Bison and in one of the most beautiful ski resorts in Norway

Date:


05.12.2020


Day: 125



Country:


Norway


Location:


Oppdal Ski Center


Daily kilometers:


211 km


Total kilometers:


9400

Soil condition:

Asphalt


Bridge crossings:


37


Tunnel passages:


13


Sunrise:


09:27 am


Sunset:


2:55 pm


Temperature day max:


+ 4°


Temperature min:


– 9°


Wind


40 km/h


Time of departure:


11:30 a.m.


Arrival time:


5:00 pm

(Photos of the diary entry can be found at the end of the text).

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“Hey! Hee! Ha, ha, ha! Heee!” “What’s going on?” asks Tanja, waking up. “I don’t know. The commotion is definitely right outside our Terra,” I reply, sliding out of bed and peeking out through the window. “They are young people who have obviously met here in the parking lot for a private coronavirus party,” I say. Some men are visibly drunk and bawling their heads off, while girls scream and laugh hysterically and shrilly. Loud music booms out of the trunk of a car and the bass makes the Terra’s windows literally shake. “Wow, wow, wow! Wow!” barks Ajaci excitedly. “Be quiet. We don’t want to attract unnecessary attention,” I say, whereupon our well-behaved dog immediately falls silent. “Are they bad boys?” asks Tanja worriedly. “I don’t think so. They are young people who want to dance the night away again. All the clubs and discos are probably closed in Norway too,” I suspect. We crawl back into bed and lie there wide awake until 3:00 in the morning. Then the first engines roar, tires squeal, horns blare and suddenly there is a pleasant silence again. “Phew, finally,” I say and fall into a deep sleep.

At 11:30 a.m. we leave the Atlantic Road and head inland. As soon as the coast is behind us, the temperatures drop to minus 9 degrees. Our goal today is to see wild bison in the mountain landscape of Trollheimen. Lisa and Patrick gave us the tip that there is a wild herd roaming around. As the 1600 m high mountain range towers up between the Atlantic Road and the European route E6 and we are forced to cross it, we don’t have to take another detour to be able to photograph the wild cattle in the wild. The road is now covered with a thick layer of snow again. We are only making slow progress. A mountain river rushes through the valley, which is said to be full of salmon. According to anglers, the rivers in this region are among the best salmon rivers in Norway.

The first signs advise you to put on snow chains. Will we have problems with winter after all? The narrow mountain road winds its way through a breathtaking landscape that the locals refer to as the land of trolls. According to the latest findings, this region was the first to be free of ice after the last ice age and was therefore settled by humans very early on. Perhaps one of the reasons why the trolls feel at home here. “Do you see bison anywhere?” I ask Tanja as we have heard that they sometimes come right up to the road. “Nothing to see,” she replies. “Maybe we should leave the road and take one of the side paths?” I ponder. “Not a good idea. There’s far too much snow everywhere,” Tanja points out. “And please don’t say that’s not a problem for Terra,” I hear before I can formulate my thoughts out loud. “No, I can’t read minds, but after knowing you well, I know what you just wanted to say,” she continues. “Okay, okay, we’ll stay on the road,” I give in, knowing that it would be bad to get stuck here. A signpost shows us the way to an information center. “The national park no longer exists,” explains an employee in the small supermarket next door. “But there must be bison running around here somewhere,” Tanja contradicts. “Bison? Not that I know of,” replies the young woman. Disappointed, we drive on. “We’re probably on a different route to the one Lisa and Patrick indicated,” I suspect as dusk slowly begins to fall. “It’s hard to find a place to spend the night here,” says Tanja, because once again there are no parking spaces on the roadside due to all the snow. Once again, the snow clearing machines have blocked the access to some parking lots with snow as they use their blades to throw the snow masses to the side, making the driveway completely impossible.

After a five-hour drive, we reach the popular ski resort of Oppdal with its 50 kilometers of slopes, almost 20 lifts and more than 100 kilometers of cross-country ski trails. “Let’s remove the thick salt crust from the Terra,” I suggest as I discover one of the car washes in the village where Norwegians wash their cars with high-pressure cleaners. As almost everything in Norway is paid for by credit card, there is also a credit card machine for the car wash, which unfortunately refuses our card. “No problem,” says the owner’s daughter and unlocks the system. “But how can we pay them?” asks Tanja. “You’re invited. You have to remove the aggressive salt from such a beautiful car,” she replies with a laugh.

It has been pitch dark for a long time when we find a secluded spot for the night at a ski lift. On the floodlit ski slope next to us, several caterpillars are grooming the piste. Snow cannons thunder the white splendor onto the slope as it has obviously not snowed enough on this mountain. “If we had skis with us, we could go skiing tomorrow,” I say. “You can certainly borrow them here, but if we want to be home for Christmas, we should keep driving,” Tanja replies…