Hærvejen - Rødekro to Flensburg

Metadata:

Distance : 44 km
Date : 19 january 2013.
Trails trekked: Hærvejen, Ochsenweg, E1, E6.

In january 2013 my brother Adrian and I went for a winter walk. We took the train to Rødekro, and arrived at the station at roughly the same time that the sparse daylight hours began, roughly 8:30 in the morning.

We were to follow the Hærvejen / Ochsenweg south from Rødekro and continue along it through the day. The hærvejen was the main trading route in Jutland in the medieval period. Today the route is a popular hiking and biking route, and is also part of several international footpaths (namely the E1 and the E6 from the border and southwards) and pilgrimage routes.

The weather was a bit cold (-5 degrees), and windy and especially the wind chill factor (- 25 degrees)  was significant on this particular day.

The land was frozen and wintery, as we had several months with temperatures staying more or less constantly below zero. There was some snow, but not more than 25-30 centimeters on average, and although we had occasional very ligth snow showers during the day these added no more than one or two centimeters to the overall snow depths.

We had not walked more than 5 km down hærvejen before we had sufficient inner warmth being generated, for us to feel a bit hot dressed in the heavy winter jackets, and woolen caps. So we walked with the jackets unzipped and could still easily keep warm. Only on the open stretches did we have to zip our jackets as the wind chill could be felt in full strength on theses parts of the hike.

As we came to the outskirts of the village of Hjortkær we were about 7 km into the days hike and had travelled on very small backcountry roads, that were mostly covered with a thin layer of snow, and asphalt underneath that. The signs for the Hærvejen were very consistent and easy to see as no leafs or plants were covering them at this time of the year.

We followed the edge of the village southwards, never actually entering it. On the southeastern tip of the village there was a couple of benches by the road, and we stopped for a cup of coffee and a snack.

For the next kilometer we followed a county road with somewhat more traffic than the ones we had been on so far. However after this short stretch we found ourselves on a wide gravel road heading due south through the landscape, bypassing all human settlement.

From the ninth to the fourteenth kilometer the road was pretty exposed to the wind and we had a lot of 1 meter high snow dunes to traverse, with some of the taller ones being around 1,5 meters high. 

We passed a shelter along this stretch and also the ancient site of Urnehoved, which lay just beside the hærvejen, and had served as a tingsted (assembly place) for the entire southern part of Jutland during the middle ages. 

The tingsted is hidden in a small groove just besides the hærvejen. The site is placed on high grounds, relative to the surrounding landscape, and thus some nice views can be enjoyed.

From Urnehoved we continued southwards on the wide gravel road, and as we passed the 14 km mark for the day, we started walking alongside the western edge of Årtoft plantage, a planted forest.

As the hærvejen more or less follows the Jutlandic watershed, significantly reducing the number of streams and rivers to be crossed, a big advantage for the oxen herds that travelled along it in the past centuries.
A few old stone bridges exist along the path, and around 16,5 km we crossed one of these the Povlsbro (Pauls bridge). Here we took a break after clearing the snow off a bench, and enjoyed the nice bridge and stream.

Afterwards we bypassed Tinglev, and the path turned some kilometers westward. On this stretch the path shifted several times, from gravel road to, asphalt road, to industrial roads, and the to dirt tracks.

Shortly after crossing the 24 km mark, we were traversing a frozen field, on one of the stretches where the hærvejen was nothing more than a relatively narrow dirt path. We came to a place were a big pool of water had frozen covering a large section of the field. We stood a few moments and tried to decide whether to cross the ice, or circumvent it. As the pool was quite large, and it had been freezing temperatures for some time, we decided to cross the ice.

Adrian went first, and although the ice creaked and cracked some, he came over without problems. As I started crossing the icy stretch the ice started giving in, and liquid water started emerging. Although I more or less ran over the ice, my left foot went through the ice, and was submerged in water ankle high.

The next couple of kilometers I walked with the wet shoe and sock and around the 26 km mark I changed socks as the shoe was no longer wet, but instead partly frozen because of the water.
Luckily I only felt slight miscomfort on account of this incident, and was happy that it did not become an issue the rest of the hike.

A short distance after my icy footbath we reached the Bommerlund plantage forest. The first kilometer in the forest, we walked among young trees that grew in between the wrecked remains of the old plantation forest. That older forest partly annihilated by the 1999 hurricane that swept through Denmark.

Some 1,5 km into the forest we came to the county road leading to Kruså, and bearing the same name as our footpath "Hærvejen". The road and the path converged for about an kilometer, and we found an abandoned souvenir shop at the edge of the forest, where a couple of benches made a pleasant surprise for a little break.
We still had some lukewarm coffee in the canteen, and some food in our bags, and spent some 15 minutes eating and checking the routes for the next part of hike.
From the souvenir shop we had about 4 kilometers through the forest, with the path running parallel to the county road some a bit west of it and some times a bit east of it, but never more than a couple of hundred meters from it.

As we left Bommerlund plantage the evening slowly approaching. We had a nice view towards the bordertowns of Padborg and neighbouring Kruså.
The next kilometer was a bit of boring industrial landscape, with truckstops and logistics centers. After this short section, where we also passed the jutlandic moterway (Jyske motervej) and after a couple of kilometers of hiking through low and not so dense forests we came to the hamlet of Bov.

We went through the hamlet and decended into a small and narrow valley on the southeastern outskirts of Bov.
In the bottom of the valley we crossed from Denmark and into Germany, a border marked only by a small bridge and a couple of signs.

As we entered Germany all the daylight was gone, and we ascended the far side of the valley in darkness. We came to a small german hamlet and started looking for some public transportation in direction of nearby Flensburg. However we ended walking more then 5 kilometers more through the dimly lit suburbs of Flensburg before finding a bus stop from where we could take a bus to the city centre.
In Flensburg we had time to eat some nice hot dinner followed by a big dessert, before departing for Odense around 22:30. A couple of trains, and some hours later we arrived in Odense about 1:00 in the night - 19 hours after leaving the same station.

Fernet Ramblers - Autumn 2014 Stage - Korsør to Sorø

Stage metadata

Date: 5. october 2014.
Number of Ramblers: 3
Number of km trekked: 48,1 km (my map is reconstructed and underestimates the distance, which Thorsen tracked throughout the day).
Time spent: 12 h 25 min.
Average speed (including breaks): 3,9 km/h
Paths trekked: E6, Sjællandsleden.
Amount of Fernet Branca consumed: 0,7 liter

The first round of hiking executed under the framework of Fernet Rambles took me, Carsten and Ture from Korsør on the West coast of Zealand and 48 km inland to the city of Sorø.We started out at the trainstation in Korsør where the E6 on Seeland starts and follows the path of the older Sjællandsleden which traverses the entire island from west to east.
The E6 is a transeuropean footpath that stretches from Greece to Finland. 

After 3 km of hiking along a path that was running parallel to the railway we came to Svenstrup. A village streching across the thin branch of land that seperates Korsør Nor from Storebælt. From Svenstrup we went towards the shore of Storebælt. Just short of the 5 km mark we found a bench, and retrieved our signature Fernet Branca from my bag. 
Here we had a nice view on Storebælt. With somewhat calm sea and only a hint of wind we had plenty of opportunity to enjoy the scenery. 





From here we followed the coast for a short stretch, and being utterly consumed in conversation, we missed the unmarked path along the beach, that was the E6 (which was at large stretches of this stage appallingly badly marked). Instead we went back inland to the village of Frølunde and then went due east over backcountry roads before rejoining the E6 shortly after the 10 km mark in Forlev Marsk, where we were passed by numerous military vehicles. 
From here the backcountry roads continued and heading in a northeastern direction we reached the hamlet of Gammel Forlev and the 14 km mark. Here we had another small detour due to lacking E6 path signs. However being on alert from the first mishap, this time we only had to backtrack some 200 meters. From Gammel Forlev we left the paved surfaces and instead went along a footpath and bridge that crossed the marshes surrounding Vårby river and along the excavated/reconstructed old viking stronghold of Trelleborg. 

From Trelleborg we were back on paved surfaces and backcountry roads for several kilometers before taking a short break on top of the first plus 50 m hill of the day, among prehistoric graves and stone cairns. The view was nice, and the weather was exceptionally warm for october, so it called for a good refreshment of water and fernet. 




Heading eastwards form the hill, we rambled in the direction of Slagelse while chewing some nice beef jerky, a hiking companion almost as useful as the fernet.

We entered Slagelse just around the 20 km mark, and spent the next 4 km crossing the southern part of the city. On the eastern outskirts of Slagelse we had a stop at the ruins of Antvorskov monastery, which was once an imposing structure. Today the ruins lay as a small wedge between Slagelse and the highway that circumvents the city. Shortly after the ruin we crossed the highway and then entered the military training grounds (partially open to the public) of the Antvorskov military base. Crossing over 1 km of training ground, we came to the entrance of Nykobbel forest just as we hit the 25 km mark.

 



From here the next 11 km were through unbroken forest, although different parts of the forest had differing names. The landscape was beautiful with the forest in autumn colors, and a shot of fernet to keep us warm. 
This part of the route E6 also had somewhat more signs, and although some critical junctions were still missing signs, we managed to get through the entire forest without any backtracking, sidetracking or any other kind of inappropriate tracking whatsoever.  





Emerging from the forest at the edge of the village of Lynge Eskilstrup, we already had 36 km in the bag, but energy levels were still high all in all three of us. Carsten and Ture kept advocating for extending the trip to 50 or even 60 km but as the clock was nearing in on 17, we had only an hour and a half of sunlight left. Around the same time we got our first view of lake Tystrup in the distance.




In Lynge Eskilstrup we found a couple of benches where we could enjoy some of the evening sun while savouring some beef jerky and sipping a nice cup of Fernet. Afterwards we went the last 500 meters down to the lakeshore of the beautiful lake Tystrup. 

Arriving at the shore we were somewhat pleasantly surprised to see that the lakeshore was an actual beach, and with the wind making some moderate waves on the lake, it felt more like a seashore than an inland lake shore. 

The landscape along the lake was very scenic and we followed the shore for about 1 km, before heading steeply uphill, and northwards towards Carstens hometown of Sorø.

On top of the hill we passed the 39 km mark for the day, and had a panoramic view of lake Tystrup and the surrounding area. 

The final 5 km to the trainstation in Sorø we followed a main road, with some trafic and delighted in the fact that we would reach Sorø as the evening light was turning to night darkness.

In Sorø we took one last sip of the Fernet, which was by this time almost empty.

Measuring Poverty

The Greek philosopher Protagoras is known for the saying that "Man is the measure of all things".

When it comes to the issue of poverty, and especially hunger, this saying seems to have some truth to it. Although its questionable whether well being is connected with be economically well of, it is more apparent that poverty seems to hinder well being.

Poverty is usually defined in relative or absolute terms.

An example of absolute poverty is measuring how many people live (or try to) for under $1 of purchasing power per day. In measuring absolute poverty the correlation between being poverty and well being is apparent. In the sense that being able to live your everyday life without feeling hungry gives a feeling of well being.

Relative poverty is more dependant on the society that a given individual is living in. For example in Denmark recent surveys show that relative (or local) poverty can be not having a cell phone or a personal computer.

The thing that puzzles me is that in this sense a person who can consistently eat and have access to clean drinking water, while living in an area with widespread absolute poverty will probably fell better of than average.

At the same time a person living in Denmark, who can not afford a computer will be inclined to feel deprived in comparison with others.

The everyday surroundings of man seem a stronger measure of personal well being than an absolute measure.
This means that a relatively poor person living in Denmark has access to: clean water, has a home with central heating and electricity, access to free health care and free education (even guaranteed state sponsorship every month).
All these goods besides that person may still feel more deprived than a person who perhaps only has one of these but lives in a society where many have access to none of the above mentioned goods.

So beyond the obvious benefits of eliminating hunger and securing basic educational and health care services, is poverty reduction the best measure of human well being?

Is it even possible to meaningfully compare relative poverty across borders and even across social settings and age groups?
Even though the before mentioned survey in Denmark does not mention age i could imagine that older citizens would have a higher threshold for what constitutes poverty, and would perhaps not see the lack of a computer being a sign of poverty.

In the end its difficult operating with absolute terms and humans in relation to each other as each of us seems to have personal measuring units when it comes to well being and deprivation.