The ups and downs of life on the road to Hell and back.

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Saturday It's been quite cold overnight, the thermometer is only reading 7C, so we put the heating on, which means that we get a bit longer in bed whilst things warm up.After breakfast we head back to Roros museum, we start by visiting the exhibits, there are a lot of scale working models of the local copper mine through the different ages. There is also an interesting exhibition of local clothing through different times. Because of the mine, the local people were relatively better off than elsewhere, as the wages paid were good, this was reflected in their outfits. At 11 we joined Marcus, our guide, who is a flamboyant type of chap, he has a waxed moustache and for a reason I can't imagine he was wearing a leather dog collar complete with a red heart shaped tag. He gave the information about the town as we walked around, first in Norwegian then what appeared to be a shorter version in English. He was entertaining to watch and listen too. The tour finished at the church, it was interesting to find inside more paintings of mining dignitaries than religious paintings or crosses. The wealthy people would have sat in private boxes, around the church, which were fitted with curtains, so they could not be seen, if they fell asleep during the 3 hour service. Others sat in the main part of the church, while the poor, who were not allowed to use the main entrance, sat on balconies either side.After the town tour we nipped to the supermarket and then drove to another local mine which you can visit, the tour starts at 3.00pm, just time to enjoy our lunch in the sunshine. People started to arrive for the tour, one chap and his wife were telling us that they used to own a Land Rover, but they found it wouldn't start in the harsh winters, once after getting it started, the chap closed the door for it to warm up and when he came to get back in it was totally frozen up with the engine running, he had to break a rear window to get back in! That's Land Rovers for you! He chatted to us for a while about good places to visit and told us he had lived in the UK for 19 years. Les and I had joked that Marcus would be giving the mine tour, when we went in it appeared that it would be a lady guide, but out of nowhere appeared, yes, you guessed, Marcus, sporting a hard hat complete with mining lamp attached. We were informed that he would be taking the English tour. The copper mine ran for 333 years closing in 1977, the tour was made interesting by Marcus adding funny little quips, slating the Germans on more than one occasion for invading Norway in the 2nd world war and other informative stories. One piece of machinery, made up of large pieces of chain, was made from the anchor chain that had been salvaged from the Turpitz, after it had been sunk in one of Norway's fjords during World War 2. Once back out in the sunshine we soon warmed up and set off to find a place to park. for the night. We soon came across a small track leading to a lakeside, it was perfect with a view across the lake to the snow covered mountains. Domestic services did some washing whilst technical services put up washing lines, the washing will soon dry today in the sun and the pleasant southwesterly breeze. Also we have noticed that the humidity here is very low, generally around 25%.The lake has a wide beach area where Logan enjoyed a game of fetch and a paddle in the water. In the evening we blogged and plotted the next part of our journey. Sunday.This morning, Maintenance is taking the water heater to bits as its still playing up. It means that we can't have hot water in a morning! Which isn't too much of a problem as we can shower when we arrive at our camping spots as the water is also heated from the engine when are travelling. Whilst he is doing that, I have a good clean inside Dream Catcher. Whilst we're busy a couple of other vehicles arrive and the families in them walk off across the beach. Either the water heater repairs were going well or Les was showing great restraint, I didn't hear a single swear word. By lunchtime everything was back in place, BUT it still wouldn't work - time to step back and leave it for now. We need to get some miles in today.Our journey was very picturesque, the road followed the lakeside from where we had camped amongst heather and bilberry bushes and then climbed over the mountains, the views were great, it certainly gives you house envy passing the superb locations of many of the houses here. The road climbed up until we were above the tree line of short silver birch and then back down through pine trees following a wide river. We had hoped to find a camping place at the side of a nearby lake, but there wasn't anywhere to park up, we retraced our steps, we headed up hill to where Doris said there was a picnic site, but when we got there along a dirt track it wasn't suitable. So we retraced our steps a second time. Turning back into the main road there was a parking sign that lead us to a large parking area used by cross country snow mobile tours, we parked up as there won't be any more tours this season .Whilst Les played football with Logan and then plotted the route for tomorrow I cooked tea, as the oven was on I made some cookies, Les does like a biscuit with his coffee in a morning.Monday. It's another Bank Holiday today, we've planned a full day on the road as we need to be in Bodo by Thursday to spend the weekend with a our 'Russian' daughter, Nadia her husband Anton and their daughter Vera, who we haven't met yet. The roads were very quiet and there seemed to be more campers and caravaners on the road, than regular cars. The main road north is the E6 it runs the entire length of the country and has beautiful scenery all the way. Interesting fact-if you turn Norway through 180 degrees from the most southern point, the most northerly point would then reach Rome! The area we are traveling through is only about 70 miles wide and the narrowest part of Norway is only 4 miles wide! Not long into our journey we stopped at a place called Hell, meaning prosperity in Norwegian, there isn't anything much to see here, except to take a photo at the railway station, so you can say ' You've been to Hell and back and it wasn't that bad', in fact it was warm and sunny, we even had our coffee break there. Later in the afternoon we found a place to stop for the night, I finished reading my book, Awful Auntie by David Walliams, thanks Harry for lending it to me, it's a great story. Later we watched some episodes of M.A.S.H., we do love a comedy series.

Sunrise 02.44

Sunset 23.05

Day length 20.21

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Photos

Olavsgruva
How they worked down t'pit.