Day 52, 26 Feb 2016

Norwegian Heritage and culture

What an amazing place we stayed at last night!! We were accommodated in the tiny hamlet of Vingelen at Vingelsgaard owned by Ingrid Vingelsgaard. They have been there since 1520 and she is the 13th generation. Now that's what you call tradition! The old wooden farm buildings were fascinating. She provided a lovely local meal of beef followed by cake with cloud berries. At breakfast time we met 2 guys who were training their setters for hunting repe (ptarmigan). Todays route was 21 km along small track to Dalsbygda where we have arranged to pick up a key at the community centre for somewhere to sleep. The track had not been cleared of snow, but the previous week was "Roros Martnan", which is a traditional fair of singing, local traditions and of course drinking. One of the main focuses of the fair is horses and annually people travel by horse and sled to this festival. The track we were going to travel along would have had horses and sleds along it. The nearest equivalent we have is Appleby horse fair. The skiing was fast at the beginning and end , but we had 5km in the middle section of deep snow (but nothing like yesterday's struggle). It snowed a lot today and even more is planned for tomorrow. This section of the journey is travelling through rural Norway with ancient farm buildings. It's staggering how much effort the farmers have to put into snow clearing, before they even start their main job.