Jens and I desperately wanted to have a sightseeing flight. Just to fly around and experience our beautiful country from air. The weather has not always been with us on this 3-weeks tour, and we could hardly fly from A to B, adjusting the travel time to few suitable hours in-between hard winds. It looked like Thursday morning was going to be very good for flying, but we would need to return by 9 a.m. We got up at 5 a.m. (again!) and were at the Sindal airport by the sun rise.
To our surprise, there was even more rime ice on our aircraft… The canopy cover helped – there wasn’t any ice under it – I need to sew more of them, covering whole aircraft.
The rime ice layer was so thick, we spent around an hour carefully scrapping it off!
When we finally got ready, and started the engine, the radio didn’t work satisfactorily. Checking headsets, wires, starting and re-starting, calling tower, antenna, cables… All that took its time! Ole from the aerodrome also helped us troubleshooting. We found out, the antenna cable wasn’t properly seated. After fixing it, the radio seemed to work fine, but – it was too late to go flying.
The winds were going to be stronger than we experienced on Mors, and we borrowed an extra set of mooring equipment from Ole. Parked by the tower, my Aeroprakt was going to be sheltered a bit from the western winds that were expected in the area:
Jens and I were completely frozen after so many hours on the aerodrome, so we drove “home” to our warm “stable”:
There, we could have a shelter. Goats at the farm were very friendly:
At least 20 parrots were jumping around their huge cage, and flying in a secured area outside. They ignored me, but happily played with Jens:
So I ignored them too, and went playing with the cat. He loved me:
After having a good rest and a nice lunch, Jens and I headed on the road. Typical landscape of the Northern Jutland:
And not typical landscape:
The dunes are normally covered with heather, and the sand dunes are unique. We were warned by other travellers returning from the Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse, there was a sand storm. And indeed, it was strong. Trying to hold my balance in the winds:
I flew over this lighthouse on my previous visit to Sindal, this area is so dramatic from air! See pictures and read more here. The Rubjerg Knude lighthouse is famous for being moved 70 m inland on specially built rails in 2019. And now I was standing by the feet of this lighthouse – it was fantastic! Never mind the sand in the eyes, nose, ears, mouth, everywhere…
Beautiful views of the North Sea from the dunes:
We also wanted to visit the Rubjerg 800 years old graveyard, a couple of km south of the lighthouse. Until 1904, there was a church that was built in the 1200’s. A fragment of the church’ wall is preserved on the site. One of the most interesting tombstones is the granite cross. It was most likely created at the same time as the old church and to the memory of someone who initiated the building; on one of its sides there is pagan sun sign (the wheel cross):
We walked around the gravestones peeping out from the grass. In one place, there was even a rusted fence still standing around one grave:
When the old Rubjerg church was built, it was surrounded by farmland and extensive oak forests. Too much felling lead to the devastation of the land. Sand storms began to ravage the land, and the sea eroded the coast. Farms had to abandon the area, and in 1904 the church was moved to a new place, stone by stone, and a tower was built:
We returned back to our “stable”, and prepared a nice dinner (we are good at that!):
I told Jens that at home I rarely eat so good – mostly when Flemming makes a delicious dinner for me. For myself, I make something very simple or buy my favourite shrimp salad at Føtex, and eat it in front of my computer 🙂
