Secrets and beer

August 13, 2015August 20, 2015Leave a comment

On our last day at the park, we arrived in the office at 8:30am to meet Ester and get involved in some top-secret activities. Two of the male bison are being exported to another project on Monday. (This is now Monday in the past, so we’re all clear to let the cat out the bag – or the bison out of the Netherlands!) The movement is being kept hush to allow it to happen in peace, away from press and public. It’s the first time they’re doing this type of transport, so being calm on the day is important. The reason the two males are being moved is to prevent in-breeding in the small herd. In their enclosed environment, with no opportunity to move away and find other females to mate with, the bulls would end up fathering calves with their own mothers and sisters. Eek.

So the two males (which are 4 and 5 years old) were tranquilised two weeks ago and moved to a new holding pen. They spend two weeks in the pen, acclimatising to the environment. There is a narrow corridor that they will have to walk along to be loaded onto the transport truck, and they have been led along it every few days to get them used to it. Ester was taking us for another practice round.

We got in the van and headed into the park, Ester cutting three juicy looking branches on the way to give the bison a break from eating hay. We arrived at the pen and Ester told us a bit about the design. There isn’t a lot of knowledge on the moving of European bison – there were only about 50 animals left at one time! And although there are now around 5,000 across Europe, there are very few that are kept in a ‘natural’ way, so best practice guidelines on managing animals like the ones in Holland are lacking. Many land owners with European bison feed them over winter, so they could be said to be partially domesticated. The bison here in Holland are never fed except when they have to be moved. So the design and use of the pen was taken from North America, and ranchers’ experiences with their own North American bison.

Ester with bison biscuits

There is an enclosure where the animals hang out and where they are provided with food and water. From there, a corridor leads around in a semi-circle, leading back to that same enclosure. The bison can be enticed in with tasty treats or shooed in by someone walking towards them. They walk around the narrow corridor, arrive back where they started and are none the worse off for it. So they don’t have any qualms about going down the corridor.

Up close and personal with the bison

When they are eventually ready for transport, a gate is moved and the corridor no longer leads back to the enclosure but into the back of a truck. Sneaky!

We put out the branches to entice them into the corridor, then Ester had to gently shoo them in because apparently they weren’t hungry. Once they were in the corridor, I closed a big sliding door and they walked around to go back into the holding pen. I think they were back inside before I’d even finished closing the door! Speedy bison.

Munch munch

Mission successfully completed, we headed back to the office. Dave and I had an appointment with a local journalist, which Yvonne had organised! We had a chat with him, got our picture taken and wondered whether we were going to appear in the newpaper the next day…

Picture with Yvonne before she went home – bye, it’s been a pleasure!

That evening, we were told that the village just to the north of the National Park is in the middle of their week-long annual village festival. Did we want to go along? Dave didn’t need to be asked twice and he convinced me to go even though I was feeling tired and antisocial by the end of the working day!

We cycled through the park, my need for dinner becoming more and more urgent following a day of very little food. “Dave, I’m literally dying of starvation here”, I proclaimed melodramatically, before holding onto his rucksack to get towed along for a bit.

When we arrived at the festival, we locked our bikes to a wire fence, met Ester and her husband and headed straight for a pizza house! One pizza and one beer later and I was enthusiastically engaged in the conversation. A band started playing by our table and we enjoyed watching the singer pour out his soul in a pair of neon pink leggings. Then the rest of the group appeared and took us over to the main stage, where a fantastic covers band was playing. Eight beers later, around 11pm, we were all clustered near the main stage, singing, dancing, bouncing, drinking and chatting with each other. They were such a lovely group of people and it was a fabulous evening.

One of the more exuberant bands

Around midnight in the little village

Just after midnight, everyone from the project got emailed the journalist’s article about us, which was going to press the next morning! The owner of the Highland cows kindly translated it for me and we got to look at the lovely picture.

HaarlemsDagblad-Anna_and_Dave-August2015

Coming up to 1am, we decided to head back. Ester and Jesus live in the National Park (lucky bastards) about half way back to our campsite. Dave and I didn’t have lights with us, and Ester’s lights didn’t work, so the four of us followed one little wobbly light along the unlit cycle path through the forest. It was cloudy and the moon was nowhere to be seen, but we managed to stay on the trail, mostly. Ester fell off at one point, for no other reason than she couldn’t maintain her balance any longer! Giggling, she got back on and off we went again. When we made it to their place, they invited us to stay over – in a bed, no less! I would have taken them up on the offer, but if we went home, we got to ride through the rest of the park in the dark… and that was an appealing prospect. It was such a peaceful night, calm and quiet and warm. I’d been harping on about a night walk all week and here was our chance to be out at night!

So off we went, away from the welcoming lights of their house and into the dark woods. After a minute or so, my eyes starting to get accustomed to the dark and I could make out the trail and the sky above the trees. Then we emerged from the forest and were out in the dunes, with much better visibility, although everything remained either dark grey or really dark grey. There were some horses on the trail and we managed to avoid hitting into any of them on the way! Then eventually we emerged onto the road at the end of the park and headed to the campsite and collapsed into bed – what a day!

Anna

With the researchers

August 13, 2015August 13, 2015Leave a comment

This morning we went into the reserve with Tariq, a student who is doing an internship with PWN over the summer. The task for the day was to find the bison herd, identify the female who wears the GPS collar, and record her activity throughout the day. The GPS collar has an accelerometer in it, which records the movements of the animal’s head. Tariq’s research will match up the data that the collar records with the actual observed behavior, so that in future the researchers will be able to tell what the animal is doing just by looking at the data from the collar. This will let them build up a good picture of bison behaviour and feeding patterns when they are not being directly observed.

Tariq told us his special method for finding the bison, which is to “follow the shit” (ssh, don’t tell anyone). We were walking for about 20 minutes when we stumbled on them lying in a small copse. They’re so hard to see! Unfortunately they were surprised to see us too, and soon moved off. This was the pattern for most of the morning, us catching up to them, and them moving off within five minutes! It was hot so they wanted to stay in the trees, but when they are in the trees they are more wary and you can’t get as close.

Bison hanging out in the woods

The woods were nice for us to give us some shade, but the ticks there were insane! Anna’s trousers were covered, and a few time Tariq stopped to pull off his wellies and search for ticks on his ankles. It’s awful, they’re individually easy to brush off, but there were so many, a proper swarm. If they bite you they bury their heads in your skin, so they’re a pain to get rid of. They also have a habit of climbing up your clothes or legs until they find a nice soft bit to bury themselves in. Nice. They can also give you Lyme disease, which is treatable if you catch it early, but still not exactly on the bucket list. (You can find out more about ticks and Lyme disease here: http://treesforlife.org.uk/forest/species-profiles/deer-tick/#.)

Eventually we managed to get a good view of the bison at a distance that they were happy with, so we settled down for some observation. Tariq heard something overhead and we all looked up to see a pine marten carrying some prey through the treetops. It went right above us and settled down for lunch in a tree close by. It was awesome to see it, they are pretty rare in the Netherlands (and in the UK), I’ve never seen one before, so I couldn’t believe my luck. We managed to snap one decent picture of the slippery bugger.

Pine marten!

The bison herd finally moved out of the forest, but they were too quick for us to follow so we decided to stop for lunch. After that we went back to the office to swap guides. Dario is a volunteer at the project, he has done three internships with PWN and is now hoping to get a job there, so he is volunteering to keep in touch, and spend time in the reserve. He’s also running his own gardening and renovation business to make money. Such dedication!

We went back into the park with Dario to check some camera traps. These are cameras that can be left outside and are activated by heat or movement (or a combination of both). This is another brilliant way to get great data on the fauna of an area without disturbing them. In the Faia Brava reserve in Portugal they got a positive identification of the first roe deer in the reserve using a camera trap. Dario showed us some of the footage that has been captured in the reserve, we saw badgers, foxes, fallow deer and several bird species. It’s different from seeing these animals directly because they don’t know they’re being watched so they behave naturally.

The job for the afternoon was to go round and change the batteries in the camera traps. It was another good excuse to walk around in the sunshine and chat to someone who loves the reserve!

Dario at work

One of the camera traps was positioned right next to a massive tree that had come down in the storm last week; it had a lucky escape! Sadly the camera didn’t capture the tree falling, but it had recorded a few up close and personal visits from the Konik horses and fallow deer!

When we’d finished in the park we had a quick shower then went to the beach for dinner and drinks with some of the team. We chatted to Esther, who is Yvone’s colleague on the bison project, and Ruud who is one of the rangers in the reserve. He’s worked in the park for 30 years, and obviously loves it!

When we got home we had to have one last tick-searching session in the tent. Anna found two on me, but she was clean, which is good. You need to remove ticks within 24 hours to minimise your chance of contracting Lyme disease so it’s important that you check yourself thoroughly after a walk in the long grass or bracken!

It was amazing to meet so many people today who are absolutely loving what they do! Dario likes it so much he’s prepared to stick around and volunteer in the hope that a job will come up. I hope it does, he deserves it.

– Dave

Introducing Bison in the Dutch Dunes

August 7, 2015August 7, 20151 Comment

After a week of anticipation in the dunes, we were excited to go and meet Yvonne and see the bison herd! Yvonne works for the European Rewilding Network and was the one who said that we could go ahead with our rewilding cycle tour. She has been really enthusiastic about our trip and helped us organise it by getting in touch with projects on our behalf.

We arrived at the office to meet her for the first time and she greeted us cheerily with open arms, inviting us in, introducing us to colleagues, telling us stories and asking about our journey so far. She’s exuberant and her enthusiasm is infectious! So off we went into the field together to try and find the bison, chattering about rewilding all the way.

In the overgrown dunes with Yvonne

National Park Zuid-Kennemerland is the area that houses the bison. It has an interesting history – and an interesting present – and not one that you’d usually associate with rewilding projects. When the private owners put the land up for sale, the local government bought it with view to it being used by the water company PWN. The original plan for part of the land was to use it for storing drinking water in the sand dunes. Thankfully this didn’t happen, and the land was then left as a nature area. PWN is still the land manager for large parts of the National Park, along with some other companies and individuals. Interestingly, PWN has a Nature Department and sets aside around 3% of their budget for nature projects, which is brilliant.

The National Park was largely open to the public except for an area in the south that was kept closed off. The closed off area used to be a dynamic dune system, but in the absence of large herbivores and people, the dunes were becoming increasingly vegetated. The vegetation stops the sand moving around and the dynamic dunes were made sedentary. The idea of bringing in large herbivores was to allow the dunes to move freely once again. Highland cattle and Konik horses are already used across Holland for natural grazing, but bison? Bison in the Dutch dunes?! The Director for Nature at PWN at the time was Piet Veel, who was instrumental is proposing and initiating the reintroduction of European bison here.

A local press article about the idea didn’t receive a single negative response, so ahead they went! And the results have been fantastic so far. It has been 8 years since the first animals arrived from Poland and the herd now comprises 24 animals, including 5 adorable calves that were born this summer.

The area where the bison now roam is the area that was closed off to the public. Not only is it now home to a bison herd, it is also no longer closed off to the public! There is a footpath through the bison enclosure that is open in the winter months, so people can walk along and hope to glimpse these majestic creatures. But don’t bring your dogs and don’t leave the trail! The bison are very relaxed around people who keep their distance and stay in sight.

The bison area is 330 hectares, which doesn’t sound that big, but the animals are surprisingly difficult to find. The dunes have lots of dips and hillocks, so you could be 50m away from the whole herd without knowing it! To help researchers and the public find the herd, one of the females has a GPS collar, so you can go online and track their movements every hour – very cool.

On our search for the bison, we also got to see some of the effects that the bison are having on the area.

The bison enclosure comprises different types of habitat. There are areas of open sand dunes, areas of scrub, some overgrown with trees, and a few patches of planted woodland. The effects that the bison are having are clear and beneficial. Bison love to take sand baths to scrub off insects, and the patches they use to wallow in get freed of vegetation. These sand patches are then used by lots of insects and amphibians – sand lizards even lay their eggs in them!

Bison also enjoy a good scratching post, so wherever there is a suitable branch, a sand patch emerges underneath it and the branch gets polished by bison bodies. When the post eventually buckles under the strain, the post is abandoned and pioneer plants enjoy colonising the free space.

Old wallowing patch growing back

Bison rubbing post

We walked for a few hours through the bison area, seeing where they were on the GPS tracking system and looking for traces of them on the ground. Then Yvonne spotted a small herd of fallow deer in the dunes! They’re shy so it was a pleasure to be able to watch them grazing and playing before they spotted us and bounded off into the distance. Then we crossed a sand patch and saw bison tracks! We could see where they’d walked, where they’d wallowed and where they’d relieved themselves. Onwards, to try and find them.

Fallow deer fleeing the humans

We headed through low, spiky scrub up a small rise, and looked out onto a sand flat where there was a small lake… and there was the whole bison herd! Neither of us had ever seen wild European bison before, so it was a fabulous first for us. There they were, some looking at us, just standing by the water, not fazed by our presence. They are gorgeous, gentle-looking creatures, with slim bodies, large heads and wide shoulders – oh, and sharp, solid horns! They have big brown eyes and such soft-looking fur. But Yvonne wasn’t keen on having one sedated just so that we could stroke it (such a spoil-sport).

Bison herd

Checking us out

Look how cute the little one is!

Suckling calf

We watched them for some time, seeing the calves drink and the adults ruminate. Then they started to move off for lunch and we did the same, retiring to a patch of woodland for a shady spot.

When we got back to the office we bumped into the legendary Piet and enjoyed chatting with him about the project over teas and coffees.

What a fabulous day. We’re looking forward to whatever the next few days have in store!

– Anna

Summer holiday

August 7, 2015Leave a comment

We’ve spent the last few days walking in the dunes and hanging out on the beach. The day after we went swimming, we decided to take a surf lesson. Our guide was Johnny, an Aussie surfer dude who is waiting impatiently in the Netherlands for his girlfriend to finish her degree so they can move to Johannesburg and find some proper waves. He was hilariously and explicitly unimpressed with the surf available in the Netherlands while at the same time trying to persuade us we were going to have fun.

Johnny telling us how terrible the surf in the Netherlands is

We practiced for a while standing in the shallows and jumping on the boards every time a likely-looking wave came through, trying to ride it lying down on the board. After that we practiced standing up on the boards on the beach, where it all seemed pretty straightforward. Different story in the water though as the board wobbles around underneath you as you try ungracefully to stagger to your feet, usually falling off within half a second. I managed to stand for about two seconds on my best attempt. When Anna came in at the end she said to Johnny “God, I’m knackered”. His response “I’m not surprised, you were getting smashed out there. You get an A for effort if nothing else”. So encouraging!

Surfing – actually quite hard

A for effort

In the evening we caught up with one of our friends from our old jobs, who now works in the Hague. Bobby is a triathlete from the Orkney Islands who has competed all over the world while finding time to hold down a full-time job. A proper athlete! It was cool catching up and hearing the news from home, and filling him in on what we’ve been up to!

Me and Bobby squinting into the sun

The following day Anna found she was almost crippled with a trapped nerve type pain in her leg. She couldn’t bend down to put her shoes on, or sit down for any long period. I was very sympathetic obviously, and thought the best thing for her would be to stand on the beach watching me have another go at surfing. For some reason she agreed to this, so I had another chance to ride the barrel! This time I was much more successful, and I can basically now surf like a champ. I’m thinking of taking a trip to Jo’burg myself.

Almost got in the barrel that time

The next couple of days we went for a few walks, Anna did some yoga and we did some planning for the next bit of our trip. We must have had too much time on our hands because at some point we decided we would try to not buy any plastic for a week. We found this made buying food quite difficult, which was a bit sad really. We found a nice Turkish supermarket that sells loose fruit and veg, and does couscous in cardboard boxes. Flushed with success we’ve decided to try to do the whole month plastic free. This means we’re going to need to find shampoo, soap, toothpaste etc. that comes in non-plastic packaging. I think it’s going to be tough, but I’m excited to see if we can do it!

We also met a mum and daughter who are on holiday from Germany. The mum is American but has lived in Germany for about 15 years. They were really interesting – we got talking about vegetarianism and veganism, the girl said she started being vegetarian when she saw a documentary about where meat comes from, and led the rest of the family with her. This later changed to veganism when she realised that everything is over-fished, battery hen farming is awful etc. She is only 15 now, I don’t know what age she was when she started showing such awareness, but it was definitely a lot younger than I was! It was cool to see that she was also able to persuade her family to follow her ideas as well. They also had some interesting stuff to say about the film The Shining, Stanley Kubrick and the moon landings. Apparently The Shining contains clues that Stanley Kubrick worked on faking film footage for the moon landings in case the actual landing wasn’t successful. I didn’t quite get it – but it’s a good excuse to watch The Shining again.

We also stumbled on a nudist beach the other day as we were wandering around. We were looking for a quiet bit of beach, and found one, slowy realising that everyone there was in the buff. So we thought, oh well, what the hell, and stripped off for a swim. We’ve been skinny dipping a few times in the UK, but always by ourselves (apart from once when we were surprised by a hiker in the Lake District – awkward). It was a different experience when there were loads of other people around letting it all hang out, but the water was lovely and it was quite a liberating thing to do. Apparently the world doesn’t immediately explode when you see people you don’t know with no clothes on. Maybe they can let the naked rambler out of prison now??

Swimming naked was awesome, but getting back to the sandy beach and having no towels was an issue. I thought I’d probably be able to dry myself with sand. You cannot dry yourself with sand. I had to walk back down the beach, naked and covered in sand, to wash myself off in the sea. After that we dressed, dug a firepit to keep the wind off and cooked soup on a stove. It was partially successful, our soup got hot, but the silica content became quite high, and there was quite a lot of crunch to it.

Tomorrow we’re going to meet Yvonne, the lady who has made this whole trip happen for us, by co-ordinating our visits to rewilding projects. She works on a project here in the Netherlands; European Bison living in a Dutch dune system. Bring on the bison!

– Dave

Dutch Dune Detox

July 30, 2015Leave a comment

We came towards the coast, looking for somewhere to spend a week before we meet up with Yvonne to visit the bison reintroduction project. At first, we headed to another nature campsite. But when we got there, it didn’t feel as open and welcoming as the others. After spending a night there, we felt a bit sad about the place and decided to move on the following morning.

So the next day we set off towards the dunes, battling a fierce headwind but only for a short ride of 15 km. We arrived at the recommended campsite and set up camp – in a howling gale! That evening, once we’d had lunch and done the shopping, we went for a pre-dinner stroll. We set out into the dunes behind the campsite, past a lake where some young geese were gathered, between the dunes, beside a small area of planted woodland and out onto the beach. As we crested the dune and got a view of the sea, the full force of the wind hit us and teated us to a facial sand-blasting. Giggling and squinting, jackets flailing, we ran down the dune towards the sea, ditched our sandals and ran into the waves.

This place feels like the wildest place we’ve been to. Not because it has the most exciting wildlife (don’t think so) or the fewest people (certainly not) or the least intensive management scheme (no way). It feels wild because of the exposure. Gone is the safety of the forest. No shade, no shelter, no respite from the elements. The dunes are a barren-looking landscape – sharp grasses and salt-tolerant shrubs holding the sand loosely together.

This place feels wild because of the salt, the sand, the sun, the rain and the wind. Oh, the wind, the furious wind! Reshaping the dunes and causing every plant and animal in its way to bend to its will.

One evening walk and we were starting to feel better already.

We had a slightly sleepless night in our wind-battered tent. And today, we had to go back into town for more supplies and the laundrette. Then, lunch and chores done, we headed back to the beach to check out surf board hire options. We signed up for a surfing lesson tomorrow then hired wetsuits to go for a swim. Before we went in, we were feeling a bit tired and lacklustre. But a salt water wave to the face soon sorted that out!

The waves here aren’t particularly high, but they are strong. And the longshore current is so strong that you can’t stand still in any one place at all! So we walked up-shore, waded our way out to the good waves and body surfed in the waves as we got carried down-shore, where we’d get out and walk back up again.

Paddle paddle paddle, sploosh! Wave after wave of cleaning salt water, bringing us back to life.

There’s a poem ‘On the Sea‘ by John Keats… he doesn’t go in the water, but it talks about the freedom that can be found in nature and I think it’s rather beautiful.

It keeps eternal whisperings around

Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell

Gluts twice ten thousand caverns, till the spell

Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound.

Often ’tis in such gentle temper found,

That scarcely will the very smallest shell

Be moved for days from where it sometime fell,

When last the winds of heaven were unbound.

O ye! who have your eyeballs vexed and tired,

Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea;

O ye! whose ears are dinn’d with uproar rude,

Or fed too much with cloying melody, –

Sit ye near some old cavern’s mouth, and brood

Until ye start, as if the sea-nymphs quired!

– Anna

Gentse Feesten 2015

July 28, 2015Leave a comment

We need a detox!

We met up with the Renner clan again in Gent. We managed to find some good weather and went into town to enjoy a boat ride through the historic city centre, and then wandered around enjoying the atmosphere. We also had a trip to the Gruut brewery, the last one in the city centre. The brewers once had their own church in the centre of Gent, but apparently beer sales fell as it was being built and they lost faith so didn’t bother putting the spire on. True story (according to the boat guide). The Gruut brewery doesn’t use hops to flavour its beer. It uses the far older method of using a mix of local herbs and malt. Now that is definitely a true story, and the results are delicious! I’m sure they will be appearing in the bars of Shoreditch before long.

Boat trip!

Casey always gets a bit lary after a couple of beers

Pitstop at the Gruut brewery

The next day it was raining so we went to the climbing wall. It was a sad day for me and Anna as we realised we basically can’t climb any more, but Casey discovered a new skill so all was not lost.

Hanging tough

Eyes on the prize

Campione!

We said goodbye to the family that evening, I’m looking forward to seeing them again in September! Things were moving quickly though, and we went straight on to spending some time with Anna’s mates from Southampton, who come over to the festival every year. We stayed on a fantastic canal-barge ecohostel just outside the town centre. It’s called Ecohostel Andromeda, and I strongly recommend a visit! It was great to catch up with everyone and of course we had to go on another boat trip, drink more beer and listen to more music!

On another boat!

We were both wearing nautical themed pashmina afghans under the coats

Alex and James pretending they’re not happy to be holding rainbow parasols

After several nights of drinking and going to bed too late, we said goodbye to everyone and got another train to Haarlem, where we were expecting to start our next project visit tomorrow. We found out today that things are a bit delayed so we have a week here to kick back and enjoy ourselves a bit more. Probably with less beer though!

– Dave

Holidays in Belgium

July 23, 2015Leave a comment

The last five days have been a bit of a whirlwind without much cycling! We rode to Blankenberge and met up with Dave’s siblings, their partners and baby Casey. We had two days by the concrete coast, enjoying each other’s company and Belgian beers.

Dave and I stopped for pancakes when we arrived in Belgium

It was a bit soggy on the way into Blankenberge

It brightened up for the Renner reunion

Kathleen and Casey in the swimming pool on a rainy day

At the Sea Life centre

Then Dave and I rode to Bruges to enjoy a two day B&B stay for our birthdays whilst the others took their camper van to the Ardenne.

In Bruges

The Belfry of Bruges – on Belgium Day!

Enjoying the old town

From tourers to tourists!

Now we’re meeting up in Gent for a beer festival and joining some of my friends tomorrow. It’s exhausting being on holiday! Might be glad to get riding again at the end of it all 🙂

Riding to Gent

– Anna

Dutch wind

July 18, 2015July 18, 2015Leave a comment

We woke up and set off late this morning into an insane headwind. The task for the day was to cross most of Zeeland using the roads over the famous Delta Works, and camp on the most southerly island, Walcheren.

The landscape was flat, the inland areas were all agriculture, near the sea there were lovely wetlands full of reeds and water birds. It was good to see the North Sea again!

Today was all about the wind. We were headed south-west, and the wind was blowing right in our faces all day. It was really strong, especially when we were up on top of the dykes that protect the land from the water, and the dams that cross between the islands. We only had to do 70 km but it was one of the longest days we’ve had for a while. We got to the first sea crossing and slogged across, stopping briefly to admire the view and consume a life-preserving stroopwafel.

The first crossing

The first island we got onto was pretty quiet. There were a few trees which helped to keep us out of the wind. When we got to the dam leading to the second island we found there was a long sandy beach on one side. The wind was so strong it was picking sand up off the beach and sandblasting our bodies and bikes as we crossed the dam about 100 m from the beach. We could see it coming at us in little sandstorms which hit us like a load of tiny pinpricks. On the plus side, the kite surfers were having a great time. We bought some chips and watched them for a while from the shelter of the chip cabin.

Anna enduring a sandblasting

Enjoying the wind

The second island was pretty bare and there wasn’t much to stop the wind impeding our progress. We didn’t enjoy it! At one point my super-fashionable sun visor blew off into a ditch. I eventually found it after 5 minutes of frantic searching among the reeds. Honestly it was really windy, look!

So windy

The third crossing was hard but pretty awesome. It was across the massive Oosterscheldekering, the biggest and most ambitious part of the Delta works. It is 9 km long, and contains 4 km of sluice gates that are usually open, but can be closed to prevent a storm surge from flooding Zeeland. It also has a completely artificial island in the middle of it, which has now been planted with wind turbines. Pretty amazing and puts the Thames Barrier in perspective!

Crossing the Oosterscheldekering – you can see some of the sluice gate hydraulic rams

The green revolution

Once we got to the last island it was a mere 10 km to the campsite. Thankfully the last 5 were with the wind which gave us a much-needed break!

When we got to the site there was a sign on the gate saying “Voll” (Full). Anna refused to believe it though, and was proved right when the site manager came over and told us “there’s always room for bikes”. Music to our ears! Apparently the organisation that runs this group of campsites has decided its unacceptable for cyclists and walkers to arrive at a campsite after a long day to find it full, so they reserve a little area especially for us. So good!

We happily pitched our tent, and we’d managed to have dinner, do laundry and have showers before the rain set in. Anna sat in the tent doing what I imagine was fairly constrained yoga, while I went to the shelter and chatted with a family of Dutch tourers for an hour. The two kids looked about 15 and 13, and they have done 5 tours already, starting when they were 12 and 10! Pretty good way to spend the summer holidays!

We went to bed absolutely knackered, but happy that we only have one more crossing to deal with tomorrow, and IT’S BY FERRY!

– Dave

Dutch sunshine

July 18, 2015Leave a comment

The sun started heating up the tent around 7am and turfed me out of my sleeping bag. Dave was still inside his when I had to get out the greenhouse because it was sweltering! I’m always too hot in the mornings anyway, and after a few day’s respite from the heat, I wasn’t in a good mood. But it was a beautiful day and after breakfast I cheered up a bit. Then when we got on the road, I cheered up a lot.

It was a glorious morning from the bike – cool air rushing past us, warm sun on our skin, a canal full of ducks and their ducklings. Oh, and almost no cars! And the ones that do go past are super cycle friendly, yay!

Morning ride by the water

We spent all day on cycle paths as usual, sometimes alongside a main road, sometimes between fields and sometimes through woodland or along the water. We stopped every 20km as usual to have something to eat and drink. There were some nice places to stop today. The first town we came to was Gouda. It had a market on and we stocked up on bread, cheese (gouda of course!), stroopwaffels, pastries and dried fruit.

Market in Gouda

Our second stop was just outside Rotterdam, by a lake where people were sailing. And we had some entertaining characters walking in the park to keep us amused. Several blokes were walking incredibly small, disobedient dogs that either couldn’t keep up with them or just refused to. Sadly none of the men reduced themselves to picking up their dog and carrying it home, but there was a lot of futile whistling, walking away, walking back, then more futile whistling as the dogs just ambled around sniffing at things or standing still, resting their tiny tiny legs.

Great lunch spot by the lake

After lunch, we rode through Rotterdam. It was as cycle friendly as always but a navigation nightmare! But we got to ride over some nice bridges and the weather was good so the detours went largely unnoticed.

Bridge in downtown Rotterdam. Tram lines in the middle, then cars, then bikes, then walkers! Amazing.

Dave enjoying Rotterdam (about to be overtaken by a slightly larger lady – Anna, ride faster!)

Dave happily riding over the bridge. (What detour?)

Dave happily riding over another bridge. (Detour? What detour?)

On the way out of town, we stopped at a supermarket then found a park to have second lunch in. Then we were campsite-bound. And a good thing too, it was somehow 5pm already! Still the weather was lovely and we continued to enjoy the 25 degree warmth and riding in the evening sun.

Holland is so flat

We got ourselves onto a countryside cycle path that went all the way to the campsite and arrived tired but happy, having done around 80km of gloriously easy Dutch terrain.

Dinner was an unusual treat of burgers (in burger buns and everything!) with a side of cous cous salad. It was very nice, even if I say so myself. Although I wasn’t the one trying to clean the pan afterwards!

It’s so flat that you can’t even see the horizon. The land just peters out around the curve of the Earth.

We’re at another Natuurkampen tonight and it’s just as great as the others (minus wifi). A lush green field with some trees and a shower block – ahh. It rained a bit this evening but not as much as it sounded like it should have from the amount of thunder we heard!

Tomorrow we’re riding across the islands towards the Belgian border.

– Anna

Camping on a farm

July 18, 2015Leave a comment

Aaaaah, such a long lie-in this morning! We heard Huygen get up at 6 am and went back to sleep without any guilt whatsoever! By the time we got up it was almost 9, and Emma had been out walking the dog already. I did feel slight guilt about that but never mind.

We had a really good morning chatting while we slowly got our stuff together ready to go. Emma made delicious pancakes, which we ate with yoghurt and fresh fruit. An amazing treat after having cereal every day for the last few months! By the time we were ready to go it was around 12. We said goodbye to Emma and set off. Into the drizzle.

The cycling today was easy. The Dutch have really got it nailed with cycle routes. I knew that on a theoretical level, but actually using the routes every day makes you realise how much better it is than anywhere else we’ve cycled. It feels like they really thought about cyclists when they built the roads, instead of cyclists being an afterthought. The British government could definitely learn something here!

Hm, we must be in the Netherlands

The rain was on and off all day, so annoying to cycle in! It was drizzle, otherwise know as “wee wet rain”. It comes in from the side, the front, the back and sometimes even from underneath! How does that happen?? When it’s raining, it’s awful. Then the rain stops and you get too hot in your waterproofs, and you think, hm, maybe the rain wasn’t so bad. Then it starts raining again and you remember how much it sucks.

Anna’s rain face

We stopped for lunch in a little park with a pond and a fountain. There were three groups of people fishing in the pond. One group was all kids. Is fishing fashionable with the kids now? They were getting rained on and everything. Very confusing. No-one caught anything. BECAUSE IT WAS A TINY ORNAMENTAL POND MAYBE?!

We went to an outdoor store for some camping gas. Anna invested in an inflatable pillow to go underneath her normal pillow. That’s right, Anna goes camping with two pillows now. I think she’s well on track to buy a caravan in the next few years.

As we got near the campsite for this evening we heard someone ringing a bike bell behind us. It turned out to be a lady who’d seen all our stuff and wanted to offer us a camping spot on her farm tonight. She has done a few tours herself and said that she always offers a space to people she sees riding past. We declined her kind offer because we were excited to check out the campsite we were going to, and because we didn’t want to leave ourselves with a longer day tomorrow. It was really good to be asked though! Lots of people are nice.

We turned off the main road and got onto a little single track by a canal. We followed it for a mile or so, and eventually saw a sign advertising Nature camping (it’s not the same as Naturist camping!). We went in and were shown to a nice quiet spot on the edge of some fields by an elderly farmer on a bike. The price was €12.50! That’s the cheapest of all except Portugal. What’s going on!? We were worried the showers would be cold, but no, they were steaming hot, and there was even wifi. Luxury on a budget.

The campsite is cool, it’s a working farm, but it looks like they invite people to have quite a good look around in all the barns and things, and see how the animals are kept and how everything works. We also spotted some canoes for hire; sadly we didn’t have the time or energy to go up and down the canal any more than we already have.

Camping in a field

Ducks at bedtime

Tomorrow we will go to another of the Nature campsites near the coast. It’s quite close to Rotterdam, which means we’ll be able to see the end of the Rhine, even though we didn’t cycle all the way along it!

– Dave