhere. This is a ski town with lots of accommodation and over the summer people come here to mountain bike and hike. Finally managed to find a place to park and after a quick visit to ICA we were back on the road.

Crossed the border into Norway with no fuss, just a sign showing where to go if you had goods to declare. Guess that maybe it is just for truckies.  After a lunch stop we continued onto Røros and once again had a job trying to find parking, the town was really busy. Went round the block and I finally found on my faithful P4N a place by the local school where you could park and actually stay the night if you wanted. And finally we have had a touch of the heatwave, the temperature got up to 24! It was a 10 minute walk into town but what a fascinating place. Røros came into existance in the mid 1600’s when copper was discovered and the copper mine operated until the mid 1900’s. The town Is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the old wooden houses of the 1700’s and 1800’s preserved. These houses form the main street, they are painted in such delightful colours and full of wonderful craft stores and galleries. We continued up to the old church, which takes pride of place overlooking the town. Thoroughly enjoyed a change of pace.

Continued onto another free camping spot from P4N, right on the river, with two other motorhomes for company. It has been very interesting driving into Norway, immediately there are so many differences to Sweden, especially the style of housing and there are not so many of the traditionally painted red buildings. And tonight, we have more rain predicted!!!

Seeing more of these sod roof houses, this one
seems to be a more modern house with
aluminium joinery.

 

This is snow country!

Roros Church, dated 1740

Fabulous gallery

Below tonights camp, an old bridge over the river.