Bikepacking Denmark’s west coast to Skagen
If I've learned anything in the past two years, it's that you don't have to go far to experience an adventure. Most of the time you can start right at your own doorstep, with little luggage and without a big budget. Whether it will be an adventure depends much more on your own attitude.
With the ever-changing travel restrictions, I wanted to make my vacation planning as flexible as possible. Having already ridden across the Danish islands to Copenhagen with my friend Nico in May, I knew that Denmark was the perfect country for bikepacking. This is partly due to the very advanced and consistently good bike infrastructure and partly due to the high density of shelters. These are spread throughout the country and are easy to find via an app. If you can set aside a bit of comfort and enjoy sitting with new people around the campfire, the shelters are the perfect alternative to a tent. Since you only have to take a sleeping mat and a sleeping bag, the total weight is also significantly reduced. Nevertheless, I still had a hammock and a tarp with me, which I ultimately used only once.
My goal was to ride the entire Danish west coast to the northernmost point of Denmark, Skagen. The surface was mostly easy-to-ride tarmac, but there were some longer gravel sections and a few single trails in between, which in retrospect have not been that much fun to ride with the gravel bike. I only found out later: My route planned in Komoot corresponded in many sections to the "Vestkystruten" (West Coast Route), a well-marked bike path that also ends in Skagen. Overall, I would only make minor changes to my route if I’d ride it again.
Due to a raywail strike, I actually started the tour at my front door and rode close to the Danish border, from where I then started the initial tour the next day. The first kilometers behind the border flew by. Most of the time I cycled behind the dike and the route is scenically somewhat monotonous. If you want to skip that, I would rather recommend to start the tour in Esbjerg.
Passig the military training area close to Varde, suddenly the landscape became more scenic. Beautiful heath landscape and pine forests, interspersed with gravel paths provided the most beautiful and diverse part of the first stage.
In the evening I found a nice shelter directly at Ringkøbing Fjord just before Hvide Sande with a few nice people there. So after 175 km, I called it a day.
On the second day the wind increased with gusts up to 30 knots. Fortunately, it came directly from behind and pushed me with full force towards the north.
Shortly after Søndervig, my route then led me over a kilometer-long gravel road with very coarse and loose surface which even with the gravel bike and 40 mm tires made it quite challenging. I passed some other bikers with touring bikes who had quite a hard time. The rest of the day I was more or less on straight tarmac roads, took a ferry at Thyborøn and reached the beautiful Thy National Park with its long dunes, dry forests and moorland. In the evening I found an idyllic shelter not far from the beach. Since it was much too windy for the hammock and the tarp my choice fell again on the shelter.
The next day I reached Klitmøller and Hanstholm, which are very famous spots among surfers. For non-surfers, however, these places have not much to offer besides the beautiful beach. So after a delicious Smørebrød breakfast I kept on riding. I decided to do a little detour to Blubjerg, a limestone cliff from which you have a great view over the coastline. The quite high elevation is by the way a nice distraction from the otherwise rather flat Jutland. Also, the small swerve led me into a relatively short, but quite adventurous intermezzo over some single trails and bridle paths which brought my gravel bike to the limit of „comfortable riding". At the end, however, I hat to grit my teeth and get back on my route.
With just under 100 km, the last day felt more like a rest day after the rather longer days before. I met Cat again, a Frenchwoman who was riding her bike from France to Sweden for a charity project. So I cycled with her for a few kilometers and she told me about her goal to raise money for a project that tries to prevent domestic violence against children. Since the country serves as a model for good child protection, her destination was Sweden.
After a few kilometers, however, I have to keep on racing again and reached Skagen in the early afternoon. I was surprised how beautiful the city was, but of course I had to reach my final destination first. It’s a few kilometers outside the city and the last kilometer you have to push your bike through the sandy beach (spoiler alert: it’s not fun). At the end I am nevertheless pleased that I’m with my bike at the northernmost point of Denmark and see where the North Sea and Baltic Sea meet.
On the train ride home the next day it felt quite strange not to pedal anymore, so I already started dreaming about the next bike-packing tour.
