Day 4 - Lith to Cuijk - Floating Across The Netherlands - Tandem Tour - July 2022

July 5, 2022

Day 4 - Lith to Cuijk

In which we see a stork’s nest

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This morning the routine was a bit different. We woke up as the barge’s engines fired up at 7AM, and we sailed away from Heusden. Breakfast was served en route to our starting point: The tiny village of Lith near the bigger town of OSS.

Due to the morning travel, our start was a bit later than usual. We rolled off at about 10AM, with a fresh western wind at our backs.

Our route today was along the Maas (Meuse) river, through the wetlands that form around its meanders, and through the small towns that have lined its banks for centuries. It’s a watery world.

Robin is still marveling over the houses and gardens

Much of the route was on the top of the dikes that protect the villages from high water. With a good breeze at our back, it made for quick riding.

We passed a couple of lovely cafes in Megen, but it was too early to stop and the clouds were spitting rain at us. Leaving town, though, we spotted a stork’s nest on an old building at the edge of town. Believe it or not, we had never seen one of these in the wild before. And as a bonus, there was a baby stork in the nest!!

And junior was checking out the action down below

This was pretty exciting stuff for us, but we tore ourselves away and trundled along to Ravenstein. This sleepy little town was once the capital of a (very small) country. The tourist information office will even issue you a visa if you ask for it. But in today’s configuration, Ravenstein hadn’t yet woken up. So we nosed around a bit and continued on our way.

Onward across the dikes! We were impressed by this herd of cows, who are either part-time rugby players or are bar-coded. We’re not sure which.

Lunch was in the town of Grave, in a cute riverside cafe.

Because there aren’t enough pictures of our tour photographer

After lunch we continued on into this watery world. We passed by several large lakes, one of which had a large marina and sailboats on it.

And eventually we swung in for a landing in Cuijk, our destination for the day. We sat on a bench along the river and discussed our day, and in about 20 minutes, the Sarah came gliding up the river.

Once they were tied up, Captain Martien and Mate Romek rolled out the gangplank and welcomed us on board.

We were pretty far ahead of everyone else, so we cleaned up and took a walk into Cuijk. Our first stop was St. Martijn’s church, built in the early 1900’s

Then a wander around town and a Dutch specialty- Softijs. Robin’s been looking forward to this…

When we got back to the barge, the others were just arriving. We relaxed while watching the river traffic go by until dinner.

After dinner Robin joined an expedition to visit a local museum and climb an old church tower. Rich doesn’t do heights, so stayed on the boat and worked on this journal.

And that’s it for today!

Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 195 km (121 miles)

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