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Svalbard Trip - Day 5 - Denmark

Blogging at 22:00 on Wednesday 24th July from intended overnighting spot N 55.93832°, E 08.16334° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:55.93832%2C08.16334

The first hour or so this morning was spent with bins and scope wandering around the exceptionally impressive Beltringharder Koog area. It's just amazing: probably one of the best birding sites I've ever come across. If proof were needed, Emma joined me in a hide for a while and was engaged for almost a full five minutes... before going off to climb on some bales (pic).

More white-tailed eagle sightings headed a huge list of species spotted. For me the most intriguing were several species of waders and geese that - according to conventional wisdom - should really be in the high Arctic at this time of year. Huge flocks of barnacle geese are just one example. Most noteworthy sightings were black tern and - a first for me - curlew sandpiper.

Post reserve we headed Denmark-wards stopping only for cheap-ish diesel and ridiculously expensive bread (€1.58 per litre and €5.00 per sustainably-sliced loaf of supposedly local artisan provenance).

Once into Denmark we continued bumbling north and were once again struck by what a pleasant, civil, very advanced, well organised, but essentially utterly drab country it is. It's hard to describe just what it is that takes the sheen off things, but whatever it is, the Danes have mastered it. For example,  one of the most ostentatious shopping-experience promotional signs we saw was for raw potatoes. 

Whilst musing over this, by chance we passed a leisure area that was absolutely rammed with people. It looked at first like some sort of formal public gathering. As we drew closer it became apparent what we were witnessing was a relatively small mini-golf facility that was so popular it literally had between 15 and 20 people queuing to make their opening putt on each and every hole. There were people of all ages playing / waiting to play and it appeared to be the case that everyone was genuinely having a great time.

We concluded that this was the only place in Denmark where fun of any description could be found.

Tonight's intended overnighting spot is a purely functional one, and one we've used before. It's not easy to find truck-sized informal places to kip in this country and this one is particularly unlikely. It's tucked away off the main road over an isthmus that's absolutely rammed with hundreds of beach-home style houses and all manner of tourist-trap stuff. Every bit of land is tightly controlled and guarded; except for the tiny scrap we're hunkered on.

In spite of the functional nature of the stopover it's been good for butterflies and dragonflies (common hawker and emperor), and has given up some good brown hare sightings.

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