September 10, 2022
Day 32: To the forests west of Arnhem
Today was supposed to be a nice short day riding through the forest. Because we weren’t going far, we considered spending the morning with Krista and Michel and not leaving until Kevin’s second nap, but in the end we decided to leave at 9:30 when he was ready for sleep number one. It would prove to be a good decision although it didn’t feel like it when it started to rain moments after we hit the road.
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The rain didn’t last long but we nevertheless decided to take our first break a bit earlier than usual in Hoenderloo when we saw a sheltered pavilion on a park. Such a place to get out of the rain was rare and wasn’t to be passed up! We sat outside it on the grass ready to run under cover if needed, but in the end it didn’t rain during the break. We did have a visit from our wasp though. It is remarkable but I really do think this one wasp is following us the whole way because there is always just one wasp that has shown up at every one of our breaks. It even came in the tent yesterday when it was raining. I thought maybe we should give it a name. “What about Willy?” Dea said.
Hoenderloo was a strange place though with so many tourists coming and parking cars before walking into the forest, and buses taking people on tours. It seemed a bit strange that everyone wanted to come to this village and to go off and see the forest.
The reason for the tourists became clear when we tried to cycle out of town to the west into the forest. There was a lovely looking cycle route through the forest I had planned for us to take, but we couldn’t get to it because there was an entrance gate and a ticket booth. It seemed this forest cycle path wasn’t free. The stern woman behind the glass informed us that this was a national park, and if we wanted to enter it we would have to pay €11.30 each.
This was news to us, and the lovely bike ride through the forest just got a whole lot less appealing. I mean, I’m sure it must be a nice cycle path and all, but not 22 euros nice, surely. I couldn’t believe they were charging so much for what was basically just a forest, and that so many people were willing to pay money to enter it. The Counting Crows song Big Yellow Taxi came to mind:
“They took all the trees, and put em in a tree museum, and they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them.”
We checked the map and decided that we would cycle around the perimeter of the park instead, on paths beside roads. This turned out to be a good decision because it was a very fine ride that was basically still through the forest and we didn’t have to share the path with hundreds of tourists.
South of the national park was the campsite where we had planned to stay, but unfortunately when we got there we found a sign saying that they were fully booked up. We hadn’t worried about this because of it being so late in the season and the other campsites we’d been to had been so quiet, but I guess this one was close to a very popular national park. We called the owners but they confirmed that they had no space for us.
At this point Kevin had been in the trailer a long time and was getting upset so we needed to take a break. It was threatening to rain again though and we could hardly put the tent up to keep dry in this full campsite, so we cycled out the back of it on a trail into the forest and found a place to take a break.
After a while the rain came and so we quickly put up the tent. We were a bit surprised to see Willy the wasp flying out when we opened it up to get inside. He really is a survivor! The rain didn’t last long and we were nervous about the Tent Police. Somehow putting the tent up in the forest just outside a campsite just outside a national park made us feel like we would be more likely to get a fine and a criminal record. So when we saw two figures walking down the trail towards us we hurried to get the tent down before they could issue us with a fine and a Dutch criminal record. It was clearly an old couple walking their dog but it was still a relief to see the tent collapse and them turn to walk the other way.
We made a new plan to head for another campsite ten kilometres away. It was lucky we had left early this morning! With our detour and now this we were cycling almost double what we had planned. But the cycling was nice, on bike paths through forest away from the traffic, and it didn’t cost us a cent.
The campsite we found is a nature campsite, more like the sort of campsite you might find in North America, with tents and campervans dotted about amongst a wilderness area. We were free to find our own place for our tent amongst the trees and wait for someone to come round in the evening and collect the money. We joked that we could go around and pretend to be the owners and we’d make some extra cash for the journey. Given the number of campers we’d be able to rake in a good 400 euros. If only we could speak Dutch.
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When someone did come around for the money it felt like maybe it was a chancer faking it for the cash. It was a young guy with a dog who had to look up how much it would cost for two people and a tent (€19.80 and he had no change, sorry) which seemed a bit steep for such a place. It was lucky we had stuck to free bike paths today! But he was actually a really friendly guy who stopped for a long chat and told us that this was the oldest nature campsite in the country; almost a hundred years old. If he was stealing our money he was a very good actor.
“If he is acting then he deserves the money,” Dea said.
Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 990 km (615 miles)
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