LAND 26 Swathes of velvety mist lay draped low on the fields and valleys, while above the sky was clear. I positioned myself at the eastern end of Ekkodalen (‘Echo Valley’) and got straight to work. A pair of trumpeting cranes flew overhead, and the intimidating bark-screams of roe deer echoed between the valley’s sheer granite walls.
Ekkodalen was to be my venue for most of the rest of the day. Bornholm’s largest rift valley, it is a deep scar running through Bornholm, beginning at the beach at Saltuna – where I started LAND half a year ago. Here, in the centre of the island, the valley is at its deepest and most impressive, the mauvish-grey granite walls rising vertically from the narrow valley floor. Ekkodalen is a popular tourist spot on Bornholm, and the shouts of tourists calling for their echo accompanied me for much of the day. For now though, and for many more hours, I had all of the valley to myself.
I carried on along the valley, looking back to where I had started.
Before crossing the valley floor, I made one more study of the granite façade. The day was overcast but pleasant enough with an even and stable light.
I climbed the steep stairs up and switched back, walking through the tangled oakwood along the edge of the valley walls. At various points a break in the foliage enabled a clear view down to the valley floor and the path below. On the face of a large granite rockface, an ‘Ozymandius’ moment, as I struggled to read Bergsø’s rather faded poem to Hans Rømer, one of the island’s most celebrated sons, who was responsible for founding, fencing and planting huge areas of Bornholm.
I carried on through the forest and then back down to the valley, which I followed up to Gamleborg – ‘Old Castle’ – a fortified settlement built in Viking times. The stronghold was abandoned long ago and only some granite walls remain – Bornholm’s oldest stone structure. I stopped here and rested under the shelter of my tarp as it had started to rain.
Now I switched back again and walked in the forest parallel to the valley, through mature beech forest and huge fir plantations. These familiar paths have been incised into my very being through countless walks and runs and I felt completely at ‘home’.
I sat on ‘Dronningesten’ and looked across the valley and further still, across the newly diverted Læså, over fields and all the way to the distant Baltic sea.
I walked along the edge of the valley and then switched back once again, descending to the valley floor and walking along paths very familiar to me, but seeing them with new eyes. The dark forest in the rain is a magical place and the immersive surround-sound of the falling rain seemed to concentrate my vision.
Time was running out and regrettably I picked up my pace. I waded through the long soaking grass of Egeholm, ending up on the edge of what had once been a huge lake, and later still a wetland area, before being drained for agriculture. This huge area is now being rewilded – the drainage pipes destroyed and the Læs stream returned to its original course. I looked out over the fields at the cranes, geese, roe deer, and hare, and felt encouraged.
From the birdwatching tower at Kjærgård, I looked back towards the Ekkodalen and the forest. Overhead, recently fledged marsh harriers chased and gambolled in the wind. From here it was just a couple more kilometres to my house, where I arrived just as the sun set behind the clouds, exhausted and elated, half through the year, and half way through Bornholm.
LAND 26
WEATHER REPORT – overcast most of the day, raining in the afternoon. Temperature 16 – 19 degrees. Wind 2 – 6 m/s, from the SW. Hours of precipitation: 6 hours. Hours of sunshine: 1 hours.
STOPS with the BIVVY – 2
KILOMETRES WALKED – 13.30 km
DAY LASTED – 17h and 17 m
PEOPLE TALKED TO – 0
BIRDS SEEN and HEARD – 44 species: 1 new (spotted redshank), running total = 118 species
LESSONS LEARNED – the Yr weather app is rubbish
IN MY HEAD – I was thinking a lot about the wonderful week teaching watercolour at the Højskole, about the fantastic students, the things I said to them about painting (value, colour, intensity, etc) and the Højskole itself – the singing and socialising.
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