Tuesday 15/2-2011

Early morning, it’s cloudy windy and cold but everything is good. I’ve forgotten that the journey is over soon and that we have a fantastic day ahead. Packing the sleigh, fetching hay, getting water, drying horseblankets, folding furs, trying to find gloves (constantly)… everything has turned into an simple but peaceful everydaylife and what I normally would call reality has faded away like an old memory. A couple of “original”-forbönder who participated 30 years ago have joined us for this last day and we are hoping they will come with us again next year for the whole journey. Its only a bit below -10*C but over frozen lakes and wetlands there’s no shelter from the wind and for the first time during this journey our furcoats are not able to keep us warm. I can hardly see the first horses ahead because of the snow. Our friends from Tydalen are waiting with their sleighteam behind a sheltering hill. They’ve made a fire and are boiling coffee which smells lovely and we are soon warm again. A bit later the sleighteam from Tröndelag shows up and for a while we are more than 40 horses and 120 people gathered out on the Ice outside Röros. Then it’s time to drive the last few kilometers into Röros and the opening ceremony of the market...