Danish Mikael

Danish Mikael emerges from his small tent holding two plastic bottles, each containing a yellow fluid. “It saves me having to get out in the night”, he says. His bicycle lies nearby next to a small trailer. This is Danish Mikael's life: cycling around Denmark and this part of northern Germany looking at history, living in a tent.

Danish Mikael tells us that he's never fitted in with those around him. He's an intelligent, communicative person, but at the same time a loner. He remembers his childhood and the fights between his parents. Danish Mikael describes his father as a 'strong man'. He often visits the past.

Danish Mikael has diminishing assets. He exists on savings and state benefits. His world is shrinking, a result of all the personal difficulty locked into his life. Danish Mikael no longer has a job and colleagues. No close neighbours. No family. He has a small tent, a bicycle and a trailer.

Danish Mikael cooks, eats and sleeps in his tent. He doesn't join us in the camping site's communal kitchen. In the world of his tent, Danish Mikael looks within himself, and writes. He asks me to read a short piece he's written. It describes a woman living in a castle. She has all the material things anyone could wish for, but she sees no one. She is well fed and comfortable. She roams the castle finding rooms that give her pleasure, soothing tranquil places and dark sinister dungeons that terrify but at the same time excite her. She can go anywhere within the castle, the choice is hers. But one day she manages to see beyond the limits of its walls. She sees a world so different from her own that she longs for a life beyond the confines of the grey stone. The outside is full of life; there's a horizon.

A light rain has set in and Danish Mikael waves us off in the drizzle. He'll stay another day, he says.