Our third day of summer bicycle trip we started at Sandkaas Familiecamping, at the north-western part of the island. We planned to go to the north-eastern corner. The route for that day led mainly along the coast.
Sandkaas
In the morning we woke up so early that whole camp was sleeping. We ate breakfast and kids could have some fun on the playground after that. That playground was very interesting, because it consist not only of traditional playgrounds equipment but also of small buildings that looks like real police station, post office, bank or boat, but in small scale.
Immediately after moving out of the camp Agatha said: “Dad, it will be storm soon”. And she was right. After a moment the rain started raining before we left a town and we had to make a stop to secure things which could get wet – mainly tent and cameras. We were tough and continued our ride in the rain. Along the way we passed a group of cyclists going in the same direction as we, who bravely rode in the rain next miles of road cycling.
At Bornholm we have a large network of bicycle roads, and you can ride in any direction you want using safe, well described bicycle roads. This time we drove on bike road which ran along a fairly loaded national road. In comparison with routes that we rode in past two days we definitely more like bicycle paths, which lead through the wilderness or roads with small car traffic.
During a ride towards Gudhjem we noticed on the way an information point. We stopped for a moment and it turned out that we were in a place where the Bronze Age tombs was found.
Døndalen Waterfalls
After a short time we got to the first attraction of the day – to the Døndalen Waterfalls . At the road there was a large car parking. To waterfalls we need to follow trail path. This path was passable by bicycles, so we were able to took large section of it on bikes. Only at the end it started fairly steep descent and there, in the middle of the forest, we left our bicycles to continue the journey on foot.
Waterfalls (it’s a little too sophisticated name for this place) was flowing over stones, but no spectacular waterfall was there. Do you know that this is the highest waterfall in Denmark? Nevertheless, it was nice to take a short break from cycling and climb on the rocks and steep slopes of the mountain. There were some hard to climb places where kids aided by the hanging tree roots to manage to climb higher.
After a moment spent in this place we went back to the place where our bikes were waiting for us. We drove towards the bike road. Then after a few hundred meters we stopped in front of the next attraction. From the main road signpost led us to Bornholms Kunstmuseum, which is Bornholm art museum. But the museum was not on our schedule. Children would not like that. We used only the bicycle parking in front of the museum building to leave our vehicles. And here I must admit that bicycle parking was quite unique – a beautifully marked place, located at the entrance to the museum, sheltered from the wind by plants. Bicycles were parked, so we went to see cliffs located just behind the museum, where were hidden caves.
Helligdomsklipperne cave
One of them, the most famous cave is Helligdomsklipperne. To reach it we had to pass dozen of stairs leading to the coast. Later there was huge stones path, then a steel bridge which we used to go to the top of the slot. There we used ladder to go deeper into the slot. In the end, in front of us appeared a hole which was the entrance to the cave. The cave was long a dozen meters, high on a few, and was less than a meter wide! Well, it’s good that we had a flashlight in backpack. With that we could easier explore the interior of the cave. Inside the rock temperature was much lower than outside and the walls of the cave were wet because of the water. It’s an amazing place that shows the beauty of Bornholm’s nature. Definitely worth a pick.
Gudhjem
When we returned to the bikes we moved on in the direction of the Gudhjem town. The road was long and straight, which was quite monotonous. It is much better to drive on winding paths, where the goals are constantly changing. This time, in the distance we could see the city, which we were slowly moving to. There was a little surprise, because the bicycle road was over and we had to go through Helligdomsvej – just a national road.
In the distance we saw a town that with every turn of the pedals was closer and closer. The route was mostly downhill – it allowed us to be quite disperse and take advantage of the speed to overcome the later grades. Finally, there is Gudhjem! At the beginning of the town there is a steep road that leads down to the city center, but we went straight to the viaduct and the town’s center we seen from top. From this point we could continue ride on nice bicycle road.
The plan was to have dinner in Gudhjem and fill water supply. We found the Dagli Brugsen shop. It’s such a store similar to the Polish Biedonka stores. In front of it we found benches which were ideal to prepare a meal. At the end of the street was Gudhjem Camping, but it was not our destination for that day. In our plan it was just the halfway point of our route.
From the town of Gudhjem if you want you can get day trip to the tiny island Christiansø.
We, however, after a rest rode in the direction of the round church in Østerlars. Bicycle path led us through fields and forests. We admired the beautiful countryside. This part of trip was totally different from earlier part. In the morning we rode in rain – now we had beautiful sun. In the morning we had a large traffic on the road, now we had quiet road. Even when we rode on the asphalt road no cars passed us. We rode very well. We missed the church in Østerlars. All in all it was an interesting case, because we got to the Østerlars village, and the church was outside of it, not in center. To reach it we had to go back about a kilometer of asphalt road.
Svaneke
Next we drove from Østermarie by normal path towards Svaneke. The road was alternately downhill and uphill. At the entrance to the village we saw a beautiful windmill which necessarily wanted to have a picture with us.
Then we rode through the small streets of Svaneke to reach the historic cannons located at the sea edge next to a fish smokehouse.
Cannons were used in past to defend the island from Swedes attacks. We read the description nearby the cannons. That was not the original Danish cannons, but the copies brought here from Russia. Next we headed to the port and drove toward the lighthouse in Svaneke. It is the most north-easterly area of Bornholm.
Next to the lighthouse was our campsite – Hulehavn Svaneke Camping. A bicycle counter show us 38,6km. Record!
Kids still had power. First we bought some ice creams, then we camped, and then kids ran to the playground. I went to the kitchen to cook dinner. There was a lot of people on this camping during our stay. We had an occasion for interesting meetings. While registering at the office we met two families from Poland, and next to our tent we met a very friendly couple of cyclists from France.
In the evening, we had the ambition to bathe in the sea. However we changed our plans because the water was all black. It was covered with some algae. We went to the camping’s bathroom instead.
We gained the impression that this camp was one of the most popular. Or maybe we just accidentally hit on the crowd.