29/10/2025
The ferry docked at about 10pm in Hirtshals. Late night arrivals aren’t our favourite. Another reason for not booking evening ferries in future.
Tårs stopover
I needed to work the following day so we wanted somewhere with EHU. On the way over the Skagerrak (the body of water between Norway and Denmark) we took a look at the usual apps and found a stopover at a motorhome dealership – Vendelbo Vans – in Tårs, not too far from Hirtshals. Arriving in the dark we tried to work out what the difference was between the two rows of pitches. One seemed to be limited to 24 hours and the other 48 hours, but the 24 hour one had the best access to EHU so that was our choice.
Parked up at Vendelbo Vans
We did our usual late night arrival i.e. park up and get to bed. We didn’t want to disturb the residents of the one other van parked here. In the morning we sorted ourselves out and Paul went to track down somewhere to pay, ending up in an Aladdin’s cave of motorhome accessories. We also checked we could get access to the bathroom which we finally found behind the motorhome service building.
We didn’t do any exploring here but it was a very welcome stopover and we noted that during working hours they dispense LPG. As it’s one of only five places in Denmark to do so it may well come in useful in future.
Silkeborg Mountain Biking
After a day’s work we moved on to Silkeborg. This was just a destination we picked at random, but we have it noted as a ‘must visit’ another time. It has some excellent mountain biking, a lovely lake for swimming and even better it is the home of the Tollund Man, a famous pre-Roman bog body. There is plenty here to keep us busy for a couple of days or more.
Our parking spot was in the free car park of the arts centre on the south west of the town, on a carpet of copper beech leaves.
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- Parked under the beech trees
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- Some of the art at the entrance to the carpark
Originally we’d planned a walk around the arts centre grounds where we’d heard there was a Dambo troll amongst other installations, but when we saw a group returning from mountain biking that evening we decided to investigate. A 18km trail left from the opposite side of the road and looked like it might be a good way to occupy the morning before we moved on. So the following morning, despite waking to the pitter pat of rain on our roof, we set off on what proved to be an excellent single track route through the forest.
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- Cycling through the trees
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- The forest was beautiful
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- The swimming lake halfway round the route, if only we’d known.
When we got back to the van the rain started in earnest. Yet again Paul got the rainy jobs, putting the bikes back on the rack and packing our gear in the garage. I readied the van for driving while he got soaked through.
We had planned to stay in Ribe that evening, but the rain was relentless and we decided we might as well continue driving and get some more miles under our belts. So the only thing we did in Ribe was a quick supermarket stop for dinner ingredients. Next stop Germany.