Day 20. Sæby to Smidie.
Distance 73.2. Average 17.5km/h.
The day started well. It was sunny and warm, and for breakfast we had eggs, fresh bread and fresh full milk (instead of our usual fare powdered milk). Lovely. We were in no hurry to get going due to the marathon the day before and were enjoying the luxury of a picnic bench.
We were ready to go at ten thirty, Damae picked up our camping card and paid for the nights stay. For some reason or other we liked the place, even though we'd only been there for a few short hours. It was perfect after a long days cycle, we had enjoyed the peace and quiet and the good showers.
I remember struggling just a little in the first hour or so. Despite the good breakfast I was just plain tired. Damae on the other hand who had been suffering more at the end of the previous day was ready to go.
The day's cycle would consist mostly of running down the coast, with a ferry before late in the day heading inland. We were by now well off the Cycline NSCR Denmark map. We had to make do with a poor road map and an even less detailed cycle route map of Denmark picked up at a tourist office. We thought we might have one or two more days cycling after this one. I was hoping that we could reach say Aahus or Grena. Kolding we had decided was definitely a day or two too far away.
We paused for elevensies further along the Danish route 5 at the end of a section where the road ran close to the coastline. This was, as the sign says, between Voerså and Asaa and we had been travelling on the Øskystvejen. The route we were following turned onto a quieter road, which was nice.
Once again as we ate a snack and drank water, some wasps appeared. I am not sure why but we were bedevilled at almost every stop on the East Coast by these two tone insects. A week earlier there had not been a wasp to see on the West Coast nor all the way down to Sæby. Maybe the wasps go on holiday on the East Coast rather than the west. Whatever the reason it was not conducive to good recovery and snack stops. Still the sun was up and the terrain was flat. The wind was not memorable so it can't have been a stiff headwind. My head was filled with thoughts of Norway and also of the good cycling the day before as we headed on down the coast.
A little later we tried to have lunch, finally picking a spot on a jetty with views of a beach and the sea. We'd just got started when wasps appeared again. It was not my idea nor Damae's of a nice lunch stop. We ate rather hastily, and shortly after being approached by a hawker selling armbands (a human wasp but the only one we came across in Denmark) hopped back on our bikes and headed off once more. Besides the wasps the place looked lovely, as did much of the East Coast. As with the west the role that tourism plays in the local economy seemed clear, with surburban beach hut development everywhere.
At around three we hit what we thought would be the most exciting thing of the day, the Hals-Egense ferry. With this ferry we would leave the island that is the top bit of Denmark and head back to the mainland of continental Europe. Before we hit the ferry Damae spotted a supermarket and decided that we needed to go shopping. This done we then had a few minutes to wait in the sun.