Well it was a bit of an epic at times but here goes…
First thing was fuel, the DK boonies are not known for petrol stations on Sundays so armed with the wifes card I hit the local automatic stations, 4 goes later I managed to fill it up with Q8 95 RON Dynamic at DKK 8.40/litre (just under a quid/litre)
Temperature was around zero at this stage and despite the roads looking good the back end would happily spin up in the top 3 gears so I opted for the cautions approach heading down to the ferry. Our local ferry goes every 10 minutes, apart from Sundays so I occupied myself by listening to some music.
The ice on the deck as you ride on and ride off was interesting.
Now the bad news is I had no maps or GPS to work with but the good news was I had spent a while on google maps looking at the satellite pictures and we had come out to my intended play area by car a couple of days before so I knew where I was going.
25 minutes got me to the dunes with some lovely little tracks like this to get me warmed up for the main event which was to be some forest tracks and the beach.
The path down to the beach was quite steep and dropped for maybe 20 meters, my wife had already warned me that it would be awkward getting back up but what do women know? So I went for it and turned right along the Vesterhauvet, this is my all time favorite bit of water and so despite the fact that the beach is littered with storm debris and had been used by a serious 4x4 recently I made good albeit hard progress eventually getting to ‘Camp Ovenpaa’
It is fair to say I was getting tired of the incredibly soft going by now so I headed back to the ramp and the start of an epic.
The sand was so wet and soft that getting a decent speed up to get up the ramp was all but impossible so I decided to dig holes for a while and then park up for a cup of tea.
The picture really does not do the slope justice it was bloody steep.
Bugger, time for another cup of tea and a think (Oh and strip some gear off as I was getting warm now) 25 minutes later it really was buried and at long last it truly dawned on me I was not going home that way. One of the issues of riding on your own on a deserted beach in a foreign country in December is if you do mess up you are the only one that can un-mess the mess, (IYKWIM)
Cue a lot of digging and hauling and cursing.
Some time later, back on the flat I had to make a decision based on what I could remember of the satellite images, North or South. I chose South and headed out for couple of klicks before spotting the sea in the distance right up against the sand dunes so that way was out.
I had no option but to retrace my route, past the original entrance, past ‘Camp Ovenpaa’ and keep going and hope I could find a way up to the top again.
I do envy people who have the presence of mind to stop and take picture of interesting things. I mostly did my utmost to keep the thing upright and moving smoothly, this mostly involved high speeds and one involuntary launch off the top of a German bunker that was all but buried (target fixation I guess) I do like that feeling in your stomach as you leave big jumps and just for a second wonder what now.
By now I had ridden for about 10 klicks up the beach surrounded by nothingness, not a person, not a thing (Did I mention at this point I had no mobile reception so a ‘Get me out of here’ call was not an option)Just me and the bike but things were going well and as long as I did not run out of fuel…
Bugger again I thought as I slid down the beach with a G450X on top of me, not sure how that happened but it was still running and looked remarkably good so off I went again and a short while later rounded a corner and spotted a ramp off the beach and I was making good speed so I would have the run up I needed.
Road at last but I was determined to round the day off yet so I found a nice forest track that led in a loop for maybe 10klicks via some nice little lakes back to the road
It looks surprisingly clean considering what it had been through with just some sand on the hand guards and wheels to show I had been anywhere other than down to Tescos .
One last cup of tea and some music (Next in the playlist was Elbow, One day like this which rather amused me)
Of course the bloody ferry had left so I had a bit of a wait. That is the island of Mors and home in the distance
The map shows the area
So there you go, sadly the good pictures were never taken as I was invariably preoccupied with something at the time.
The bike has had a rinse down and is now asleep in the utility room and I have a choice of Red wine or Akvavit for the evening.
No pics but a lot of fun and nice to get back in the 'groove' again.
