Aviation Tour - Maps on www.bankleft.com

After telephoning the owner for permission, we arrived over head just as the wind picked up and rain started. There appeared to be two crossed runways, one along the edge of a lake east west and one up the hill from the lake north south. I'd have landed on the north south uphill but there was a cherokee parked on the runway.

Whaa? Aeroplane parked on the runway? Nothing if not interesting, these private strips;

I was fairly sure that I could stop before it and in a worst case scenario could taxi off onto the field but I didn't really know what the field surface conditions were so not being keen to end up with the plane on its roof, we made an approach to the western runway which offered a slight gradient uphill but has tall trees just short of the threshold. I wasn't happy with my first approach so went around over the lake for a second which was much lower down, just over the trees. I should have slipped the plane sideways once over the trees to wash off speed and height as even with all the flap out and no power on, by the time I was down to landing speed at grass height, I'd eaten a third of the runway. I've never gone for the brake that fast upon touchdown before and we pulled up OK. On reflection, I think I should have landed in the opposite direction (it was a 90 degree crosswind) as the trees right on the runway threshold were worse than the downhill slope would have been landing the other way. I'll find somewhere with tall trees on final (Ejstrupholm springs to mind, maybe we can go visit Lars there next week) and practice side slipping down onto the runway to achieve the highest rate of descent possible once past the trees.

With progressively heavier rain falling, the airfield owner, Hardy rode up on a quad bike to say hello. Here he is leaning on his air conditioned tractor, "One needs some toys" he explained to Lars when asked about it.

He offered us a lift with him while he posted some mail but the problem was our bikes. After trying to fit them in the book of his Benz, we told us to jump in without them – he had another idea. At the top of the airstrip, we pulled in to his bond-villain-worthy garage with marble tiles, a four wheel drive Audi, about 10 quad bikes and Harleys and a classic Nimbus Danish motorbike with sidecar. His plan, it transpired, was to throw the bikes in the back of his Rolls Royce and take that into town instead. Fair enough. When we couldn't charge the battery fast enough to start it, we opted for plan C – put a trailer on the Benz. Into town we go. Strange day so far and not over yet.

We had an an offer from Esbjian, a friend of Rune on Samso, to put us up for a few days so we headed to his place and let ourselves in in his absence to call for a pizza. Esbjian is an architect who design and constructs houses himself and he has a place on Samso right near the airfield. Having done a large amount of traveling in his time and with a strong interest in the interplay between cultures and buildings, he was able to explain the fascinating background of some of the places that we have seen.

Esbjian has arrived at an alternative translation for some of the ancient viking rune stone inscriptions around the area and he pointed us in the right direction to see some stones and the best Gelato shops in town.


Lars lives right near Aarhus and offered to take us to a sustainable house living collective on the day that we were departing. Called Friland, it allows people to construct and live in interesting buildings with an aim of being mortgage debt free.

One example of unusual dwelling design, including PV!

This is the fellow who started the collective, showing us his fire place that forms the core of his house. Heat is absorbed and re-radiated by the huge stone core, with exhaust smoke being ducted through a labyrinth to retrieve as much heat as possible. The house is well insulated and space and water heating only requires a few logs each day;

Great graphics on the Danish Kroner!