One of the simplest experiences of our time around Lille Vildmose turned out to be one of the most enjoyable: stopping at a purpose-built outdoor barbecue area and preparing our own meal in the middle of the Danish countryside.
Rather than using a restaurant or eating inside the motorhome, we found a designated barbecue spot near Lille Vildmose. Having a proper place prepared for cooking made the whole experience extremely easy. We could stop, take out what we needed and spend some time outside without improvising a fire or disturbing the surrounding landscape.
It fitted the area perfectly. Lille Vildmose is not really somewhere to rush from attraction to attraction. Much of the experience comes from the silence, the enormous open spaces and simply spending time outdoors. Sitting around a barbecue gave us an excuse to remain there considerably longer than we otherwise might have done.
Purpose-built fire areas are actually part of the way Lille Vildmose encourages visitors to experience the landscape. The official visitor centre has its own fire shelter where visitors can prepare food over the fire, while other outdoor sites in the reserve have picnic tables, shelters and fixed fire or barbecue facilities. One site at Birkesøvej, for example, combines shelters with a covered firepit and grill grate.
That may sound like a very small detail, but for us it is one of the things that makes travelling through Denmark particularly pleasant. A stop in the countryside does not always need a museum, monument or organised attraction. Sometimes the infrastructure is there simply to make it possible to enjoy the landscape properly.
Around Lille Vildmose that landscape is particularly unusual. Despite its name – literally “Little Wild Bog” – it is Denmark’s largest protected area, covering around 76 square kilometres. Much of it consists of wetlands, forest and former raised bog, and the reserve is now associated with some surprisingly large wildlife, including moose and red deer.
Our barbecue was therefore not really an attraction in itself. There was no programme and nothing that had to be visited at a particular time. We simply prepared our food at the designated grill, ate outside and enjoyed being surrounded by the quiet landscape.
After many days of travelling, those ordinary moments often become some of the ones we remember best. Lille Vildmose gave us plenty of wildlife, observation points and unusual scenery, but it also gave us something considerably simpler: an afternoon outside, a barbecue and nowhere we needed to hurry to next.