A week earlier than departure all the things is prepared: the polished bicycle laden with 4 rigorously packed panniers, the ferry and prepare journeys all booked, the lodging and campsites reserved. Biking to Iceland is a fancy enterprise: ferry to Amsterdam from Newcastle, trains to Aarhus, cycle up by way of Jutland to the port of Hirtshals, near the northern tip of Denmark, ferries onward to the Faroe Islands, which I'll discover by bicycle earlier than embarking for extra biking across the east of Iceland. Three weeks in complete and no flights concerned. One small sacrifice for the local weather emergency, but additionally an opportunity to alert everybody to the great adventures that may be had with out flying.
However 4 days earlier than departure, I discover myself in hospital looking at a really sick one that can't be left. Weeks of planning and preparation are in jeopardy. Departure day passes, however then the miracle of intravenous antibiotics occurs and I realise I can nonetheless journey, catching up with my very own itinerary if I make just a few modifications.
I have to abandon the thought of taking my very own bike, utilizing rented machines as a substitute; I have to additionally go away instantly, and – gulp – take one quick flight. I hurriedly stuff just a few issues inside two of the panniers and fly hand-luggage-only to Denmark. From the airport, I take trains and buses to the Jutland city of Thisted, the place I hire a Dutch-style city bike with pedal brake. I load the panniers and my handlebar bag, then set off into the rolling empty countryside in direction of the coast, and a few darkish clouds.
It feels good to be beneath manner. Planning a no-fly worldwide journey by bike is much more troublesome than it should be. Ferry routes have been slashed lately – the journey could be far easier if any ferry between the UK and Scandinavia nonetheless existed. Not solely that however taking bikes on worldwide trains could be frustratingly difficult (regional providers are far simpler). Our transport techniques are hopeless in terms of doing proper by the planet.
As I lastly method the Jutland coast, I run headlong right into a vicious north-westerly gale that brings icy salvoes of rain straight off the North Sea. Any optimism is rapidly washed out of me. I attain Hanstholm campsite (two-bed cabin from £63 an evening) in twilight, soaked, shivering and hating bicycles. All of the tenting tools is again at dwelling. I take a small chalet. I unpack. I pull out a down jacket and gloves. How did they get in there? Silly objects to pack in a heatwave, however I pull them on gratefully. I’ve introduced the incorrect bag. However what’s this? A duplicate of Conflict and Peace, the ebook I had been studying and meant to depart behind. I open at a random web page and begin studying.
Tolstoy’s masterpiece might be essentially the most poignant learn I may have chosen: the story of how everybody participates in a pointless stampede to predictable smash. Even my tiny no-fly contribution has already misfired.
Once I wake subsequent morning, issues don't appear so bleak. The solar is shining in a blue sky as I cycle throughout grass in direction of a roaring sea. Denmark’s West Coast cycle path is 450 miles of dunes, woods and aspect roads, however that morning all I need is seaside.
With out consulting the map – the one I’ve left within the UK – I journey on to the sand and switch north. By preserving to the sting of the waves I could make first rate progress, except I attempt to flip, which makes me fall off. A cloud of curlews rises to my proper, the wind holding the birds so shut I really feel I may attain out and stroke their lengthy curved payments. The ocean thunders in my ears and I cease enthusiastic about something. I like biking. I like Denmark.
When the tide finally pushes me into the softer sand, I’m pressured inland on to the grassy dunes, the place I discover a marked path. A string of black diamonds discarded on the trail immediately uncurls and slithers away into the beds of untamed snapdragons and orchids. That is adder territory. At Thorup Strand, I discover a fishing collective that sells glorious fish and chips. By late afternoon I’m in Svinkløv campsite (tent for 2 for £47) the place my mounted tent has a really comfy mattress. I like the understated, commonsense mentality of Denmark. There’s no fuss, no mess and positively no hyperbole.
When King Frederick VI got here right here within the early 19th century, he declared it essentially the most stunning a part of his empire (which on the time included Norway, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroes, a trio of Caribbean islands, the Nicobar Islands and the Bengali metropolis of Frederiknagore, now Serampore).
There may be nothing showy or spectacular, just some tidy meadows, a thatched windmill and a protracted seaside. There are easy sleeping huts alongside this coastal path, the place I had deliberate to camp, however now I journey previous. Within the city of Blokhus, having lunch on the thatched Restaurant Futten, I drop into dialog with an 82-year-old physician whose follow was as soon as in Greenland, and his son. “I cherished doing dwelling visits,” he recollects, “I’d go by canine sled.” In summer season he would come again right here, to the household’s summer season vacation dwelling. I think about a weatherboarded cabin full of bits of driftwood and the skulls of sea creatures. Abruptly I really feel a connection to my onward route, the huge northern seas salted with craggy volcanic outcrops and ice caps. For the primary time I sense the advantages of arriving slowly over land and sea. There may be time to speak and construct data and expectations.
The physician’s son talks in regards to the egalitarian nature of the Danes. “When a bunch of ninth-century Viking warriors have been requested who their chief was, they replied: ‘We’re all leaders’.”
He asks whether or not I just like the flat panorama. “For us Danes, the wilderness will not be mountains, however sea.”
I keep it up up the seaside, following the wavy line of spume to Løkken and what proves to be a top-notch B&B, Villa Vendel (doubles from £104) in a stunning old style home with a motorbike retailer within the former stables. From right here, in spitting rain once more, I push the bike over a headland and into the spectacular stays of second world conflict German gun emplacements. The ocean is tugging them down, slowly drowning them. Earlier than too lengthy, their darkish corridors shall be fish nurseries.
Other than occasional deep loops inland, I'm nearly at all times inside sound of the ocean on this journey and at any time when I can, I journey on the seaside. In locations vehicles are allowed and the sand is churned up, however I can at all times discover agency going by the water’s edge. Generally I carry the bike into the dunes and lie down out of the wind, watching birds and flowers, then go for a swim. To get dry, I stand within the wind. No towel. I purchase open sandwiches and low at neatly painted clapboard cafes.
I attain the port of Hirtshals on the evening earlier than the weekly ferry for the Faroes departs, checking in to the Montra Lodge (doubles from £90) near the jetty. The city itself is a strapping, seaworthy type of place, the place you may purchase a fishing rod and a knife in addition to trousers, socks, water bottles and towels. However I don’t. No house. My son Conor, who lives in Berlin, arrives by prepare to accompany me, and within the morning we set off in sunshine, strolling in direction of the towering boat, Smyril Line’s Norröna, that has appeared. We are going to rent bikes after we arrive in Tórshavn, however I do know little greater than that: biking is alleged to be new to the Faroes. On the quayside I chat to a Faroese crewman: “I do personal a motorbike,” he tells me. “However I’ve by no means ridden it. Individuals don’t journey bikes within the Faroes. It’s too chilly, too windy and now we have many lengthy, darkish tunnels.”
We board the ferry with some pleasure spiced with slightly trepidation. After the mild charms of Jutland, it appears, the epic bike journey is about to get considerably harder.
The journey was offered by Go to Nordvestkysten and Go to Denmark. Bike Havs in Løkken rents bicycles from £13.50 a day (ebikes from £22), with pick-ups and drop-offs round Jutland. DFDS ferries sails from Newcastle to Amsterdam each day. A Eurail “4 days in a month” moveprices about £200. Smyril Line sails weekly in autumn from Hirtshals to Tórshavn within the Faroes, passenger with bicycle from £80 a technique
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