Denmark - first bikepacking adventure
A travelogue of my first bikepacking trip in Denmark 2024
💡Idea
This year I decided to use my gravel bike and try bikepacking for the first time.
I really like Scandinavia and knew from various videos and stories that Denmark has beautiful cycle paths and plenty of shelters. So I quickly decided that my tour should take place in Denmark.
🧭 Route
As I had 3 full weeks available as a vacation, my plan was to drive to the northernmost point of Denmark. So I quickly drew up a rough plan - from 🇩🇪 Flensburg to the west coast and along it to 🇩🇰 Skagen in the north.
Once there, I planned to drive along the east coast back to 🇩🇪 Flensburg.
The actual route turned out to be different. You can see the dates and the route below.
| Tour data | |
|---|---|
| Tours | 13 (+1) |
| Time | 53:45 hrs |
| Distance | 1.082 km |
| Altitude difference | 2590 m |
| Average tour length | ~ 83 km |
At the beginning of my tour I followed pre-planned routes using a Garmin bike computer.
However, as stops, places of interest and the length of the day varied, I ended up just recording the routes on the Garmin, without navigation, following official cycle paths and looking them up on my mobile phone when necessary.
🍴 Equipment
In terms of equipment, I tried to find items that were as light and small as possible. I also tried to take only the bare essentials for this tour, based on the many testimonials on YouTube. 123
| Item | Link |
|---|---|
| Tent | Naturhike Cloud Up 1 |
| Sleeping mat | Sea to summit - Ultralight Insulated Air Sleeping Mat |
| Sleeping bag | Forclaz Trek500 |
| Lock | Hiplok Z Lok |
| Protective balm | Linola Schutz-Balsam |
| Headlamp | Headlamp - HL100 |
| Dry wipes | RIAS Trockentücher in Tablettenform |
| Biodegradable soap | lavera Feste Dusche |
| Electrolyte powder | sanotact Elektrolyte Plus |
In addition to these items, of course, I had other everyday items and some tools with me.
In the end, the most important things were the Crocs (just so comfy!), sun screen, air pump, spare inner tube and a pocket knife.
🛄 Bike bags
Of course, all these things had to be put on and attached to the bike somehow...
The bags are very expensive but I trust the quality and have been very impressed with the products so far!
| Bag | Link |
|---|---|
| Fork bags | 2 x Ortlieb Fork-Pack |
| Handlebar bag | Ortlieb Handlebar-Pack 9L |
| Handlebar snack bag | AGU Snack-Pack Venture |
| Frame bag toptube | Ortlieb Frame-Pack Toptube 4L |
| Frame bag (small) toptube | AGU Top-Tube Frame Bag Venture |
| Seat bag "Arschrakete" | Ortlieb Seat-Pack 16.5 L |
Even though I have a mountable rack, I decided against ordinary bike bags in order to be really limited when packing. Because at the end of the day, the luggage also has to be carried around.
The fully packed bike looked like this...
🏕️ Find a shelter
I didn't look for or book any accommodation in advance. I wanted to decide spontaneously whether to stay in a shelter, a tent or possibly a hotel/BB.
There are a lot of shelters in Denmark, often with a tap, a toilet or even a shower. Sometimes you have to book them, and sometimes they cost a bit. The "Shelter" app 4 is a good way to find out where you can find a shelter. You can also filter by certain categories.
I had a really good time and slept very well in the shelters.
It appears that the Shelter app has been taken offline from the Google Play Store (as of 21 September 2024). There may be more recent information on the website shelterapp.dk
🚲 Cycling days
Most of the time I woke up around 7am and packed my things. It usually took another hour before everything was packed and I woke up from my morning slumber.
On the bike! Cycling the first few kilometres. I would usually stop at the nearest supermarket to get my breakfast. This meant that I often cycled the first 10-15km of the day
Breakfast usually consisted of rolls or a sandwich from the bakery. Denmark has delicious drinking cocoa, which literally sweetened my start to the day. Bananas 🍌 were also bought a lot, they were easy to attach to the bags and were ideal food for on the go.
I was very lucky with the weather. Apart from the second day, I didn't have to deal with any rain and was able to enjoy the sunshine.
As long as breakfast was eaten on time, the first 50 km were usually covered quickly.
Along the way, there was always a windmill, a beautiful view or just other cyclists to talk to about the planned tours.
The west coast offered very beautiful scenery and incredibly beautiful cycle paths through heathland. Often there was a choice of two roads - the finest smooth asphalt for fast cycling or gravel roads that were also very easy to cycle on! It was a great way to add some variety to your ride.
All in all, I was very surprised at how well I was making progress. Of course, you had all day, but the cycle paths on the west coast were particularly enjoyable.
So I arrived in Skagen on the 7th day. It was amazing! I was very proud and happy to have arrived.
But in the evening I felt exhausted. My legs started to hurt and I started to feel pain in my bum. So I decided to get a hotel room for 2 nights. That way I could relax a bit and use the "free" day to hike to the northernmost point of Denmark.
The break did me good, so on day 9 I started back along the east coast. And oh dear, here the headwind started and the altitude I had neglected in my planning seemed to be mainly on the east side. My best friend's message that he was also going on holiday to Denmark and that I was welcome to stop by was very convenient!
That was when the previous plan was abandoned. So I went to Aarhus, took the ferry to Samsø and from there to Kalundborg.
I had a very warm welcome and another relaxing day of rest! Thank you for the great time and the offer! 😎
The weather forecast predicted rain for the whole of the third week, so I decided to go straight to 🇩🇰 Gedser if possible. I wanted to get back from Kalundborg in 2-3 days. I drove to 🇩🇰 Dalmose where I found a really cool place to stay. It was provided by private individuals and cost money, and was pure glamping! The shelter had a mosquito net, electricity and even small lamps, as well as a well equipped washhouse. There were also really spacious capsules at a height of 4m. I thought the concept was really exciting. You can get a good impression of the accommodation on the website Møllegårdens Trætophytter.
I set off the next morning and after breakfast discovered to my horror that the gear cable had snapped. I could not change gear and although the nearest town was about 20 km away, it was Sunday and the prospect of a repair was very slim. So I drove to the nearest town and decided to take the train to 🇩🇰 Gedser.
This meant I could skip about 50km and actually get a few metres of climbing out of the way. In the end I had to "fight" my way about 30 km to 🇩🇰 Gedser.
The ferry from 🇩🇰 Gedser goes to 🇩🇪 Rostock and from there I could take the train home. However, as the next ferry would have been too late for me, I decided to sleep in a shelter in 🇩🇰 Gedser one last time. I hadn't paid any attention to the weather forecast...
So I was woken up at 3am by a thunderstorm and strong winds. Luckily the shelter turned out to be very dry. In the morning I packed my things one last time and drove to the ferry in the first rain.
It continued to rain in 🇩🇪 Rostock, but luckily I was able to catch a train very quickly and arrived home safely without any delays.
📝 Summary
Luckily the weather was very nice for the first two weeks and the gear cable only broke on the second to last day.
In my opinion, for a distance of over 1000 km, the statistics 🔧 aren't too bad:
- 1 flat tyre
- 1 broken gear cable
For the next tour I will probably pack a gear cable...
I am very happy to have done this tour. It was not only a test to see if I liked bikepacking in general, but it showed me once again how little stuff you can get away with.
And I can probably cut down on my luggage a lot more, but for my first tour I was very happy with the setup.
As for the route in Denmark itself, I found the west coast much nicer and would definitely recommend it for cycling.
I think I will be planning more bikepacking trips. I can't say yet whether it will be Sweden, Amsterdam or a tour within Germany. When the time comes, I hope there will be another post here about the preparation or completion of the upcoming trip.
Thanks for reading - maybe you would like to try a bike tour like this yourself - I can definitely recommend it!
