A trip to The Lakes…

The Hymertrails gang finds itself in a decision-making situation once again, do we hold out at Denmark’s largest forest and hope the weather forecast in two days time is wrong or head further south and try to experience the Danish Lake District in sunny weather for at least one day?

Heading south it is, we’ve wanted to visit the lakes and experience hills since getting to Denmark, it is supposedly a stunning area full of ’outdoorsy folk’ enjoying the scenic beauty, it didn’t disappoint!!

It wasn’t a long drive this afternoon only 100km or so and we arrived at a lakeside wildcamp we’d noticed on the park4night. It was only a few km outside Silkeborg, essentially a picnic site with toilets, a camping area, wooden sleeping shelters, a swimming platform and somewhere to launch kayaks!! The Danes know how to do parks.

We had a quick explore, then some food before heading up the road for 10 mins to the local Hundeskov so Tilly and Belle could have a bit of off-lead running, happy hounds!

A new day dawns at the lakes and the weather is looking great for the day, breakfast, Hundeskov then out for more adventurous exploits around the lakes. First stop was Denmarks second highest ’mountain’ Himmelbjerget, this was going to be fun!

To be fair there was an amazing view from the top, even though it was only 300m from the car park. The lakes area is definitely shaping up to be beautiful. Onwards once more and we head off on a suggested local scenic drive around Mosso lake, Denmarks third largest. We got the tip from our trusty Lonely Planet Denmark guide, it’s been a great help, a little out of date but it only cost us 20 pence from Amazon.

First stop was Gammel Rye a sweet little place, all thatched roofs and pretty flowers. This country doesn’t cease to amaze us with its bucolic countryside and picture-perfect villages.

It’s time for a brew so what does every self-respecting vanlifer do but park up, make a cuppa and stroll the short walk to your own little beach, perfect!!!

We pass some amazing lakeside summerhouses on our circuit of Mosso and drive through beautiful, wooded countryside before a quick supermarket visit to spend our Danish Kroner. It’s amazing how quickly it goes, I guess with bread being about £3-4, small beers about £5 and don’t even go near the chocolate!! We scuffle out and with our bad maths and helpful phone calculators work out how much we’d spent on a measly small bag of goods and peer disappointingly into the bag hopeful the good fairies of Silkeborg have bestowed treasures upon us, no, just crisps, bread, oh and an extortionate aubergine!

We return to our lakeside wildcamp all serviced having visited a free motorway service point earlier in the day. Not much time tonight for anything but a quick bite to eat, dog walk and weather check for tomorrow, looks like our Lake District luck is ending, rain is forecast!!

A rainy day it is so we sit tight, do a few chores, chat to a Scottish couple who are travelling for a year around Europe in their van, they’re only the second British people we’ve seen. The car park is a hive of activities as it’s Ascension day here in Denmark and there are loads of people off for a lakeside jaunt, possibly a funeral, well lots of people dressed in black looking smart and not really outdoorsy at all, who knows?

It’s time for us to head off, we are going south again, heading for Kolding and hopefully a nice stop for the night.

The Lakes have been a real treat and along with Romo and Rebild they are definitely up there as a trip highlight. It’s just a shame the weather beat us, oh well I’m certain we’ll be back…