Denmark: a bike tourer’s paradise
We took the ferry from Gothenburg to Frederikshavn in Denmark, and immediately fell in love. Julia was confused for a while, as it felt so… Dutch. Cycling paths everywhere, people don’t dress in flashy sporting gear to get on a bike and most importantly; this country is just as flat!
The EuroVelo 12 (the North Sea route) follows the entire west coast and we happily switched off our brains and navigation app, and just followed the signs (they’re mostly marked with “1”, for the Danish national route). The first two days the weather gods smiled upon us, and we cycled in sunshine through forests and dunes, and along and OVER sandy beaches. Apparently it is normal here for cars to drive on the beach, packing the sand into a solid path, so cycling with heavy touring bikes was not a problem. The route is dotted with small and cute towns, so we didn’t have plan our grocery trips, a relief after the remoteness of Lapland.
The roads are mostly easy to ride, small country roads with hardly any traffic or small gravel roads through the forests. These can get bumpy or muddy after rain, but nothing our bikes and tyres couldn’t handle. A couple of times we had to push our bikes through sand, but that was only some 100 meters. Doable.
Unlike the other Nordic or Scandinavian countries, wild camping is not permitted in Denmark. But, and this is amazing, there are many, many designated spots where you are allowed to pitch your tent! There are even over 1500 shelters across the country, so we had no problem camping for free during our stay here. We didn’t even bother to pitch our tent, as mosquito season is over, we just rolled out our sleeping pads in the shelters. The last weeks in Sweden we often had to pack our tent soaking wet due to rain and/or condensation, so this made our life a little easier.
Most shelters are marked in any OpenStreetMap app (maps.me for us), or you can check the website udinaturen.dk (in Danish, but Chrome easily can translate it for you). Most spots have a composting toilet, fire pits and wood and some of them come with a water tap. What a service! In summer time some of them can get crowded, and there are shelters that can be booked in advance on the website pladsinaturen.dk.
On our third day the weather turned, and we had to stay put for a day, as the rain and wind made it impossible to cycle. So we made ourselves comfortable at the shelter at Lodjberg Lighthouse and waited it out. We met two Danish guys, one of them becoming a dad soon, so celebrating his last weekend of freedom. Both army guys, they came equipped with a massive tent and invited us in for a drink and a warm fire. Kevin even joined them on a nightly amber hunt on the beach. As it was pitch black and raining, Julia opted for her warm sleeping bag.
The next few days we cycled south to the border with Germany, through rain and sunshine. Soaking wet on 2 days, but we guess that’s part of cycling through autumn…
In conclusion, we think that Denmark is the perfect country if you want to try out bike touring and wild camping. Normal camp sites are everywhere, in case you need a shower or laundry, there are supermarkets in every larger village and the riding is perfect. The landscape is varied, something we never thought about the North Sea coast. Highly recommended!
