Fjerritslev
I suppose it’s not really a day of setbacks if at the end you are enjoying a Durum doner and a coke. Yesterday after the rain, the sky looked so pristine I thought it won’t rain again. I even double checked with an app, but little did I know I had the wrong view open in the app; it would rain again at night and I did not see it. Since I rode in rain, my riding kit was a little bit wet, I happily hung them out to dry, along with my towel, some washed clothes etc. The sun was shining.
I woke up in the morning only to find it raining profusely. Which meant a lot of my clothes weren’t ready to wear. I sulked for a moment, then sucked it up and packed all the wet stuff in. While I was preparing my breakfast, I met the owner of the Stenbjerg campsite. She offered to let me stay in camp as long as it’s raining. She also told me how the camp common room came to be. All that was in there was her mother-in-law’s lifelong collection of trinkets, paintings etc.
I waited for the rain to abate. I had planned a rather meditative and long ride for today with a wild-shelter to spend the night in, with resupply at Thisted, but the route relied on starting early, because headwind would make me very slow.
It was early afternoon when the rain stopped. This time I looked at my now not-so-favourite weather app, and it seemed the parts I’ll be driving through won’t get any rain (It was wrong). Since there’s no real time pressure I decided to start cycling in the afternoon. Within minutes since I started, it started raining lightly. While stopping to put on my rain jacket on, I was faced with the first mechanical problem of the trip. My meditative ride immediately became a mild frustration fest.
The rear axle has dislodged. I suspected it has something to do with the initial tightness of the axle mount when I bought the bike. After some fiddling around, I eventually managed to fix the wheel. It also struck me how important my bike tools are; and that I have zero spares, but that was a problem for future me.
The weather became bad. It started raining heavily and the headwind wasn’t helping either. I just kept riding hoping that eventually the rain would stop.
I almost put on my for-emergencies-only playlist, but it didn’t come to that. I was close to being rattled by the rain. At some point wearing the rain jacket and not wearing it didn’t make any difference, the sweat underneath was almost more wet than the actual rain; I took the rain jacket off. My normal riding jacket was enough insulation from the cold and the fancy goretex fabric helped me cool off a little bit; it is somewhat of a magical fabric. And this made the riding more bearable.
My initial route had some gravel sections, in the rain the mud immediately caked both my legs, my bags, my bike and parts of my face too. My fat bike tires work better on gravel than on tarmac, but the speed also meant loads of mud being sprayed everywhere.
Eventually the rain got a little bit calmer and I found a place to sit down and call an old friend. The conversation made me very aware and happy; regardless of half of my body being caked in mud. I felt gratitude for being able witness a mundane but endlessly vast countryside.
The feeling of gratitude was amplified when I saw cows in two different settings. Some in a farm; and some in free range. Not sure what kind of cow I would be. But it also didn’t matter, I just love when they notice me riding by and look at me for a moment.
Sitting on that bench, I also decided I wasn’t going to a random wild remote shelter tonight. My index finger was numb, and the wet clothing, tent etc. bothered me. I decided to bike to a hostel in Fjerritslev.
“You need a bed!”, the hostel receptionist told me.
