Skagen, Denmark. Wandering on the Tip of Skagen I

Our Beautiful World

Skagen, Denmark
Wandering on the Tip (Top...) I
Rightclick on most pictures for full screen view

Our three main paths during our stay late in October.
Western, Eastern and Northern routes.

1. The western path

The westcoast was a dissapointment. Here the wind and the sea has smashed into
the sand-dunes and have been rough to the landscape.
Where were the white sand-dunes?
And why were there so much pebbles on the beach?

Even if the beach was long, - it is said that there are about 60 kilometers of beaches here -
on the tip (top) of Denmark, it was definitely no place to walk along barefoot.
Not that we went barefoot at such a time as late in October, but you always dream
about summer when you walk on a beach. (at least we do....)

Never the less, it is wonderful to walk along the beaches and picking up everything.
On this beach we found several of these shells which we have not seen to often before.
It has a rather funny name in norwegian: pelikan-foot- snail...
Of course it has also a scientific name:
Aporrhais pespelecani

It also was here on the Westcoast we found this large piece of razor clam.
(Ensis siliqua). According to our books it should be no more that 20 cm long,
but as this picture shows, this one is a little bit more than 21 cm.
That ought to make it quite a large piece of the razor clams, perhaps a record?

© The Danish "Desert" Raabjerg Mile, Denmark. Panorama by Hans Nyberg

The sand dune "Råbjerg Mile" is the largest migrating dune in Norh of Europe.
It moves with a speed of about 15 m a year and follows the winddirection WSW - ENE.
During the proceeding all vegetation under the huge amount of sand is destroyed,
and the dune includes all loose materials on it's way.

© http://www.gfy.ku.dk/~flyvholm/dune.htm

In fact this dune is BIG. Look at the picture above. Out to the left you see two people!
The dune is about 2 km long, about 1 km wide, and 40 meter high.
Of course some people from mountain-rich countries might laugh at 40 meter...,
but when you realize that the landscape around you are even much lower
you will see that you still have a fantastic view from there.

© The Danish "Desert" Raabjerg Mile, Denmark. Panorama by Hans Nyberg

This large sanddune consists of 40.000.000 cubicmeter sand.
During the past century it has moved about 1.500 meter eastward,
and sooner or later it will have finished wandering from the coast of Skagerrak
to Kattegatt in the East, just as the other sand-dune you can see on the other side,
now blowing out into the ocean there.

Wandering on the Tip (Top...) II North East
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Our three main paths during our stay late in October.
Western, Eastern and Northern routes.

The Northern Path

The Southern part (South of the lighthouse) has partly been described elsewhere, and so has the beach
on the Northern side. Here follows the path from West to East between the two lighthouses,
a little bit more 'inland'.

Just East of the White Lighthouse, the road 'Batteriveien' comes out on the beach.
A lot of people walk up to this road from the big parkinglot by the tip (top),
just to turn around and walk back again. Other people drive up here from Skagen town
and park here, among them many birdwatchers looking for rare birds at springtime.

To get some change and see something else, we choosed to walk 'Nordstrandveien' back,
but who said that was easy...?.

We had not come far till we had to turn right, off the 'road', not to fill up our
boots with water.

It might look quite difficult to get through this 'jungle', but in fact we found some kind
of a path here. Whether that came from unlucky wanderer or if it was a deer-path,
we don'æt know. Anyway, we made our way eastward step by step.

At least we had an exciting trip - Is the path going this way?
What happened to that path? What to do now?

But we loved it. It was a wonderful trip.
And what a colourful nature we were witnessing!
Don't forget to right click on the picture above now!
But we did only see a few birds here and there in the underbush.
Perhaps they kept in shelter because of the strong wind....

'Impassable road'
That was true. Finally arriving close to the lighthouse on the eastern side,
we found the 'Nordstrandvej' again.
I guess further comments here would be unnecessary...?

But the lighthouse was great. Built in the year1858, and just as magnificent and
great today, nearly a 150 years later.
Duration on such a walk? Depends all on yourself and how often you stop,
how many 'coffee-breaks' you wish to take, how many birds you see,
and whatever else exciting things you wish to explore!

Wandering on the Tip (Top...) III East
Rightclick on most pictures for full screen view

Our three main paths during our stay late in October.
Western, Eastern and Northern routes.

The Eastern Path

Part of this path has also been described elsewhere (Sand, sand and even more sand...)

One of the most popular attractions in the Skagen-area is 'Den Tilsandede Kirke',
( the church buried in the sand,) the tower of which rises from the sand.
This church was the largest medieval church in Denmark. It was closed by 1795
because the sand kept blocking the doorway and finally the villagers gave up
trying to dig the sand out.

Eventually the whole village surrounding it was buried as well.
The Church was torn down in 1810 with the exception of the white washed tower
which was used as a navigational landmark.
However, not all were torn down.
Still the floor and part of the altar is buried under the sand.

As you can see on the map here, we first visited the buried church, the upper
path on the right side of the mainroad to Skagen.
Then almost back again, and through the woods, uphill to what is called
'Flagbakken' (Flag-hill) where they used to flag whenever the king or his
family visited Skagen. So everybody in the area could see they had
celebraties on visit.

Even this time of the year, there are still many birds in the wood.
Woody woodpecker is no exception.
But if you are a bird-lover, and want to see birds of prey,
then this is the place to go.
On top of Flagbakken you will see this sign:

Put up here by the forest-department to show what birds of prey you can
see from this spot during their way up north from March to June.
From here you have a broad view in all directions, you can see the
oceans on both sides of the Skagen peninsular, and the treetops in the
woods below.
From early morning you can watch the birds all around, and from about
9 o'clock the larger ones start moving upwards on the warm upstreams.

It is a marvelous sight when hundreds large birds of prey, often more than
10 diffent kinds at the same time,
start this show every day at springtime.

Downhill again, you come to wide areas of grasland, and there are no
fewer birds out here, except that they become aware of you much sooner here.

If you are lucky, also other animals like fox or deer can be seen.
(both photos above are illustrations, they are taken elsewhere.
None of the locals did give us enough time to let us take a picture)

The closer you get to the ocean, on this side it is Kattegat, the sand dunes
grow larger and larger, and you can hear the waves breaking into the shore.

So finally, the sea and the beach in sight.

Looking North you can see Skagen town with the harbour,
and the beach that gives room for quite a lot of sunbathers during summer.
Not so many, however, at this time of the year (October 27th)

It was from here we went southward to see the big 'Sandmile',
which is some thousand cubicmeters of sand coming from west,
now moving its last way out again into the ocean.
See the pictures here...

Finally, on our way back through the wood,
we found this little fellow on its way to a warmer place
to stay for the winter.
Just wondering why he (she?) was out so late???