Slættesmyran

My overwhelming memory of the day is the amount of roadway involved. There was relatively little forest path or farm track to relieve the tedium of either the asphalt or the gris vei.

Somewhere along the way, there was a little rest stop that provided welcome relief to the seemingly never-ending country road. This was provided by Snorre, a semi-retired academic who was reading up on the local ant species when I arrived. When asked about how widespread ants are in Norway, he pointed out one species that has a range almost all the way to Nord Kap. It appears the critical factor is whether they can keep the nest warm enough in winter to sustain themselves on the food they've collected once the snow cover prevents them from gathering food from outside the nest.

There was quite a lot of building work on the uphill side of the road away from the farms. I was a little perplexed by this as this seemed to be the least attractive place to put any new homes. I did ask about this later and was told that only non-productive land could be used for this development. So, no productive farmland was allowed to be subdivided in this way. There were two quite distinct reactions to the traffic being generated by the population increases that were taking place. These were on the opposite ends of the spectrum, as one might expect, with one person feeling that it was ruining the quiet ambience of the neighbourhood, and the other welcoming the population increase as a source of revenue for the local council and other local businesses.

Langklopp was run as a traditional farm up until about 11 years ago when the parents handed over running of the farm to one of the daughters. It is now run as a riding school, and there were plenty of girls and young women actively engaged in that, or perhaps just enjoying being with the horses.

The local river is apparently a quite well-known salmon breeding river and for the number of salmon caught in it, including the one that provided our dinner. It provided a very nice meal.Read more