Farmer's wife Liv Elin Olsen cannot understand why more people do not take the Golden Detour, a little-travelled route through Norway that only takes 12 minutes longer than the main thoroughfare and offers panoramic views and much besides.

Most people speed through on the European Road 6 but what is 12 minutes, “... in a week, a year or a lifetime?” she says.

Love brought her from Balsfjord in northern Norway to Inderoy, north of Trondheim. She and her husband Arve met at agricultural college and moved to the farm in.

She now runs a farm shop selling food and handicrafts. They then built a bakery beside the grocery shop, plus a cosy cafe. Nowadays, locals pop over for a coffee and chat after doing their shopping.

The countryside is tranquil with fields of wheat interspersed with patches of forest and pastures. Winding country roads take travellers to inland lakes like Granavatnet, where dark spruce trees are reflected in the crystal-clear water.

Ideally situated on the main road through these parts, this quiet little peninsula, 20km in length, stretches from Oslo in southern Norway to Kirkenes in the north-east – some 3,000km.

The Oyna Kulturlandskaps-hotel that seems to peek out of the hillside was built by a couple in 2020.

Tourists travelling by car or motorhome to the world’s most northerly point, the North Cape, have to travel on the European Road E6. That prompted authorities in the Town Hall of Straumen, the peninsular capital, to think about ways of luring visitors off the motorway to Inderoy.

A catchy name helped initially, and they hit on the first ideas for the Golden Road in 1997, says Olsen. They set up working groups and workshops gave rise to the idea of farm shops where tourists could buy bread, sausage and cheese and other travel supplies.

Not surprisingly, the name Golden Road – “Gyldne Omvei” in Norwegian – suggests dazzling treasure troves. But the name actually refers to the grain fields that glow golden in late summer. Now, the route along country road 761 from the E6 to Inderoy is called the Golden Detour.

Cheese dairies, a sewing factory with traditional North Trondelager costumes, the 12th century Sakshaug Church and an ice cream factory dot the scenic trail as well as Olsen’s farm. Travellers can buy her speciality, caraway bread, and taste Aquavit that has been distilled in Scandinavia for centuries. 

Aasen has a cheese dairy in Gangstad that also sells novel ice cream.

Ice cream and cheese

If you are coming from the north and exit the E6 at Vist, a stately farm comes into view in Gangstad a few kilometres down road 761.

Founded by Astrid Aase, it was the first cheese dairy set up on a farm in Norway. “Today, there are over 150.”

Blue and white cheeses are available as are cheeses with garlic, cumin and herbs from Inderoy’s gardens, she says.

The dairy also produces 10 ice cream flavours including vanilla, chocolate and moose ice cream complete with spruce needle tips. Gangstad ice cream is sold in delicatessens all over Norway. And the treats are even served as a dessert on the Hurtigruten postal boats that deliver post along the entire length of Norway’s coast.

Brothers Per and Steinar Morten are a farmer and a brewer respectively. Per looks after the dairy cows while Steinar chose beer in the 1990s. “I spent two years experimenting with a barley juice similar to Kolsch. We didn’t call it Kolsch, but Kvamsholmer after a tiny fjord island,” he said.

In 2007, their Inderoy Gardsbryggeri had all the official permits and the farmer-brewers took off. Today, Steinar brews 28 beers – from light beer with 3.7% alcohol to stout. Drinkers can only buy the latter in state-owned Vinmonopolet shops because of its 10.2% alcohol content.

Sips of water

The same applies to Aquavit or the “water of life”. Svein Berfjord and his son Vebjorn distil the strong stuff on their farm.

“We wondered what to do with the caraway seeds growing in our fields and thought about sauerkraut or Aquavit. We opted for Aquavit and Svein became an akevittbonde or an aquavit farmer,” Vebjorn said.

Their own brew, Aquavit No. 1, has no less than 42% alcohol. Aged for nine months in sherry casks and spiced with a hint of aniseed and caraway, Svein and his family numbered all 5,000 bottles by hand in just a few months of the first year, 1996.

That feat is a thing of the past now Inderoy Brenneri churns out 30,000 bottles a year. Aquavit comes in 22 different varieties with herbs, dandelion or young pine needles, rowan berries, raspberries or meadowsweet.

When asked about their best-seller, Svein points to the 38% Gyldne Aquavit or golden aquavit. “We named it that because all the added herbs grow to the left and right of the Golden Diversion.”

Norway’s tough alcohol laws ban sales of Aquavit in the farm shop. Fans must head to the Vinmonopolet shops – the only places allowed to sell this particularly strong stuff. However, the farm shop does sell Aquavit-flavoured jam.

Weekly tastings by candlelight are held in the distillery’s barrel warehouse as small tasting sips of the variants are allowed.

Doll house with a view

Dairy farmer Per Magnus is about to milk the cows in the barn. Then, he and his wife, Lisa, make breakfast for guests at Gardshotell Husfrua near Straumen.

This wooden house, which resembles a doll’s house, dates from 1866, along with most of the furniture and the furnishings in the living rooms and bedrooms.

“If you’re looking for something special, this is the place to be,” says Magnus. Spend a few days exploring Inderoy and cycle along the country roads where cars are rare. Go for a hike along the almost 20km Kultursti coastal trail.

Asked about his thoughts when a larger hotel, Oyna Kulturlandskapshotell, was built less than 500m from his farm, Magnus says diplomatically, “It’s not a rival – we complement each other. People on the Golden Detour know each and share any tips and information.” 

Kristine Daling Sakshaug and her husband Frode have invested millions in the hotel. A large wooden, green-roofed complex, it boasts 16 double rooms and seems to peep out of a hill. Guests can enjoy the views of the Trondheim Fjord and spellbinding silence here off the beaten track. – Bernd F. Meier/dpa