The Camarno

Take the Camarno walk around the beautiful island of Amager – depending a little on how you cut your corners, the distance is app. 50 kilometres. Walking for instance Knippelsbro to Dragør and Dragør to Knippelsbro will give you two walks of about the same distance, but the walk can of course be done with many other starting and ending points – and in the opposite direction, too 😀

You can of course choose to stay overnight in central Copenhagen (where the options are countless) but there are also options to stay in Dragør www.visit-dragoer.dk and free campgrounds in the Kalvebod Fælled conservation area (go to udinaturen.dk and look at ‘sov under stjernerne’ to find the exact spots).

Knippelsbro to Dragør

Walk along the water. For this first part, you’ll be following the Havneringen bike-route 101, signposted with blue signs – all the way to ‘Slusen’, the lock at the southern end of the Copenhagen harbour.

Just before the lock, turn left, leaving the 101, walk down through the underpass and keep going along the water for the next many, many kilometres. You’ll pass under the freeway bridge and enter the Kalvebod Fælled conservation area through the gate. Keep walking, always with the water on your right hand side, walk on the dam (the Fælled itself is below sea level and kept dry thanks to pumping stations). Once you reach the gate at the end of the conservation area, you have two options:

  1. Keep going close to the water edge, you’ll end up at the parking lot at Sydvestpynten – here you’ll need to follow the road Kalvebodvej (a car road with some traffic and no sidewalk) up until reaching signs for bike route 80 to Dragør – turn right and follow these route signs until Søvang, here you can walk on a dam at the waterfront and pretty much follow the water for a while, then you’re back following the route 80 for Dragør.
  2. Or, upon exiting the conservation area, immediately follow the route 80 signs for Dragør – this will lead you away from the water, through forest areas and you’ll avoid having to walk on Kalvebodvej.

Dragør to Knippelsbro

In Dragør, walk to the harbour and follow the little pathway along the water out of the city towards the north, it will join the Kystvejen coastal road (and the route 80) outside of Dragør. Follow the Kystvejen (Kyst = coast) along the water and with the airport area on your left, all the way up to the airport itself, walk past the petrol station and the Netto supermarket, walk through the underpass and continue up Amager Strandvej. At the intersection with the road ‘Alleen’ (and with signs for Den Blå Planet Aquarium) turn right and walk to the waterfront. Follow the waterfront through the Kastrup Harbour and up towards the Amager Strandpark beach area. At the northern end of the beach, you arrive back at Amager Strandvej. Follow this road to the end, turn left down Prags Boulevard and then right down Raffinaderivej, walking with the football fields of Kløvermarken to your left. This is a part of the Camarno, where you’re going to be a little away from the water for a while.

At the end of Raffinaderivej, turn left on to Kløvermarksvej, which curves left and turns into Forlandet, follow Forlandet until you have the incinerator, Copenhill, immediately to your right.Turn right down Vindmøllevej and walk to Copenhill (and up the hill for great views).

Walk back a little, until you reach the end of the ‘embankment’ flanking the Margretheholm apartment buildings. Walk up to the top of the embankment and follow it until it ends. Walk down, turn left and cross over the playground, then after the playground turn right through an opening in a fence and walk across the grass clad area towards the parking lot at the entrance to Refshaleøen. Walk past the 2A bus stop and turn left down Refshalevej. Follow Refshalevej past the yacht club and over the little canal from the old shipbuilding dock. You now have the wind turbines on the northern edge of Refshaleøen on you right. It’s possible to go see them and follow a road along the northern edge (on the outside of the Lynetten sewage facility) but this road is a dead end (though it would take very little work to establish a connection between the end of this road and William Wainsgade, another dead end at the opposite corner of Refshaleøen – hopefully this can be done).

Follow Refshalevej to the point where William Wainsgade veers off to the right, walk left through an open gate in a fence and aim for the waterfront again. From now on follow the waterfront down past the Reffen Street food market, the La Banchina café and then exit Refshaleøen past the 2A bus stop. There is a wooden board fence to your right, walk through gate in it, and continue down Krudtløbsvej along the water with all the house boats, until you reach the Kongebroen road, turn right and then left to enter the Holmen area. From now on you can pretty much just follow the waterfront until you’re back at Knippelsbro and have completed the Camarno.