Day 23: Øster Hurup to Silkborg | 110km
21 June 2026
Around 4:30 am, the first rays of sunshine hit the tent, and I woke to the bright, stifling heat. Even with my lighter sleeping bag, I was still too warm, so I kicked it off, took a sip of water, and drifted back to sleep, using a t-shirt as a makeshift eye mask. Note to self: always check where the sun rises before pitching the tent so I can adjust its position. I feel like a light sleeper in the tent, perhaps because I’m subconsciously ready to leap out and guard my bike and fend off bears (although less likely now). So, it’s even more important to maximize the rest I can get. I woke again at 6:30, but this time, sleep wouldn’t return. I decided my body had enough rest for the night, so I lay there in thought for a while before pulling out my phone to refine some writing before Irene stirred.
We didn’t have much in the way of breakfast food, so we brewed a cup of coffee and decided to stop at a supermarket 20 km down the route. It turned out to be a good call and we both felt satisfied covering that distance before breakfast to build up our appetites. It’s amusing, the little mental tricks we use to break down a long journey into manageable pieces.
All in all, we covered 110 km today, 10 of them on rough gravel roads, and many more over gently rolling hills. Not a cloud dotted the sky as far as the eye could see, so the same relentless sun that had turned our tent into a furnace that morning now scorched the back of my neck and arms. My tan lines are getting quite severe, perhaps even chronic (though I’m no doctor, so who’s to say).
In the late afternoon, we rolled into Silkborg, a charming town surrounded by lakes and forests, and checked into a simple but comfortable hotel. We squeezed our bikes into the elevator to store them in the room, since we couldn’t find suitable parking and didn’t fancy the effort of unloading all the bags.
Before starting this journey, an old friend, Mathias, reached out to say my route passed right through his town. He’d been an exchange student from Denmark during my first semester at university, but we hadn’t seen each other in over ten years. How is it even possible that more than a decade has slipped by since those early days? We’d barely kept in touch, but as with all friends you make during pivotal moments in life, it felt as though no time had passed when he picked us up from the hotel to take us to his place nearby. We caught up on each other’s lives over beer and wine, and I got a glimpse of where his path had led him. It was wonderful to reconnect with a friend from the past, revive the bond, and see how well he was navigating this whole life thing. Note to anyone reading this: if you’re thinking about reaching out to an old friend, do it. Remember love and friendship are the only missions.