itsmylife: The Netherlands 1.

Wed 24th.
670km mostly in the right direction! 1000 by the time we were off the ferry. Goodbye's and good lucks all round as we Brits set off on our various jaunts.
Time to bite the bullet and head out into the Dutch bike/traffic system again. It's a bit disconcerting to have big lorries waiting for bikes to cross first, you imagine they're going to wait on a quiet bit of road and getcha!
I was given some directions by a Stirlingshire couple who had ridden 'The Dunes Route' before, about zig zaging across the sluices rather than getting sucked into the city traffic. All was going well until I found myself in a factory! However, a guy pointed out the correct route and I was off again; a short while later I cross checked my directions with a police officer who confirmed I was heading in the right direction and I should follow signs for Wijkiaan Zee. Found it, found Noordzee Route markers and was away to the dunes.

The Noordzee...(That's as close as I got, it was freezing)!

Into the Dunes...

An assortment of trails led through through dunes, mostly well marked, the trail surface I was on ranged from 2m wide tarmac or locblock to 1m hard packed gravel, all good fast surfaces. 1530 and I'd passed a number of Camping signs and thought "Right, next one", but of course there wasn't one until, at 1820 I stopped at Camping Corfwater. All I could see were caravans!! I thought "I've been here before" and I'm not sure this will all make sense to the Dutch police! The reception opened at 1900 and yes, tents permitted.

A host of golden daffodils awaiting harvest

Blue flowers

More flowers, different colours

Windmill!!! 1st this trip

Tent up ready for night 1 in Holland

Thursday 25th. A dismal morning, a wet tent to pack and what looked like more wet to come; in the end it turned out to not be such a bad day.

Breakfast apple pie and coffee,
the wee glass had a shot of something like Baileys in it!

Dalek!

A bit more 'dune' navigation along with local info got me to Groote Keeten and from there to t'Zand where I found a camp site about 2k past the village. My bike was parked wheels uppermost as I was having to do a bit of spoke tightening on the rear wheel.

Camp 2 and sick bike

A guy staying in a caravan on the site wandered over and asked if I and my bike wanted to be taken to a bike shop! I said I thought I'd got it sorted and thanked him for the offer of a lift when his wife shouted that the coffee was ready!! Sat in their caravan talking about my route through thr north of the country he suddenly nipped out to his car and brought back a road map which he gave me saying "he now only used his sat nav!! 24.3k done, I think I was paranoid about getting a camp site sorted before too late in the day.

Friday 26th. I didn't think 0800 wasn't a bad start time after packing camp stuff away. Pedalling into a cold headwind across a small dyke to Hippolytushoef, I was on the hunt for a 'recommended' bike repair shop. I'd discovered my bike had a broke spoke. The info I'd been given was spot on, I found the shop but the lady said her husband was away delivering some bikes, would I leave my bike and come back at one. I'd explained what the problem was and that I wanted to get across the Ijsselmeer Dyke that afternoon. Anyway, back at 1300 after some lunch and a supermarket forray for cheese and bananas, there was the bike with a tag on its handlebars. "It's done"? I asked, "Yes" she said, "I made my husband fix your bike before his meal"!!

Hippolytushoef

All fixed and ready to roll

There followed a 32k thrash into the wind across the Ijsselmeer Dyke (Even I wasn't aware that I knew such language!!). Around 11645 I made it into Zurich (Not that one), A small village just south of Harlingen. Total that day, 63.3k.

View back on the Ijsselmeer Dyke, 32km of headwind!!

The midway cafe

The way forward

Commemorating the workers

Saturday 27th. Zurich - Sint Annaparochie (The Old School at Nieuwebildtdijk). Some sun but still a cold NW wind and mostly in the face! Followed the coastal dyke cycle trail into Harlingen tourist info office, got some better maps, accommodation info and finally got the numbered junction system sussed.

Made it to Harlingen

To the Old School House, I was the only one there, great, the place to myself; a big wood burning stove was soon flashed up and the place was toasty. Food on and an early night. 39.6k.