✅Check, Check Double Check
Finally I get to go on my long anticipated bike holiday! Although I was very excited to go on this trip, especially it being the first time, I was less excited about the weather forecast.
Now obviously you can’t control everything and sometimes you have no choice but to make peace with what you get. I’ve learned that you cannot plan everything ahead. I chose this week based on a 14 days prediction, which in the end totally changed.
As you can read in my previous article I made all my preparations for this trip to the best of my knowledge and started the first day with a good breakfast, waiting for rain to pass. As you can see it will keep raining for a while so wait for the inevitabele? After packing all my bags and saying my last goodbye it was time to hit the road!
I made sure I downloaded all the route information on my Oukitel phone so I could navigate offline (which preserves battery life). When I started my trip I found out that something changed in my navigation app. If I turned off the screen while navigating the app stopped working. Because I’ve waited for rain to pass I didn’t want to take my time and find out why this was happing so I just left the screen on.
After cycling approximately 6KM thinking about my packlist and it suddenly hit me. I left my food bag in the kitchen! It not only contained my food but also my coffee! I immediately turned 180 degrees back to home while it was still worth it.
After these small hiccups I felt a little annoyed because I knew I had 84KM ahead of me and no idea if I would be on time. When I got back home, I left in a hurry and finally got going to my first destination, Lage Vuursche!
No rain no gain💪
When I decided it was time for my first cup of coffee I already was well on my way and already forgot about what happend earlier. As soon as the percolator was boiling it started to rain. Timing!
After a tasty cup of coffee I prepared myself for some ongoing rain and choose to embrace it, it couldn’t get me down anymore. It was this moment which I thought that it was a good idea to start filming myself for my aftermovie.
I was really happy that I last moment decided to take my girlfriends 3 Euro selfie stick from Action with me on this trip. I couldn’t made it possible without it.
📍Day 1. Destination - Lage Vuursche
Initially the idea was to go there by car and ride my routes accordingly, but it just didn’t feel right I mean to start your Bike holiday with a car ?! Even though I knew that the first day would be the same as my last and the route I that I’ve plannend wasn’t the most beautiful I would experience, I’m still very happy that I did. I visited places where I’ve never been before, which is always a good thing! The closer I got to my destination the more nature was showing itself and making me a happier fellow.
When I finally reached my destination I remembered the people at the reception asking me how many kilometers I had put behind for some small talk . I replied about 100KM give or take. This women starts to laugh and of course I asked her why she laughed, on which she replied, because you look still look so fresh. I didn’t really got it until the end of my trip and just took it as a compliment.
📍Day 2. Destination - Lunteren
Now to be honest I slept really terrible the first day. Not because of the fact I needed to sleep in a tent but because of my neighbors who also slept in a tent. One of these guys decided to play video’s on his phone until 2 ‘o clock in the night which unfortunately prevented me to get some solid rest. Nevertheless it was a beautiful morning. After watching the sunrise, it was time for some fresh coffee and breakfast.
I have this cool small little gadget called Thermodrop which you can measure the temperature with a min and max within a certain time period. I used this gadget throughout my holiday to see how cold it got in the night.
After a good breakfast and a nice hot shower I was ready for my second, but first “official” day in the captivating Veluwe!
When it rains it pours ⛈️
While I embraced the fact I (unfortunately) couldn’t control the weather, riding in rain is something I rather avoid.
Luckily for us we have smartphones and apps that can warn us whenever bad weather is approaching. Because of this I decided to take out my tarp to sit this one out.
I’m really glad that I decided to setup my tarp because it came down hard and it lasted for quite a while. Luckily for me I was sitting comfortably in my chair and had enough time to make some coffee!
All of this was really time consuming and to be honest I didn’t really accounted for this in my planning. I was still in a learning process considering time management. Because I put in so many kilometers on the first day I wanted to start the second one more relaxed and I read a couple of chapters of my Kindle.
At the end of the day I needed to make the decision to cut my original route by 20 kilometers considering the fact that I also needed to set up my shelter and prepare my dinner while I still had some sunlight.
It already was past 17:00 which meant that the reception was closed. I didn’t know what place was assigned to me where I could set up my tent and of course I wanted to know how the use the their sanitary facilities.
I called the emergency number because it was the only way to talk somebody. They told me they a had post office with mailboxes. Inside the mailbox started with the letter “B” there was a envelope which had all the information that I needed!
Of course I was disappointed to make the decision to cut my route but I was glad that I could setup my shelter before it started raining again. As soon as my dinner was ready it started to rain and the wind started to blow, hard enough that my tent and tarp stakes came out of the ground. Luckily it didn’t last long and I could finally eat my dinner. I was exhausted!
📍Day 3. Destination - Doorwerth
I had some really good sleep this time. No loud neighbors keeping me up! It was a good, dry and sunny morning. Generally a good way to start the day. After some breakfast and a good shower it was time for day number 3!
As you can see my bike was really dirty from the day before, all covered in mud and dirt. I could get most of it off using my Sea to summit watercell X.
I passed the so called The Grebbe Line (Dutch: Grebbelinie). It was a forward defence line of the Dutch Water Line, based on inundation. The Grebbe Line ran from the Grebbeberg in Rhenen northwards until the IJsselmeer.
The route was really diverse from the forest to the countryside and then from one lush estate to another. I really had some fun today especially because I had the weather on my side this time.
There are farmers who actually sell fresh products nearby their farm for which they build a convention little shop. There was this one farm Where I seriously ate the most delicious apple pie EVER. When I complimented the staff about this pie they said it just came out of the oven!
Now the area where I was riding was according to Dutch standards pretty hilly. I remember this one hill it’s called “Holleweg” which was a pretty decent climb!
It was a really good day to ride my bike and a very interesting route with many history and monuments. I arrived on my destination well on time (lessons learned). It was a good thing because the weather forecast for the evening was not really in my favor. The camping where I slept that day had a private bathroom and toilet right next to the campsite, which was pretty sweet!
Because I setup camp pretty early, I had time left to do some groceries and get some dinner! I noticed that I almost run out of gas. I decided it was going to be a next day problem, I already checked my route and knew where I needed to go to buy a new cannister.
When I came back from groceries it was already raining and I actually turned the small bathroom into my own private cinema to spend the evening and watch a movie.
📍Day 4. Destination - Wilp
Even though it rained all night long I slept like a charm. I actually woke up because of this little guy. Lucky my official alarm went off a little bit later!
I was just really glad it didn’t rain in the morning, it makes life so much more enjoyable. After a good breakfast, shower and a couple of timelapses it was time to hit to road! Time for day 4!
The route of this day was my favorite one of all. Riding trough this landscape was very beautiful, it was almost like I was not in The Netherlands anymore because normally everything is really flat. It is part of the municipality of Rheden. I highly recommend that you check it out for yourself someday!
I stopped for a cup of coffee at a rather funny place called “De Spelerij – De Uitvinderij“. It’s a place for children to have fun and play but also be creative. They want they visitors, young and old, to fall back on their imagination (again). And on their self-confidence, self-reliance and resourcefulness.
I past a monument called “Priesnitzmonument” also known as “Torentje van Jut”. It was named after Vincent Priessnitz who is generally considered the founder of modern hydrotherapy. A Dutch person named Jut van Breukelerwaard who suffered from rheumatism went to Germany for cold water treatment and the therapy turned out to be successful, hence this monument.
As I mentioned earlier I was running out of gas. After a very nice route I arrived at camping “De Wapenberg”. After setting up my tent I went to visit Decathlon in Apeldoorn to a new cannister of gas. I still needed to eat dinner and I thought to myself while I’m a “big” city like Apeldoorn, why not search for a restaurant? I tried my luck in hotel/restaurant Van der Valk. I wasn’t really dressed for the occasion but I got a table nonetheless. It was a really good end of the day.🍷
📍Day 5. Destination - Hattemerbroek
It poured like crazy in the night. It rained so hard on my tent that it made me look for any potential leakage. It was difficult to go back to sleep because it was absolutely pouring out of the sky.
Now because of these wet conditions lately it was perfect for snails. While I was inspecting my tent for leakage I saw that they were on my inner tent roaming around. Waking up in these conditions made me eat my breakfast in the shower area because it was very spacious and I just got so sick of the weather outside.
It was only for a short period of time that it stopped raining and I got to see the sun a little bit in the morning. Enough time to pack up my gear as dry as possible to get ready for day #5!
For the first time in my life I was riding my bike for 1 hour straight without encountering a single person. I didn’t realized it at first because I was busy recording the trip trying to get different angles and like usual it was raining again.
One of my highlights of this day was that I met a older couple from Belgium who where also on their bike holiday. What really made me happy was how proud they were on how long they already owned their gear and they told me they took really good care of it.
Overall it just was a really wet day without seeing much sunshine. I was able to get a lot of footage for my aftermovie. When I arrived at Molecaten Park De Leemkule I had the whole area to myself with nobody around me. It made it possible to do a really nice setup with my tarp and tent. I really liked the facilitation, the one downside was it was next to a highway so you do hear cars going the whole time.
Because the food was really great in the restaurant the day before I wanted to go somewhere this time to. I went to Herberg Molencaten nearby my camping which was pretty convenient!
📍Day 6. Destination - Lage Vuursche
Even though this day was not my last, it did feel like it. The reason was because the route of the next day would be the same as the first. All the more reason to enjoy this day even more!
I got this notification on my phone from Apple Health who noticed a trend in my average burned calories per day. I wonder why.
Now the one thing I did regret which I didn’t thought about at all was maintaining my bike chain. As you can see in previous photo’s it was really getting dirty and I tried to clean by rinsing it with water but it was not sufficient. While riding it started making more and more noise, like a squeaking group of birds.
I really needed to stop and try to clean my chain as much as possible. The weirdest thing just happend to me when I stopped alongside the road while cleaning.
A cyclist passed me really fast with his racing bike. A few moments later he came back and started a conversation by saying: God loves you. Can you do something with that? He really caught me off-guard and my answer what came to mind was simply. No. He replied but you love to ride in this area yeah? Everything here is created by god. If you let him into your hearth it’s even more beautiful he said. I told him I’m not into religion on which he began about how the world is in a terrible place right now and I told him I just want to enjoy my trip on which he (thank god) understood and left.
I was able to clean it so it didn’t made an awful sound anymore . After this it was time for a coffee break!
Just before I reached lake Nijkerkernauw I saw an opportunity in Putten to eat one of my favorite fish, herring! I took me more time to wait for the preparation then to eat it, it was delicous! I was really in the mood to threat myself because well yeah, it’s a holiday right?!
I called the reception of the camping and told them I would be later and asked them if they could leave my card for the showers for me when I arrive. I wanted to enjoy this day as long as I could.
It was for this reason I had my dinner a little bit later than usual. I was starving! I ended up in a restaurant called “De Generaal” in Baarn. A particular drink came to mind and I couldn’t resist ordering it. It was a lovely Gin & Tonic. It went straight to my head because you shouldn’t drink on an empty stomach. It was definitely worth it.
📍Day 7. Destination - Schiedam
All good things come to an end and so does this adventure. I’m really excited to do this more often and maybe even abroad. It was inspiring and I’ve gained many new valuable insights. I’ve had a good night sleept and I even made a new friend in the morning who was also going home to Switzerland after riding his bike all the way to The Netherlands.
