Contrasts in Roros

Woke up this morning with the sun streaming through the curtains which certainly made a pleasant change from yesterday’s weather. Breakfast at the guest house was a traditional Norwegian buffet of cold meats, cheeses and fish; most of which had been produced locally. We certainly ate our full.

We spent an hour after breakfast walking around Røros itself. Unusually, Røros’ colourful wooden houses, some of them 300 years old, have escaped the fires that have devastated so many of Norway’s timber-built towns and as a consequence the town is on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. The grass-roofed timber cottages are stunning; even if the present day cars parked outside somewhat detract from the spectacle. One of the houses is painted fluorescent green and is supposedly the only house in the town allowed to be painted this colour.

The old copper mine, complete with slagheaps, presents a stark contrast but the view from atop the slagheaps over the town were stunning.

We left Røros just before 10 and rejoined Highway 30 heading towards Trondheim. We’re going to bypass Trondheim on the E6 since we will be spending some days there on our return trip. The E6 will take us past a village called ‘Hell’ although this means luck in Norwegian.

The landscape past Trondheim is expected to get increasingly barren. We hope to reach Mosjøen and send the night there.

FLOOD WATCH: The waters in Lake Mjøsa (where we were yesterday) have now risen and are expected to rise several meters. We are currently unsure what effect the flooding has had on the E6 around Trondheim but as I type this it has started raining again!