Denmark

Saturday 20^th August

It may have something to do with that route planning at Dover but this week it came as a surprise to me that I had time to have a holiday in Denmark. I’ve had more time than I thought I would have as the cheapest day to get a ferry across the channel turns out to be a Thursday, so having initially planned to have around 5 days to do the drive, it turned out I had 9. I blitzed through Belgium, Holland and Germany to give myself as long as possible in Denmark.

This is my 4^th trip to Scandinavia and it has made me love it even more. I’ve had no guide books, maps or internet so have really just wandered. There were 2 places I wanted to visit whilst I was here – Thyboron where the Battle of Jutland memorial stones are and another place, which I’m saving for on the way back. I’ve been using my campervan book to find places for overnight stops although they only have location, cost and facilities so you never know quite what you’re going to get until you turn up.

Night 1: I was heading towards a stopping place when I saw signs to a campsite. I fancied a shower so I followed the signs and ended up on a busy site. Busy with lots of caravans, in fact, almost full. But there was no one there – I assume people leave their vans there for the summer and only visit them at weekends or in the main holiday season which is already over in Denmark. So I had 1 night in the slightly spooky ghost-town campsite before quickly moving on.

Night 2: I’d headed up the coast and through what seemed like Danish holiday towns, lots of wooden cabins in amongst the sand dunes. After an afternoon on the beach, the book said there was a beach side car park that was good for free overnight parking. I went there and it was packed with vans but there was space and I parked up with another British van. Proper conversation! It was one of the best places I’ve car-park camped and it had even a toilet block with cold water showers but I didn’t need to wash that badly.

Night 3: I was in no rush so after a walk and a bike ride I didn’t see any reason to drive on somewhere else and spent another night in the car park.

Night 4: A night on a site for a proper shower. I put the coordinates of a site in the book into the sat nav and blindly followed it. It turned out the site was the grounds of an art gallery and sculpture garden with a beautifully decorated bathroom and a chocolate Labrador who decided to adopt me. Somewhere a bit different to spend the night!

Night 5: I got to Hirtshals ready for the ferry the next day and I had a campsite pre-booked but there’s a Danish camping card you have to buy for official campsites so I wasn’t going to buy it for just one night having avoided needing it so far. During the day I followed a road which I thought would lead me to the coast and it did – right onto the beach where you then drive and park at the back of the beach. There were no signs of any restrictions and when there were still plenty of vans there at 9pm I thought I’d stay the night. By 10pm all the vans had left, there must have been a late ferry going somewhere. I got a bit twitchy about staying down there on my own and ended up car-park camping in Hirtshals – not particularly scenic but safe.

Night 6 in Denmark will be spent on the ferry – somewhere in the North sea!