Peter’s Blog

The weather was great today so my girlfriend Tine and I decided to take a trip to the Zoo and enjoy this nice spring day there. Do I need to tell you that we had a really good time there ? Well we sure did and not just us, all the animals looked like they liked the weather too ! Besides all the fun I think I got a lot of good pictures I hope you will enjoy too.

Here are just a few of them, if you want to see them all, please visit my online photo album here.

It was quite funny as almost everywhere we went we could see a great blue heron, at least where there was water and a chance for getting a fish. I think I got a great shot of one here.
The greater canada goose just looked good with the reflection in the water.

The lion cubs was playing on the tree branches. One would have thought they were more graceful in their movement but those was kind of clumsy….
The bird had to be a brave one, it was walking around inside with the brown bears. I think it was a nice shot I got of it.

This elephant must have had some kind of itching as it was rubbing itself against the tires.
The seagull was just a good picture and I like it.

The penguins had something looking as a pool party and they was for sure enjoying the weather.
For the first time I managed to get a picture of a tamandua anteater, normally it’s just hiding.

Every time I go to the Zoo I get a picture of the laughing kookaburras but this is far the best I got.
Well what can I say, the small-clawed otter was just enjoying the sun.

Here is a fun shot of a greater rhea, a nice closeup.
The black-tailed prairie dog had a visitor but it didn’t look like they minded the bird.

I think the camel picture is a good close up shot.
As usual the giraffes like the grass on the other side of the fence.

The weather was just too good to stay inside so we decided to take a trip to a small valley called Ramsødalen (dalen in danish means valley in English) near by. Actually we didn’t know what it was or if it was anything of interest so we didn’t know if it was worth going but I must say we very surprised as it was an experience out of the ordinary !

The fun part is that it’s only about 8Km from Roskilde where we live and we have never heard about it, nor do we know anyone that been there. The only reason that I knew about it was because I had passed a rather anonymous sign about the valley on some of my bicycle rides. One day I stopped at read the sign and thought it might be a nice place to take a little walk and I would suggest my girlfriend Tine that we should check it out one day….

And I have to say, it was a treat !! I think we walked about 10Km and we didn’t meet anyone else out for a walk so we felt rather privileged to have this all for ourself !

This valley, that is about 6Km long, was made by the melting ice about 15.000 years ago. Quite a bit of the valley is a nice piece of nearly untouched Danish nature with meadows, bogs and small lakes. About 300 hectare (741.316 acre) is a protected area and may not be changed by human. The reason is to save this kind of nature and the animals that lives in it. The area also holds an EF (European community) status as a protection area for birds. The protection also gives the public the right to explore the area to the extent that the nature isn’t suffering from it.

Besides walking in this unique nature you will see farm fields and may see various kind of grazing animals too.

Here is where we started. In parts of the marked route you need to follow there are an easy to see track but in other parts you just have to pay attentions to the marks.

As you can see, we picked a very good time for this trip. The mustard flowers on the fields were blooming and I was lucky to get close to a dragonfly.

After passing some beautiful nature we came to a stop. The marks was pointing right into a little creek and we were wondering what the meaning was. It turned out that there was a very narrow track leading to this tunnel with a small walk path.

The area here is actually belonging to Copenhangen’s water supply and the walk path was made so there staff had a chance to go through the tunnel. Isn’t the nature just beautiful ?

We went by a small creek on the main road to the water supply and later one of the bogs.

Well, I think I will let the some of the pictures speak for themself…..

Yes, this is my wonderful girlfriend Tine. The picture dosn’t show it but the grass was so high that it went all the way up to her hips.

If you like the pictures, there are more of them here.

Yes, just did another 26.2Km (16.3 miles) but not without problems. After 15.7Km I got a flat tire and had to change the tube… And I can see I’m not used to do that - it took me 11 minutes to do and I got a flashback on how annoying my mini bicycle pump is.

But if we look at the good side : The pump worked (Have only used it a couple of times in 10 years)

After all it was a nice ride and I ended up with a average speed of 29.3Km/h (18.2mph) - speed calculated without the time for the tire/tube change.

Actually my intention was to do the 26Km route but when I got the bicycle cloths on and was ready to go, I discovered that the bike was flat on the rear tire and I had to change it. Somehow I managed to use nearly 20 minutes on changing it - don’t ask me how - so it was quite late when I finally got out the door.

Instead of the 26Km I decided to just go for the short 16.2Km (10 miles) route. In that way we could still have dinner at about 6pm as usual and I could see something on the TV at 7pm that I was looking forward to.

I did it in a nice pace with a average speed of 28.8Km/h (17.9mph).