Day 3 - traversing Denmark

Hello,

Welcome to the Day 3 blog of my Arctic Ride Iceland, raising funds and awareness for Tiny Lives Trust and Cerebra. 

Last night wasn’t the best sleep, the ground was hard and I was a little warm in my 4 season sleeping bag, but I got some rest none the less.

This morning was a fairly relaxed one, not rushing to get gone super early as I had only 220ish miles to do. So I popped to the local supermarket to top up my supplies then boiled some water for tea and porridge while I packed the bike away. This was a really efficient use of time considering how long it takes to boil water on my mini stove.

I set off about 10am and headed into Flensburg city centre. As I was close by I wanted to pop to the spot that my wife and I first met, almost 10 years ago to the day, while we were both on deployment with the Royal Navy Reserves. It was nice to be able to fit in a personal moment into the trip and reminiss. 

After this I got back on track and road into Denmark, and then back on the motorway heading North. The roads were fairly quiet and the weather was sunny and hot again. The ‘mercury’ hit 32c at one point when I stopped, wowza! Not what you expect from Denmark. 

I carried on north without incident (again, I’m not complaining, this is what I want for whole trip). I pulled over a few times on the motorway, at their very nice rest areas, for food and a drink. On my last stop just south of Aalborg, i got chatting to two Romanian bikers on 650s who were travelling back to Iceland for work. Vlad and Paul seemed like nice chaps, but I forgot to get a photo with them. 

I arrived in Hirtshals about 4pm where I checked out the port so I knew where to go in the morning, got some fuel, and had a bit of a nose around town. There wasn’t much going on to be honest, like any small port towns, there were travellers like me killing time waiting for ferries and some locals charging marked-up prices for beer and ice cream. 

There are two campsites in Hirtshals and I headed for the cheapest which is 6km out of town. However upon getting there I couldn’t see the reception and something just didn’t feel right after riding a narrow lane and dirt track to get there, so I quickly spun around and headed back for the more central campsite. 

I got there and got checked in only to be led up a big hill to my plot. When I unpacked the bike it was clear there was no WiFi at this plot and the going down the steep hill in the morning with the bike packed didn’t fill me with joy, so I jumped on the bike and took it down the hill empty and found another plot. The owner clearly wasn’t happy by the look he gave me but never said anything so I carried on. 

I got all set up and popped some pasta and avocado on for my dinner, and it was pretty tasty. 

Tomorrow morning I’ll be up early to catch the ship to Iceland. It takes 2 full days to get there and I’m not sure how much WiFi I will get, so this may be my last update for a few days. 

Thanks again to everyone got their support. It means a lot and really helps me keep going.

Days mileage - 247

Total mileage - 1008

Ride safe

Gordon