10 July 2016 (sunny, warm morning, hot arvo and evening) 30 km

I’ve found it interesting on this trip how we have developed ..”a knack”…or an ability to do something. I had wondered over the years whether I would ever have ..”a knack” ..for anything, but we have definitely discovered ours. It is the ability to pick somewhere to camp…..where the noise will be the loudest possible. The town we are camped just outside of is a non- descript sort of place….I can’t see any supermodels originating from here. There is no mention on any info boards that Albert Einstein was in fact the illegitimate son of the local bordello owner and in most respects it seemed another out the way, run of the mill town. However, last night after putting up with a bunch of noisy drunken “boule” players….the worst being a loud mouthed woman who wanted the whole world to know that she was having fun, we eventually get some peace and settle down for the night.  Until….after having slept soundly for an hour, I woke to the sound of music…….and it wasn’t the Julie Andrews version. I should have mentioned that when we first arrived in Haarksbergen, they were setting up for what looked like a bit of a festival. Stages…stalls….fun and games for the kids. Whilst our boule players were making such a din, we could hear in the background, the music from the town and whoever was playing, was doing a fine job of it.  Roll on 12.40am…had the breeze shifted….had the road crew managed to push the stage further up the road toward the camp, for fear that we might miss out, but now it was loud. I used to attend these festivals at every opportunity and in fact was only talking to Julia yesterday about one we have in N.Z. held during the day, when we get some of the good older acts performing. But age….and a lack of sleep have me preferring to catch some zzzzzzs at 12.40am rather than a Lady Gaga song. Give them credit though….they did stop at 2am on the button…..thank God for noise control!

I have no idea what time it was when I woke to the most terrifying sound of all….that’s right, the high pitched whine of mosquitos. Swatted at a couple in the darkness, but they kept whining, so I turned the headtorch on. I couldn’t believe the amount that were inside the tent…..and how the hell did they get in?  Had they snuck in, while we were setting up and managed to camouflage themselves in the seams and zip linings? Whatever…..it was a full on mosquito fest…!  Julia, normally one to tell me to turn off the light and go to sleep, was also amazed at the numbers, as we both clapped and swiped at the little bastards. The outcome after twenty minutes of this was blood splatters all over the inside of the tent. It looked like a scene from a Baghdad bombing. Settled in for the remainder of the night, but upon waking this morning discovered at least eight buzzing around in between the fly screen mesh and the inner, all of which when squished….produced blood samples…..no guesses as to whom they belonged.

A small portion of last night's body count

Up and began draping clothes over the bikes and laying it out on a black plastic rubbish bag, to absorb the heat. They don’t have such simple things as washing lines over here and if they did, believe me, they would charge for it. They charge for everything, showers, hot water to wash dishes, $10 for a load of washing, same for the dryer if you need it and that would normally take longer, hence cost more. 

Church in the village of Rietmolen

After breakfast we packed up and after Ju had checked directions and any e-mails, we slowly rolled out of camp.

The cycle system in Holland is great and we followed this all the way to Lochem, where Wendy, Bart, Jenny and Kate live. Arrived there around 1pm with just Wendy and the girls home as Bart was playing in a tennis final. Sat talking and catching up before Wendy took off to see a friend. We had something to eat, then went to watch Bart play. Arrived just as he finished. He’d lost that final,

but had won the mixed doubles. Sat around with people from the club over a few drinks just chatting and relaxing in the very warm sun. 28 degrees today and it felt even warmer. Cycled back to the house where we had a barbeque for most of the evening. Wim, Wendy’s father came with his wife Kerry and one of Bart’s friends, Walter. It was an enjoyable day, very relaxed for us with only the short 30km journey from the camp on the bike. Around 10pm, as the night was setting in, Bart and I rode just down the road to his allotment, a small patch of garden where he grows a wide variety of veges for home use. They are off on holiday on Friday to Croatia, a sixteen hour drive for them. We are staying tomorrow, which will give us time to catch up with stuff we need to organise, such as ferries, times we’ll be places etc. We’ll also go and pick the raspberries on Bart’s vine as he is working all week and won’t have a chance. If not picked, they’ll go rotten so a pickin we will go…!