Walking the north coast of Denmark pt 2

The second day of our North Coast Trail walking was warmer with varied terrain at every turn. We had about 17 miles to walk, so we planned to have a swim somewhere along the way.

Eventually this stairway appeared, leading the way to the long flat beach. It was cooler with every step. Will and I were excited to get into the water. No one was close by to see us running in without any suits. When I was dry and dressed, 2 friendly Danish walkers stopped to chat. They have been walking the 500 km of the whole Danish coast on long weekends since May. They’re friends who made this plan in the winter and now, they were nearing the end of the journey. I mentioned to them that Wild Rover Travel had called that morning to alert us to the possible presence of wolves and their pups in a forest further along on our day’s journey. They’d had the same news when they were further south weeks before, but hadn’t seen any wolves in their travels.

The breeze didn’t follow us into the paths between the dunes when we left the beach. These paths were very narrow with ankle scratchy twigs and grasses. At one point, we lost the way and had to backtrack to find the right trail. We kept going and the famous Rabjerg Mile began to emerge in the distance. It’s famous for being an inland dune, 1km x 1km in size, and moving 15 cm each year. It’s expected to reach the farthest tip of Denmark, covering the road to Skagen, in 100 years or so!!

The trail began to descend from the tops of the dunes and it suddenly felt like we were wading in deep snow.

As we emerged from the dunes and dune plantation, we walked a road along the woods. There were signs posted alerting us to avoiding parts where wolves might be with their pups. They didn’t appear, but we did have a lovely horse and rider come cantering by us. We still had a couple miles to walk to reach Hulsig, a tiny town and our rest for the night at Hotel Inger. We were pretty tired after the dune climbs!

We were greeted very warmly and heard the history of Inger, the grandmother who started the hotel years ago. It is still a family run hotel with lovely rooms and beautiful artwork from local artists, open for 3 mos.in the summer only. We were excited to hear they had a table for us in their very good restaurant. While we ate, one of the Danish walkers I’d met that day on the beach came over to sit and chat with us. One of the best things about traveling for sure!