© E. Heijn 2012  Life is like riding a bicycle;to keep youre balance you have to keep moving Albert Einstein

Heijn’s Bicycle Site

2008-7-29 Tuesday


I planned to leave at 6.00 hours, but a heavy thunderstorm prevented. Around 6.30 I could resist myself anymore, so covered with my rain paints and jacked I was away. After a while the rain stopped and the sky cleared although sometimes dark clouds were covering the sky it almost stayed dry all day.

The route I planned to follow was the LF13, a well known route in this family. Using my GPS, maps from internet and the signs pointing out the LF13 it should be fairly easy to find my way.

It should, but sometimes the sigs, the GPS and the map contradicted each other. I then tried to find out what the shortest way would be.

My first real problem arose in Belgium where I completely lost the trail and my only way back to the trail was a muddy track.

My second problem was using the trail the GPS proposed through the woods of Chaam, from Ulvenhout to Alphen. In 1999 the bicycle path was terrible, now it was even worse. When I arrived in Alphen the micro SD card of the GPS was completely rattled loose and only the track and the world map were available. From the American point of view Alphen resided in Belgium (what they know). With bit of fumbling with the SD card and I was back in the Netherlands!

Let’s just start out from home. Like I told you before, it stated out raining, but just a bit on the road the sky went dry and stayed that way during most of the day. Crossing a new piece of technique (the new Sloe rail track) I undid my rain pants and jacked. The sky was cloudy, but the sun tried to get trough. It was a magnificent vies.

Around nine o’clock I took my first brake and I phoned my dad to give him a first update about my progress. When the day grew older I passed by I lot of bicyclers and even of the crazy kind like me, going on holyday. Around ten I left Zeeland and entered Brabant.

At Woensdrecht I looked at the high country. It was a bit hilly for just a flat country.

Through the woods near Bergen op Zoom I followed the sigs and made a detour just to pass the Youth hostel. Very nice but too much mileage! Very nice, only if you want to visit the Youth hostel.

After a short stop in Nispen and Horendonk (Belgium) where the route went wrong (or I) I entered the woods of Wallestein. In the woods is the oldest inn of Holland (1653). It is called Op ‘t Anker. It was a stopping place for peat ships on their route for Breda. We were there before so I stopped for a cup of coffee and a piece of apple-pie. With the boost of the coffee I continued through Brabant.

In Ulvenhout I used a part of the bread from home. After that the pain of a rotten bicycle path started. The path was badly laid, with a lot of bumps and holes and it was not wide enough for two bicycles! The only good point was the encounter of a deer on the path. It just points out how little people used the path due to the neglectence.

From Alphen I went on to Oirschot via Hilvarenbeek and Diessen. In Oirschot I feasted on a water ice cream. It was around half past five.

Along the Wilhelmina canal it went on, just straight on to Stad van Gerwen. I was lucky to tail on another bicycler so it was easier to keep up the speed.

It was 18.45 I arrived at my father’s house. My average was 20 km/h and I did 199,83 km in this day. I saw I lot of wild life like hares, rabbits and a deer. I saw three different kinds of woodpeckers and a lot of birds of prey. By Jove, a nice day.

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