The Nordic Ark, July 12th 2008. Part Two

We paid the entrance fee and went in. It cost 150 SEK to enter for one adult (ie about 135 NOK) which we thought was very reasonable. (After seeing the park we all agreed that it is in fact extremely reasonable. If it had cost twice as much we wouldn't have considered that expensive at all, with what they've got to show people.) There was a gift shop and a restaurant, but we decided to skip those for the time being. There was another café somewhere inside the park, according to the map, and of course one always leaves the gift shop for last. ;-) We just went off to find the hiking route immediately.

The way the park is set up is that there is a route through it which you follow and which takes you through everything. It's about 3 kilometers long (ie about 2 English miles) and you walk along a wooden walkway part of the way and on hiking paths in other sections of the park. It's really amazing ... they've constructed the walkway and viewing platforms so that they've avoided as much as possible any destruction or alteration of the natural layout of the area. Seeing it we could hardly believe that the park only opened five years ago. They've done a fantastic job of preserving the area.

Before we got to the beginning of the path we passed this house, which is the office of the park's support organization. It was almost too adorable to be real. :-) I mean, look at it:

Aww! :-)

(Photo credit: me :-)