LAND 45 A little late, I left the car by the museum and headed straight towards Hestehaven, a large lake deep in the woods, choked with reeds and difficult to approach.
I continued through the dense woodland along a barely detectable path that took me over a ridge and back down into Ravnedal. I emerged wet, muddy and disoriented from the forest, and enjoyed the great view across the valley. Here I sheltered from the light drizzle under my tarp and painted the burnished golds and yellows of the beechwoods.
The rain soon abated and I continued, zigzagging through an undulating agricultural landscape along narrow country roads, surrounded by waterlogged loamy fields and patches of woodland. The weather was changeable, the sky dynamic, and there was a pleasing energy to the day. I made several small landscape studies in my sketchbook.
I walked along a busy road for a while, walking briskly as cars raced by. I paused briefly to sketch some Rooks feeding amongst the stubble.
Taking a quick detour to some Iron Age rock engravings, I sheltered from the wind behind some low blackthorn bushes. Nearby, a rather flamboyant wind-sculpted hawthorn was accosted by a rowdy gang of fieldfares.
I walked parallel to the main road along an unmetalled track connecting a long row of farms, with great views of the sea beyond. A chance encounter with a pair of twite, my first for many years, cheered me up immeasurably. For the first time on the LAND trip, I had the sensation of returning to the beginning – the undulating landscape with views east to the sea, the cold and windy weather, the bare trees and barren fields – all conspired to remind me of the first LAND trips many, many months previously, and of the circular nature of the LAND project, and indeed of the year.
The day was slipping away, and I still had a way to go. I headed west along a small road, then dived back into the woods, following a new walking route, the ‘Højlyngsstien’, for a while. Deep in the woods, I arrived at the Ole Christiansen’s sculpture park – scores of organic granite forms standing in the grass. I started to draw each sculpture, aquatinting myself with the soft and convoluted shapes of each and every sculpture, quickly feeling a stronger and deeper bond with the artworks, and indeed the artist. I was reminded of the transformative nature of the act of drawing – the power of really looking.
I took a side path into Krubbedal, a dark and overgrown rift valley with steep granite sides and a mass of fallen rotten trunks. The path slowly disappeared, and I found myself trapped in a brambly, thorny dilemma. It took me far too long to find my way out and there was no time to make it all the way to the day’s destination, Olsker round church – lit in the distance by the last rays of the setting sun.
The day was done, but I still had to walk all the way back to the car, through the woods again, only this time in the dark.
LAND 45
WEATHER REPORT – Overcast majority of day, some brief sunny spells and light rain. Temperature 7 – 9 degrees. Wind 5 – 6 m/s, from the southwest. Hours of precipitation: 0.5 hours. Hours of sunshine: 0.5 hours.
STOPS with the BIVVY – 1
KILOMETRES WALKED – 13.96 km
DAY LASTED – 8h and 41 m
PEOPLE TALKED TO – 2
BIRDS SEEN and HEARD – 36 species (1 new, twite) = 134 species in total.
LESSONS LEARNED – I often collect seeds as I walk, and I found out that the seeds of Norweigan angelica in my pocket had an incredible citrusy smell.
IN MY HEAD – Impending biogas meeting, the awful film I watched last night, ‘Sådan er det’ by Supebandet, Panama.
www.benwoodhams.com 