Start: Sakskobing
Finish: Vordingborg
Distance: 21
Total: 1866
Today’s 21 mile walk took me deeper into the heart of Denmark’s farmland.
I had a fairly long day ahead of me, so I went down to breakfast at the hotel at their earliest time, 7:00. That got me out the door and on the road at 7:30. It was forecast to be a nice day until about 1:00 when showers were suppose to begin. And that’s exactly what happened.
My morning was straightforward, through mostly wheat fields. There was a bike path along my route all day and because there’s a freeway paralleling my route that goes to Copenhagen, the traffic on my less traveled road is fairly light. I do see a lot of tractors pulling trailers full of wheat heading to the nearest town with a grain elevator.
At about noon, I reached a bridge that was about three miles long. The two traffic lanes on the bridge were quite narrow and it was in disrepair. Luckily, I had my own walking/bike lane to keep me out of the traffic. On the opposite side of the road from the walking path was a railroad track. It took about an hour to walk across the bridge, and just as I reached the end, it began to come a rain shower, just like the forecast predicted. I stopped and put the rain cover on my pack, but it never rained hard enough for me to need my rain gear.
By 2:00, it was still showering, but I had reached the edge of the town where I’m staying tonight. My route had me walking along the left side of the road and just as I got into town, I was suppose to take a right and walk under the highway and railway tracks using an underpass. When I got to the underpass, it was closed. There have been many times when there has been a detour for vehicles due to construction, but I’ll just use caution and walk right on through the construction. However, this time the underpass was completely boarded up with plywood and there was no way to get through. I continued along the walking path, looking for another way to get across the road and train tracks to the town on the other side. However, I couldn’t see an alternate route on the map and google maps wouldn’t offer one either. There was a cable repair guy sitting in his van in front of a house so I asked him how I could get across the road and train tracks. He showed me on my phone that the only way was to backtrack down the route I’d just walked, take a dirt trail under the highway at a bridge, and then I’d be on the right side to get into town. I’ll tell you, I don’t like going backwards, especially at the very end of a 20 mile day. But I did, and the day ended up being 21 miles.
My hotel tonight is so-so. It had terrible reviews online, but there are only two hotels here, and the other hotel sounded even worse. But it beats the alternative; sleeping in a tent. So I’m not complaining.
Tomorrow I get 22 miles closer to Copenhagen, where I’ll be this weekend. Rain is in the forecast until mid-afternoon tomorrow. I could leave here as late as 2:00 and make my destination by dark. I’ll wait and see how it looks tomorrow. That’s it for today. JB.
