Day 2, part 2 — Rømø

Rømø Island

Half an hour away from the Danish border I turned off and drove down to the coast, to Romo island. See part 1 – driving from Waren to Romo here.

The bridge connecting Romo and mainland Denmark is incredibly beautiful. It is long and narrow, plunging through a flat open space of water. The wind is still and the glassy water lapping gently against the bridge. As I drove across I felt freedom for the first time on this trip.

Once I arrived on the island I rode down to the west shore, left my gear on my bike and dumped myself down on the concrete walkway next to the wetlands to rest. I was panting like a big, hairy dog in the sun.

Sand and sky that stretches on forever

Whilst I was sitting there dripping sweat and stealing wifi, a man walking a little white puppy stopped to talk. Turns out having a motorcycle is a real talking point.

The man (David) mentioned that tucked away on the west side of the island is a pretty damn awesome beach made of hard packed sand that stretches for kilometres. You can hire kite boards and skate your way across the sand, or you can ride out to the water on your bike…like I did.

I road out as far as I could before the sand started getting soft. I had a near fall at the beginning where the sand wasn’t so stable, so I wasn’t going to take the risk.

I then left my bike, stripped off to my underwear and walked out to the beach. The water was really shallow for miles. It looked like you could potentially walk across to the adjacent island of Sylt (in Germany).

The water was a little cold but refreshing. It was cloudy with the swirling sand beneath though. As I stood and looked out across the water I felt relaxed for the first time…The only thing that could ruin a moment like this would be dozens of crustaceans scuttling over your feet. I laughed the first time. Then it quickly got creepy so I got out.

As I was drying myself off I saw David again, this time he gave me some suggestions on where to wild camp. Apparently the foreshore has infrared cameras or something on it so that people don’t camp there. But he also said there is only one policeman on the island. So I could pretty much do as I liked.

I chose to camp close to a picnic/rest spot in the forest. Unfortunately it turned out to be a dog park, but I was so exhausted I didn’t realise, nor really care.

Apparently, I wasn’t too tired to wake up at regular intervals during the night though. I have no idea what animals were out at my tent but they were scary. One was definitely a fox or a dog or a wolf. Or a dog-wolf or something. I heard a lot of sniffing. The others might have been rabbits or deer cracking the leaves around my tent. I’m pretty sure I woke up to a horse as well. I have no idea if I dreamt that though.