Woke pretty early and as promised it was a fine day, so got the washing line up and draped all the wet things from the evening before. Especially my carry mat, because it’s just on the top of the rack, and the bag is not very waterproof it gets a bit wet. When I blew it up last night it was fairly damp around the edges, and I thought I’d be sleeping on the hard ground. I had the inspired idea of putting it under the ground sheet – problem solved.

I “only” (it doesn’t sound so easy afterwards) had about 90km to do today, to Skagen on the very north tip of Denmark. So took it easy in the morning. There was work going on all over the campsite, with a splash guard being built on the big water slides and other things around the pool, the high season hadn’t started yet. There was a card swipe system on most things, getting into pool, electricity for the cookers etc, I hadn’t been given one (but it was only £10 to stay), and they didn’t seem to work (I had been told the showers were free), so I can imaging this is a bustling place in peak season – certainly the beach and dunes are nice.

Started out on the Route 5, just following the coast – never really seeing the sea, with it a few fields away, or through woodland. It was a beautiful day, with a slight headwind. The 5 goes through a number of little villages, and Frederickshavn is by far the largest town (and port to Norway and Sweden). Had a look around, and it’s a nice little place with lots of people out taking lunch. I was looking for some sort of fast food, but it was all very posh (or too dodgy). I ended up with my usual, nice bread, cheese and tomatos (I’ll only just polished off my last loaf for elevenses).

I

was heading to Skagen, only on the basis that it sounded nice, and the author who wrote Wallander based it (or just lived) in the area. However, it was 15km out of my way (and I’d need to retrace that in the morning), and I started thinking about it being good weather to get washing done – and hopefully dried. The point of eliminating all abortive cycling was Ålbæk, and Google showed a nice site on the beach, with a swimming pond (a natural swimming pool), so the revised plan was set.

It was a really good site, the swimming pond looked good, but for some reason I couldn’t use it (to be fair nobody was using it – but this was personal). I never got to the bottom of whether it was broken, but I suspect there is a difference between a day tourist, and the holiday maker – but it was never clear.

Big news was a washing machine and tumble drier – so everything got washed, which is a big relief. Hand washing is ok, but getting stuff dry day after day is a pain.

Went down to the beach which was really nice, and cooked dinner under a mild mosquito attack.

One other thing, the driving in Denmark had been exceptional, with no close passes or inconsiderate driving towards me. It’s best summed up in this photo, which i saw a number of times – people don’t even park on the cycle lanes. I am impressed.