Sunday morning on Fanø was cold and cloudy. It was so nice, warm and cosy in my sleeping bag! But the adventure was calling, and after a quick breakfast Anne and I biked towards the village of Sønderho in the southern part of the island. A typical house of Fanø on our way, hided from the harsh winds in between the dunes:
We stopped by Sønderho wind mill which is a museum driven by volunteers. The wind mill was built in the old Dutch style in 1895. It was restored and reopened several times, and since 1928 Foundation Gamle Sønderho (English: Old Sønderho) looks after the mill.
In 1973 the Foundation received a legacy of 100,000 dkk from Hedeman Sørensen, a farmer in USA and son of the last miller in Sønderho. The interests from this legacy are used for preservation of the mill. Over the years nearly everything in the mill has been renewed and repaired, and today it is complete and well maintained.
Biking from the mill, we noticed this gate to something that looked interesting, and entered:
Inside, there was a cemetery with a peaceful memorial in the middle. The memorial is dedicated to the sailors of Sønderho who drowned at sea between 1872 and the end of World War II:
A commemorative stone tells of disasters in 1825, when 40 Sønderho women became widows and 100 children fatherless. On the large sea rocks surrounding the memorial grove are the names of around 200 dead Sønderho sailors who have found their tomb out at sea.
There is a monument, erected by the sculptor Elo in 1955, that shows a Sønderho wife and her two children staring out and waiting for their husband and father return from their long drought at sea. Under the sculpture, there was a beautiful poem that I would like to bring up here:
In one of the corners, we found 2 gravestones of the British RAF airmen that lost their lives during the WWII near the island:
The one on the right is of an unknown man; he died on the 9th September 1944. The gravestone on the left has more to tell. Lancaster III PB527 with 7 airmen onboard took off at 2235 from an air base in Britain on the 15th September 1944 on a mission to Kiel, and on the 16th September 1944 this aircraft crashed into the North Sea. All 7 men perished. One of the bodies was identified as the 19 year old air gunner Alan William Gowdey. He was then buried by the armed forces on the beach near Sønderho. But nine months later, after the Nazis had surrendered, Gowdey was dug up and re-buried at Sønderho’s cemetery. Another airman from the same mission found his final grave in Esbjerg. The names of other five are commemorated at the Runnymede Memorial in Britain.
We left the cemetery, and continued to Sønderho. Some of the shops were open, and we went to the farm shop called “Uldsnedkeren” (English: The wool carpenter”):
In an old farmhouse from 1741, the owner has a shop where she sells the products from her farm – wool and yarn, fur and sheepskin from the Gotland Pelt. There are other products as well, but the majority comes from the farm.
Anne bought a very nice and warm hand-knitted cardigan, and we sat down on a bench in the garden to have lunch:
In the afternoon, we went to see Æ Kåver – the oldest navigation mark in Denmark. Standing on the top of a dune, called Kåverbjerget (English: Kåver mountain) it can be seen from a long distance. Kåverbjerget is extremely vulnerable to wear and tear and therefore protected as a cultural memorial. The visitors are asked to keep to the footpath which is marked with the crashed sea shells. The path starts from the Fanø school at the feet of Kåverbjerget:
In the old days, up to the 1700, the Danish town of Ribe located in South Jutland, was a significant trading place. Many ships with goods would sail there between the island of Mandø and Fanø, and it was very dangerous. That’s why along the sailing channels sea barrels were laid and costs were set out. Next to Sønderho, two navigation marks called Æ Kåver and Æ låver Kåver were erected on two hills that served as a gun sight, and captains used them as an indication of a sailing course to stay safe.
Æ Kåver is the first know navigation mark in Denmark. It was raised in 1624.
In 1915, the Æ låver Kåver was taken down. And in 1935 the Æ Kåver was blown over in a gale. However, in 2011 an exact replica of the latter one was re-erected at the same spot. The height is 14.50 m, and the height of the dune it stands on is 18.65 m over the sea level.
The dune Kåverbjerget was a perfect location for cartographers to do mappings based on trigonometry. A granite point from 1867 (even though the year on the stone is different) on the dune in Sønderho was one of 330 measuring points in Denmark:
By its side, there is another marking stone with a sign saying “Both this stone and the area of 2 m around it are protected. It is forbidden to light a fire on it or by its side”:
A stroll on the beach during low tide:
Typical landscape of Sønderho:
Oceans of tiny colourful wild flowers greeted us:
Some of the houses had sailing ships as wind vanes; it was cute:
In 1887 a life boat station was established on Fanø. Today it is a museum, fully equipped with life saving equipment from the old days. The rowing life boat stands on a trolley that was drawn by six horses to the beach. All rescue operations are described in the preserved protocols.
The last rescue operation with the rowing lifeboat took place in 1956. A total of 101 shipwrecks (from 1887 to 1954) were all rescued by the lifeboat at Sønderho Station! Today, a modern Sønderho rescue station is located at the bus station and provided with a high-speed lifeboat.
When we got back to the airfield, we could see our biking track – we did 16 km that day, and were not as tired as the day before:
Anne and I took off at 1800 as was planned. We felt a little tired and energised at the same time, and very happy after so many wonderful experiences on Fanø:
When we got to Zealand, around Tissø, the skies cleared of low clouds:
And at home in Holbæk, there was sunshine, and my club mates were out flying. Boye with Simone, in Boye’s Bingo, waited for me to land before going for a sunset flight:
Michael was warming up – he was going to fly our “Zonen” KZ-III aircraft back to Nyvang:
Such a great weekend!
