Day 8 part 3. Blokhus to Hirtshals.
I realised that it was Saturday so suggested we quickly bought some food, which we managed to do before the supermarket shut. The size of the supermarket made this a little difficult unfamiliar places and brands. In the end I bought enough of everything to keep us going for the next day. In a fit of Danish patriotism I picked up some Danish honey which we did not finish until we arrived back in Denmark.
One thing we heard before and had confirmed with this trip is to do with the range of products that supermarkets in Denmark seem to carry. It appears that you can buy the home produced product and ONE imported one. So most often there were two types of feta cheese, one Danish one foreign or yoghurt, again a Danish brand and then say on such as Danone. It isn't really a great problem but we found it rather curious. It something different for both of us coming from societies with generally much more choice, certainly in terms of shopping.
Sometimes the local variety was cheaper than the imported one. This was not the case however for the honey we bought. It was more than twice as expensive as the imported blended honey as much as we would pay for a premium pot of organic honey in Utrecht. The Danish honey was nice enough and we bought it out of curiosity more than sound financial planning.
So with the shopping stowed on our bikes for the short journey to the campsite we set off. Within a couple of minutes Damae was standing in the reception paying for a plot.
In terms of cycling it had been a remarkably hard day, considering Denmark is pretty flat. We arrived at the field we had been directed to and pfaffed around looking for a spot. All the edges had been taken and in such a way that putting our tent in between groups of campers would have been a bit too cramped. So we chose a nice spot in the middle with a sunny view out onto the North Sea.
With the tent up food was made and we sat enjoying the sun. After dinner had been sorted we took a very short amble to look at the coastline and took some silly, even sillier and some less silly pictures. We'd made it and not too late in the evening, and tomorrow we were taking the ferry to Bergen.
The gentleman at the Farm museum earlier in the day told us that there had been unexpected increases in erosion by the campsite in Hirtshals after a sea wall was altered. We were able to see what he was talking about.
As King Canute demonstrated centuries earlier there are some things that you cannot avoid or stop, and trying to stop them is just a futile waste of energy. We are all at the mercy of the elements in some way. Maybe sometime in the not too distant future, this part of Denmark along with much of coastal Europe may no longer exist. Go see it whilst you can.