Rømø
90 km/h on three wheels
Imagine windsurfing and replace the board with a gokart. Situate it on long Sønderstrand and let the North Sea winds take you up to 90 km/h. The sport is called beach sailing and the wind-driven toy is called a blokart. The sandy beach is 2.5 kilometres wide at low tide and you mix racing with cross, regardless of the direction of the wind.
The blokart was invented as recently as 1999 in New Zealand and is a three-wheeler reminiscent of a winter ice yacht. It is driven by a 2, 3 or 4 m2 sail. The total weight is no more than 27 kilogram, making acceleration incredibly fast. With the largest sais, all you need is a light breeze (2 m/sec) to be able to have some fun.
Sønderstrand on Rømø is huge, flat and open. The famous sandy beach lies in Vadehavet National Park outside the west coast of Jylland. Vadehavet is a marshland spanning about 500 kilometres. It extends via the German national park Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer all the way to the Netherlands.
Enormous stretches of beach are dried out during ebb tide and flooded during flood tide, attracting a huge number of birds. The difference in tidal water level reaches about two metres. Flooding due to heavy rain can cause the waters to rise to twice their size. Continuous flooding is causing Rømø to grow by one decimetre per year.
Never sailed or driven a gokart before? Don't worry about it. All you need are nerves of steel and an iron will to sail faster than anyone else. Or start the experience with a sociable cruise over Rømø's temporarily dried out stretches of beach. If you're still feeling a little chicken, you can always test a blokart taxi.
Windriders at Rømø arrange courses from April to October. The introduction takes a few hours and is open to anyone from six years of age and under 120 kg. You can also test other wind-powered toys, such as traction kites, kite buggies and kite boards.
Follow E45 to Kolding and turn off onto 65. Continue on route 25 to Toftlund (43 km) and route 175 to Rømø (16 km).
No 46 BLOKARTING / RØMØ
GOOD TO KNOW
- Activity: Blokarting
- Location: Rømø, Denmark
- Season: April-October
- Degree of difficulty: Everyone from 6 years and up with a maximum weight of 120 kg can participate.
- Other facts: Vadehavet is one of Europe's bird-watching hot spots. The most interesting bird areas on Rømø are found south of the nine-kilometre long embankment joining the island to the mainland. The biggest flocks of avocet in Vadehavet are found here.
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