At 9 o'clock we set off from the horse farm and faced the rainy day.
We headed north with a strong backwind, but on the first downhill the missis lost control of her vehicle and paid an unplanned visit inside a straw bale.
Nevertheless, we made it to Hvalpsund and caught the ferry across to the Salling peninsula.
A local "naturist" greeted us as we steamed into the harbour at Sandsøre ...
... and we continued northwards to another ferry and then Fur, a small island in Limfjorden north of Salling.
Fur is all about kieselguhr / moclay / diatomite (moler in Danish). The island's north coast has large cliffs where layers of light diatomite and dark volcanic ash are exposed. The deposits are about 55 million years old.
The diatomite consists of zillions of minute silicate skeletons of tiny dead algae that once lived in a sub-tropical ocean in this region.
That ocean had fishes, reptiles and what not. Marvelous fossils from that time (55 mio ago) have been found and are now exhibited in the small local museum.
After the museum, we shopped at the local coop and biked to our B&B in an old farmhouse (where everything is in the style of the 1960s). We got some lunch and dried the wettest clothes.
Then we headed out to explore some of the island wonders, like this diatomite stand-alone ...
... and this pit mine where c. 100,000 tons of diatomite are harvested annually. The mining company's primary product is CAT LITTER – exported from Fur to the world's furious fur cats who own an indoor toilet tray with moclay granulate with excellent absorption characteristics.
– – –
Tonight we sense some improvement in the low overcast and wet weather. Hope for a dry day tomorrow (May 31, the last day of spring) when we'll bike south-southwest via Spøttrup to Sevel.
