July 15, 2023
Day 12: Halsted to Hillested
After a morning spent cleaning up the school and saying lots of goodbyes we were back on our bikes just after midday. Kevin had been coughing a lot overnight and fussy through the morning but he seemed happy to be cycling again. We were riding east across Lolland on a self made route of quiet roads having left cycle route 8 which we had been following until Lolland, looking to connect with cycle route 7 near Maribo. Here’s a map for reference. The red splodge is where we started the tour and we followed the brown Østersøruten (8) southeast until the purple splodge family high school. Now we were looking to connect to the yellow route (7) heading north through Sjælland.
It was very pleasant cycling on quiet, flat roads to Søllested, a small town where we planned our first break. We first tried to stop at a playground behind an old school but it was overgrown and the picnic bench was being reclaimed by nature. We then realised much of the school was as it was no longer in use. We had already seen other abandoned buildings and Dea explained that nobody wants to live in this part of Denmark anymore. It did feel different from other parts of the country. Poorer, less well maintained.
It was an extremely hot, muggy day, reaching more than 30 degrees. Luckily there was also a bit of wind to cool us off, and Kevin continued to find ways of entertaining himself.
We saw very few people or cars and it all felt a little apocalyptic down here in Lolland, as if everybody just left. Places to take a break were rare but we found somewhere at a random little train station in the forest. It was completely in the middle of nowhere, there were hardly any connecting buses (the sign on the bus stop said things like “there might be a bus between 6 and 9 on a Wednesday, text this number to find out”) and if you wanted to take a train you had to push a button on the wall to ask it to stop for you.
When I heard a train coming I took Kevin over to watch it. I assumed it would zoom past but to my surprise it stopped and a family of five cyclists got off. I said hello but they didn’t look interested to talk and they rode off. Less than half an hour later another train came along and it also stopped. This time seven people got off! One of them stopped to talk to us - he was a quirky young German who said he now had to walk seven kilometres to get home. We really were in the middle of nowhere. He said his family had chosen to move here without really explaining why, we guessed it was because house prices here were so low now as a consequence of Danish people leaving Lolland.
From the strange little train station, the busiest place in Lolland, we continued east on very quiet roads. Kevin took a second nap of the day in the trailer and we hurried to make our goal of Hillested. We knew there was a free shelter and camping area there and we were amazed by what we found. There was a large, really well maintained site with a shelter (already taken by two young German cyclists), a trampoline and slide for Kevin, good toilets and lots of space for tents. There was even a marquee we could put the tent under as there were thunderstorms and lots of overnight rain forecast. This was such an amazing facility and completely free, wow, Lolland, not such a poor place after all! Kevin had a great time on the trampoline and slide and we all enjoyed the evening a lot, feeling very happy to be on the road again.
Today's ride: 32 km (20 miles)
Total: 262 km (163 miles)
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