Finally Anne and I had the time to go flying together! I invited her to the Bjørnø island.
We overflew the island first, to see the runway from air:
And then landed. Peter, the owner of the airfield, came out on a tractor, and welcomed us to Bjørnø.
We had enough time to explore this beautiful island, and didn’t have to hurry up. View from the Milebjerg, a sand dune mountain of 23 m:
Anne is a keen sailor, she even competes in world championships! (I once participated in a world ultralight fly-in. It was fun, but not a competition.) I love sailing too, so we visited the harbour, of course. There was a bridge for swimming:
We met with Anne on a leadership course for several years ago. While presenting ourselves, we found out in our free time Anne was sailing, and I was flying (gliders at that time). We stayed in touch; later Anne got a couple of flying tours in a glider in my flying club in Gørløse, and I got a sailing tour with Anne. Without knowing each other much, we went on a 2 weeks live-a-board scuba diving tour, and became close friends. Besides sport and adventure, we share many other interests.
A ferry from Faaborg goes to Bjørnø every day, the sailing time is 17 min.
We continued our beach walk to the easternmost part of Bjørnø, and then up to the hills, enjoying the breathtaking views:
On the southeastern part of Bjørnø we discovered a lighthouse:
The lighthouse is active, and its light guides vessels approaching Bjørnø and Faaborg from the southeast. Construction date is unknown. It can send white, red, or green light, depending on direction. The focal plane is 6 m, and the light is shown through a rectangular window.
The island covers an area of 1.5 km2. Around 30 people live there. Bjørnø has a number of hills, called mountains: Højbjerg 24 meters, Milebjerg 23, Robbersbanke 17, Havrebjerg 13, and Lysbjerg 16 m.
The hills characterize the landscape along with the lengthwise running stonewalls.
We saw some adorable cows on the way:
The main street of the island, going to the harbour:
There is a cafe on the island, but it was closed by the time we reached it (opening hours 10 to 17). A sign invited to explore a garden with chickens, flowers, and turtles.
It was a lovely garden with curios chickens. Below is a photo of the turtles’ home:
There is a place on the island, called Alcatraz. I couldn’t resist being photographed in front of it’s building:
Peter – the owner of the airfield – has two of bungalows for rent, both with the sea view:
We saw Kenneth’s KZ-VII in the air, going for landing, and went back to the airfield to say hello. Kenneth came with his son Vitus, and they were going to stay over:
Vitus loves flying with his dad. There were other guests, too. We didn’t hear them coming.
Anne had prepared a tasty vegan dinner for us, and we enjoyed it somewhere at the northwest part of the island, by the blooming rose bushes. Anne also had 3 different Kusmi tea (one of my favourite tea brands) with to choose from – how nice!
The sun was going down, and we wanted to fly a bit around before going home. Vitus and Kenneth were kind to pose for a photo in front of their aircraft:
And Kenneth took a photo of us, before we backtracked to the runway 11:
We did a round over Bjørnø, thanking for all these wonderful experiences we had on the island.
There are many islands south of Funen, and they are especially beautiful from air. The island of Drejø that I visited last year together with Rasmus, a friend from Albatros, my flying club:
The island of Ærø and Ærøskøbing that I’ve visited several times before:
Two happy friends after a marvellous day together:
Anne was my first female passenger. It’s a man’s world, you know; when you choose flying as a hobby, you will have very few female friends left…
The universe awarded us with a glorious sunset:
It was such a great day with Anne on Bjørnø. We stopped to smell the flowers on our way! The only thing we didn’t reach was swimming. We had our snorkeling gear with us, but time went quickly, there were so many beautiful things to experience, and we decided to leave swimming for another day.
