Today we will spend the day in Koppang. Everyone else is up early (guess this is a farm after all), so we are also up fairly early (at least for us). They have cooked up a storm for breakfast. Someone has caught some fresh fish, so that has been fried in a pan and is served with the usual smorgasbord of dishes they always serve in Norway. We eat our fill.
After breakfast, we walk back down to the farm and hang out there for a while. We have a second breakfast, trying out this special thick milk that is made in Røros. It is hard to describe how it is made, but with some cereal or flat bread and sugar or jam, it s very tasty. We will have to get some of it ourselves.
Shortly after 11 AM, we have decided to go for a trip up to the summer grazing grounds that belong with this farm. It is called Mansetra and this is where, in the old days, the cows would be taken in the summer to get fat and produce rich and creamy milk. We will drive most of the way, but we will have to walk the last bit.
The summer farm is up in the hills, and we have to exit off the main road and drive up a private dirt toll road. After a while, we park the cars and begin the walk up to the setra. It is a pleasant uphill walk along the dirt road surrounded by forests on all sides. Soon, we emerge onto a large open pasture that is dotted with small wooden cabins - the pasture was shared by a number of different farms down in the valley.
We make our way to the cabin that belongs to the Norde Bakken farm. It is a simple two room log cabin. We hang out up here for almost two hours. The last time Lars was here was over 20 years ago when a big party was held here. We drove up here in a hay filled trailer pulled by a tractor. It was a fun night, filled with food, drink, singing and dancing. The favorite drink seemed to be the cafe-doktor, coffee spiked with moonshine. Boy, was that powerful stuff.
In the cabin there was a guest book, and Lars found the pages filled with the entries that he, his brothers and his mother made during that visit. It was fun to get a glimpse back into the past. The sun peaked through while we were there, so we hung around outside, drinking the fresh water that we pulled up from the well. It is a great spot.
But soon it was time to head down. We joined Jan, who wanted to walk back down to the cars through the forest with his moose hunting dog. It was a fun walk through the forest - there were no trails for us to follow. The dog often found the scent of animals and would be straining on his leash to go after them. At one point, a bird flew up from the brush in front of us. We found plenty of tracks of moose and other animals.
Back at the car we drove back to the farm for an afternoon snack - ice cream. After our short break, we decided to wash our car. It needed a good cleaning after all the miles we were putting on her. We used bucket after bucket of water to wash the layers of dirt and dust off of her. She looked like new when we were done.
As is the custom in Norway, we went for an early dinner. Jan was kind enough to invite us out for dinner at one of the local diners. It was actually pretty busy and our large group contributed to the atmosphere. We had dishes ranging from Norwegian meatballs to salmon. After dinner we returned to the farm, where we went for a walk to try and work off some of the rich food that we have been eating. There are plenty of trails to wander on around here that go along the river or up into the nearby hills.
The rest of the evening was just spent taking it easy with coffee and snacks. We retired for the night once again up at Sten's place.