3.4 kmAnsager Municipal Plantation
Short forest trip with a nature playground and uneven terrain, ideal as an extra outing for children.
Kvie Sø north of Ansager is a place where a family outing can stay simple: sandy bottom, shallow water and a bathing jetty by the public bathing beach at the lake’s northern end. There is also a playground by the beach area, so swimwear, a shovel and a short break on land can all be part of the same trip.
The quiet character of Kvie Sø is also what makes it special. The lake is a protected lobelia lake, a nutrient-poor lake type with clear water and special underwater plants. It has no surface inflows, and water exchange is slow. Nature protection is therefore not just decoration to the rules, but part of the experience itself: swimming belongs in the marked bathing area.
There is a path all the way around the lake, and the heart trails make it possible to take a short loop around the water without turning the trip into an all-day hike. By the lake stands the former lake pavilion, which today is Pandekagehuset with a terrace and a view over the water. The contrast is quite nice: a child-friendly bathing beach on one side, and a vulnerable heath lake with rare plants just below the surface on the other.
At Kvie Sø, falconer Frank Skaarup from Suldrup gave a display on 20 October 2018. The bird was a lanner falcon, and local coverage describes how it came rushing by just a few centimetres above the heads of the audience.
It was not just a bird on a glove, but a demonstration of speed, precision, and training. Along the way, the falcon also took a detour before being reunited with the falconer again.
The photo shows children from Copenhagen, probably from Apostelkirken, in the water at Kvie Sø. It is a small but telling motif: already in the 1930s, the lake was not only a local bathing spot.
In 1932, the pavilion north of the lake opened, so bathers could come in and sit with food and drink. The old bathing pleasure today stands side by side with consideration for the shallow, vulnerable lobelia lake.
Kvie Lake has its own water spirit: Nekkus, also called Nicus. In the legend, he is not pure evil, but fickle enough to demand an annual heifer – and to take it himself if the sacrifice was not made.
In another version, he lets heifers or oxen escape from him with his hook in their harness. The farmers place the hook by the church, where Nekkus cannot bear to come. When he gets it back, he strikes it against the wall so that it cracks: “Heifer calves dragged the Hook from Nekkus’ Hand.”
East of Kvie Sø lies a holiday home area with around 230 houses as of 2023. It is not just newer holiday development: the first holiday homes appeared in the 1930s, and the actual subdivision gained momentum in the 1970s.
In the early 2000s, the area was expanded significantly. Therefore, older holiday homes and newer subdivisions lie side by side by the protected, vulnerable lake.
