The fog came in from the sea on day 5.

Warning: All pictures are SOOC jpg’s edited in Ps Express on my tablet. They are all taken with my Fujifilm X-T2 with my XF18-135mm and with the Velia film simulation.

After three extraordinary beautiful winter days with plenty of sun and almost no wind, the weather changed to a more winter-like mood. So I decided to go for a tour in Nr. Lyngby and take some pictures.

Nr. Lyngby – a village disappearing into the sea

Nr. Lyngby was originally a small settlement – or fishing village – along the west coast of Jutland, Denmark. But today, summer cottages outnumbers the few houses in the village. In summer time, the village is full of life, and the broad, flat, sandy beach is covered with tourists, cars, kite surfers etc. The pub ‘Fishermans Rest’ has a magnificent view. Next to the pub a small kiosk sells the basic necessities and ice creams to the tourists.
In the winter season, the village is almost abandoned except for the winter holiday. All shops are closed, and the village is left to the wind, salty sea fog and the sound of the waves from the Atlantic Ocean rolling up on the beach.

The cruel trinity – storm, erosion and groundwater

Nr. Lyngby is cursed. In twenty years, the original settlement will be swallowed by the sea. A cruel trinity of nature forces – storm, erosion and groundwater – removes almost 1 meter (3 feet) of the cliffs yearly. And everything on the cliffs rushes down to the beach. Unless the owners dismantles the buildings.

The cliffs are mainly made of sand and clay. So the ground water can easily flow in the stratas. In the meantime, the weather slowly erodes the sandy soil. And to make things worse, the reoccurring winter storms washes all the sand and clay away, while the waves attacks the cliffs.

 

The cemetery

The cemetery in Nr.Lyngby is almost gone now. Only the eastern stonewall and a part of the southern stonewall are still standing. The cemetery is in fact an old graveyard from medeaval times with a small church in roman style. The church was build around 1100. It was dismantled in 1918 and a new church was build on ‘safe’ ground a few kilometers east of the village. The old belfry was left on the graveyard. Today, it is the landmark of the village. It has been moved several times to prevent it from slipping down to the ocean. At the graveyard, most of the graves are gone now, but a few graves still remains between grass and crippled bushes. Not much is left, and you can clearly see the belfry from the beach. The next three pictures is taken on various days.

The Summer Cottages

The government in Denmark has decided not to intervene in the erosions along the west coast of Denmark. Hence, also most of the summer cottages in Nr. Lyngby will dissapear over time. In the winter time, mother nature reveals her power, and just outside my rental appartment, a huge chunk of the graval road has recently collapsed.

A lonely cottage is literally ‘living’ on the edge and is next in line to slip into the sea.

Next to the red cottage, the outline of another cottage foundation is visible. From the beach, you can see the exposed foundation; when the cliffs collapses, old pipings and foundations of abbandoned cottages are revealed (picture taken on a sunny day).