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Where am I?:^mistymornings-->Cycletouring-->Scandinavia 2006-->Day 4

Day 4 part 3. Nymindegab to Harboør.

Two minutes later my 'oh dear' antenna realised that we really really needed to put our rain coats on RIGHT NOW. In an exposed spot at the bottom of the hill from the campsite, the heavens opened. We were pelted with hail for a few minutes and gale force winds. There was absolutely nowhere to shelter. We were almost instantly soaked and searching for a place to hide from the storm had no point anymore.

So we pressed on through the thunder and lightening which was actually very exciting. We cycled harder than usual to keep warm and as we enjoyed the strange light and smells of freshly wetted earth the storm subsided. The road came down almost to sea level making progress easier, a meandering road in countryside reminiscent of the causeway area in Port Madog in North Wales. I seem to remember crossing a railway line which must have been the line from Lemvig up the coast.

Despite the rain it had been hot enough during the day to leave pockets of warmth along the route. It was rather bizarre to be suddenly too warm after the soaking. At one of these warmer spots we stopped to look at the map, and saw that there were no campsites for a few kilometres. So we pushed on motivated by the idea of a warm shower and food, realising that this was going to be one of our longest day yet in terms of distance.

We were thus rather relieved when the campsite appeared in the distance. By now it had started raining again albeit somewhat more lightly than earlier in the day. We stood in the reception creating puddles of water, the lady at the desk was very friendly and didn't seem to mind. Once registered we found a spot very close to the facilities and put up our tent as quickly as we could. A German lady in the caravan next to us invited us in for cake and coffee which seeing as we were still very wet and getting colder with the minute, was a most welcome invitation. She had apparently done some cycle touring when younger and knew what it was like to get wet.

After some well needed sustenance, we left to go to the showers. Once outside I started shivering uncontrollably. Quickly grabbing my clothes pannier and washing stuff we headed straight for the warm showers. To our relief we discovered that they had small family rooms with UNDERFLOOR HEATING! Suddenly we had reached campsite shower room perfection and spend a considerable amount of time getting warm and washing some items of already very wet clothing. Bliss!

Then after dressing in dry clothes (and lots of them) we took our stuff back to the tent and grabbed food and pans. A short walk away was the kitchen and we decided to cook and eat there rather than in the cold damp tent. As we were doing this, the Dutch couple once again appeared. Whilst we had been cycling and getting wet they had arrived at the campsite and spent an hour or so in their tent waiting for the rain to stop.

At this point an older man (we presumed the co-owner of the site) poked his head in and looked round for transgressions. He asked the Dutch couple to do something, and after an exchange he ambled off not sounding entirely satisfied. A bit strange but there you go. We all cooked and ate and then for us it was off to bed, I don't remember otherwise so I presume we slept well.

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