We start the second part at Samsø, Denmark on day 26 after 3 days of rest.
It's rare that I push myself over my limit like this, it's my first time being this activ after a flu and I have learned more about myself by kayaking at 50% capacity.
See the full rute here MapShare (garmin.com)
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I feel better now, more relaxed after resting and taking the time pressure off my shoulders. The new plan is to continue around Sjælland and cross back to Sweden. After that point I don't know what to do and I am totally good with that.
My new day to day goal is 21km, half of my normal goals.
I start the day with a short paddle to Mårup to fill up my water and food supply that is running low.
Nice sunny day, little to no wind so I am just going nice and slow south and 9 hours after start and 40km we make it to land and set up camp right outside of a camping site so I can start the next day washing myself and my clothes.
I am up before the sun and get good service at the capm and by the time I leave everything is clean and dry.
Today we just followed the land and found a campsite by the great belt bridge so I am ready to cross over the bussy shipinglane again.
The18km long suspension bridge linking eastern & western Denmark, with a railway tunnel. At 254 metres (833 ft) above sea level, the two pylons of the East Bridge are the highest points on self-supporting structures in Denmark. Some radio masts, such as the Tommerup transmitter are taller.
Probably one of the easiest places to cross the shipping lane but the ships crossing here with a stronger current than expected was a little harder than it looked but I got over without too much waiting.
I found a camping spot a little south and went to sleep for the night.
The next day i sleep until there are people all around me, a popular place for training in the sun, i kinda wanted to relax but i continued to a calmer area and on my way i see a lot of swans and i see a bird that looks like a swan but it is black, after a google search i found that it happens, love those unexpected surprises!
Day 30 and it's sunny with clouds and its getting nice and warm, above 20 degrees during the day and i feel this pressure in my neck. this normally means lightning, I can't see it on the weather forecast but i can feel it so i download a lightning app and right after i open the app the first lightning strikes 20km away, then minutes later just in front of me less than 2km away.
I love lightning, it's always nice that oncle Thor says hello! but you never know how much he has had to drink so I stay out of the sea until I feel its safeish.
I stayed close to land except for the 10km crossing to Knudshoved, the visibility was terrible so I navigated with my Silva compass.
Half way over I started feeling a little nervous since it started to feel like thunder again so I sped up and a little after we made it over the lightning was headed straight for me.
The First strike was 40km away, I got my as inn to land and set up my camp but in less than 40minutes it was lightning right above me.
The next day was just perfect, calm water, soft wind in my back 100s of swans, some deer and cows were chilling along the coast on this perfect day!
Day32 we finally have some rain! I wake up to the sound of birds singing and rain hitting my tarp and it's just so calming! I have also found a really nice and private spot so I end up chilling here for the day, I am not in a hurry.
Today I finally had some company in my kayak, but it didn't look like the spider enjoyed it, but he held on all the way across Faxe bay to today's campsite at Rødvik.
Today was also the day that Daniel started his record breaking Norway trip!
Another beautiful day along the Danish coast! Magical white cliffs and the old Højerup church built out of local materials so it blends into the coast.
A darker day today but just as beautiful, i also keep closer to land so i can get fast into land incase of lightning. We make our stop right outside of Denmark's capital at a place called Mosede and set up camp.
I started the day by visiting Mosede fortress
Ymir and I kayaked our way to Copenhagen, I didn't plan too much so I was a little confused about where to kayak when I got to the Bridge and Slusen (the locks) were closed. I got out of my kayak and found a small opening that would work.
A little sceptical going in but it was no problem,
Copenhagen is a nice city to kayak in and with all the tall buildings I took the chance to kayak in the lightning that was flashing all around me and when it got too close I just had brakes under the bridges. I also Passed the beautiful royal ship Dannebrog on my way out of Copenhagen.
And one more surprise on our way out of Copenhagen!
We are now at day 37 and it feels like a resting day just chilling and cooking.
Another day of lightningstrike, so I seek shelter in Rungsted Harbor.
While waiting for better conditions I took my clothes, myself and hit my head trying to clean up after myself and while I was waiting for the dryer to finish I found a great place for dinner!
The morning glory and mango sticky rice at WokShop.dk made me daydream back to my kayak trip along the west coast of Thailand.
With the Lightning Clouds on a safe distance we make our way out of the harbor with a magical rainbow guide the way.
I start the day looking around my camping area for the night and find an old stonesercle called Babyloneskov and meet a local that tells me they don't know how old it is but this was a meeting place during the second world war.
It was a little vindy today so it was a little rough around Kronborg fortress so i didn't take the chance to take photos but it is an impressive building and i think i did see my old workplace in the port, beautiful Christian Radich or its possible that it was one of the sister ships.
We found a nice forest to set up camp for the night right before where I hope to cross back over to Sweden tomorrow. good spot with tall trees and well protected from wind.
I will find out later that I am right next to a railway that wakes me up several times during the night.
When I wake up on day 40 I get ready and as I am looking over the ship traffic I see that it's almost no lage ships on their way but a lot of sailing ships training in the calm wind.
I start as soon as possible and forget to turn on my tracker before I am over, there is a custom ship headed my way but it looks like they found someone more interesting and turns back.
I didn't decide to go north or south before we were over so I just decided to let the wind guide us and it wanted us to go south! So our new goal will be to reach Sweden's southern point by midsummer's day, this should be easy and if I make it there in time and I feel up to it I will continue all the way to Haparanda and cross over to Finland.
See the full rute here MapShare (garmin.com)
Shelland and Denmark is a really nice place to kayak! I was surprised by how easy it was to find a place to camp. Denmark is a smaller country with more people then Norway and camping is more restricted than in Norway and Sweden. I recommend using Kort | udinaturen.dk where you find designated camp spots with information about the area and more.
My new paddle from Aqua Bound
At the start of the trip I started with my ving paddle but after I changed my goal I started testing out my Whiskey paddle more and more and found that it was really nice to use and I kept the same speed as with my wing paddle so i have now changed my Nr.1 paddle and have also become an Aqua Bound ambassador and i will be testing a new paddle on my next trip!
And as always a big thanks to my team! Norse for the magical kayak Ymir, LevelSix with the amazing drysuit Odin, Silva for Navigation and keeping equipment dry with drybags, Aquabound sendt me their paddle Whiskey that now is my Nr1 paddle!
And last out Aktiv.no that have equipment from all mentioned above! Thank you all!!
Lots of Love
Joachim the ShibbyTraveler