Day 96 – to Trelde Næs

Living on the road my friend

Was gonna keep you free and clean

And now you wear your skin like iron

And your breath as hard as kerosene

Appropriate words for day 96, though I will try and get access to a sauna and shower over the weekend. The song was written by Townes Van Zandt, but it’s Willie Nelson’s vocals that make it so special, whether he duets with Dylan, or Merle Haggard. Link below, to the best version I know.

There are 1310 named mountains in Denmark, or prominences as they may be better known, but sufficient that they get a name. Compare that to 35178 in the UK. I was after ticking another couple off this morning, including Trehøje, at 127 metres, the 7th highest in the country. All the heat in Northern Europe at the moment makes for a good deal of mist in the mornings near the coast, and it didn’t clear at all today. It was 22C in Copenhagen yesterday, 19C here, and overnight didn’t get lower than 15C. This time last year I was in the middle of France, travelling back from Provence. I overnighted just off the motorway and had snow and -3C. A week ago I was in Hemsedal and had -10C overnight.

That’s a long way of saying that why there aren’t many photographs today. Still, it was a pleasant outing, and we met a few people, most interesting of which was a Dutch family with their children on half term this week. They had a boy of 9 and a girl of 7, and were teaching them navigation on the hills shrouded in mist, by abandoning them in various situations, then hiding, and hoping the children would find them. Until I met them at least, the kids were successful. The little girl wanted to borrow Roja so she could be sure she would not be lost in the wilderness.

Also I met two ladies on horses who were having a business meeting while they rode. They do it every Friday apparently, then follow it with a boozy lunch.

Driving so far has been an absolute pleasure, disregarding those initial three days coming across Northern Europe. But this afternoon heading south around Aarhus, Denmark’s second city, it was certainly not. It was Friday afternoon of course, which didn’t help, but it’s a reminder that I’m back amongst bigger populations. The scenery is quite featureless also, especially when the mist contributes to that.

But it was only a for couple of hours, and now we are tucked away in a coastal nature park on a peninsula just north of Kolding.