September 15, 2022
Day 37: To Casteren
We were up early today as we decided to ride a long 40 kilometre day and get to the same campsite we had planned to reach today after two 20 kilometre days before our unplanned rest day yesterday. This was because the weather would be dry today but there was rain in the forecast for the coming days, so getting closer to our destination of Turnhout quickly made more sense.
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After breakfast we needed to change Kevin as he had clearly done a big poo. We both knew it was a poo from the sound and the smell, but to be honest I had lost all enthusiasm for our game and I just didn’t feel like changing a poopy nappy so I let Dea have it.
“We both know he did it, we can share the points if you want?” she offered.
“No, no, you take this one,” I said as she started to open the nappy. “What percentage are you saying?”
“Oh, 100%,” she said confidently.
Then she opened up the nappy and started laughing. There was nothing there, and my enthusiasm for the game had suddenly returned!
We had cycle paths all day today and followed them out of Veghel in the direction of Eindhoven. At one point there was something that looked like a big military aircraft flying directly over our heads and then it kind of circled back around a couple of times. Then I looked up and saw something that made me hit the brakes and cry out “whoa!”because it was really quite a sight. Dea also cried out “whoa!” although for completely different reasons. My sudden braking had caused her to crash into the back of the trailer. “Oh sorry,” I said, “I’m really sorry, but look up!”
Above us there were about a dozen parachutists jumping from the plane and falling down towards us. Within a minute and a half they were all landing (quite hard and not very elegantly) in the field right next to us and rolling up their parachutes just as the plane circled back and another dozen or so made their jumps. They were all in military gear so it was either an invasion or a military exercise. I haven’t seen anything on the news about the Netherlands being invaded today, so I assume it was the latter.
It was quite something to have seen, but the plane flew off after the second lot and if it was an invasion it probably wasn’t wise to keep hanging around, so we rode on a bit. But we were soon due a break which we took on the edge of the town of Best just north of Eindhoven. It wasn’t the nicest spot but it was fine.
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More bike paths took us between Best and Eindhoven and southwest in the direction of the Belgian border. Very good cycling infrastructure here, my only complaint is the number of motor scooters that are also allowed to use the bike paths. I don’t enjoy the speed they whizz about at. This one gave a friendly wave when he saw me taking the photo though:
We were making great progress and had already made it past the 30 kilometre mark thanks to Kevin taking an unusually long nap when we stopped for our second break. This one was in the forest at a picnic bench. It wasn’t a very big forest and there wasn’t very far to the next town, so it was a bit strange when a road cyclist stopped and asked if we knew anywhere around here he might be able to fill up his water bottles. We didn’t, of course, and we offered him some of our water, but he refused and rode off. Hopefully he made it okay.
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Another nine kilometers of bike path later and we reached our campsite for the night. The people running it were very friendly and invited us in for coffee and cake with one of the regular guests, Paula. Not sure how old she is but she showed us a video of a baby on a bike and told us it was her great-grandson. It was a nice campsite, but all caravans apart from us, and no lock on the toilet door:
The best bit about the campsite was the donkeys in the field next to our tent. Kevin had never seen donkeys before so you can imagine his face when he saw them. Actually you don’t have to imagine, I took a photo:
After we had made dinner and put Kevin to sleep, Dea went to take a shower and I sat on a bench outside the tent and watched the donkeys and had a think about things. This was our last night camping and the Belgian border is barely ten kilometres away. I felt quite melancholy, a sense of sadness that this journey is coming to an end. It has been so great and even though we are tired of it and we can’t do it forever, I don’t want it to be over. It feels somehow so right to be living this way, to be outdoors on our bikes and to be sleeping in a tent, to be altogether all the time and to be adventuring and exploring. Over the past five weeks I have felt really like myself in a way that I don’t when we are at a home, when I am stuck in one place. I have reconnected with the person I was when I travelled for so many years and I have felt more like myself and I have enjoyed sharing with Kevin who I really am. So as I looked over the fields at the trees on the horizon, grey clouds drifting in the sky tinged orange from the setting sun, I felt melancholy about this part of the adventure being about to come to an end.
But then Dea returned from her shower and came and sat with me. It was a cold evening and I wrapped my arms around her and we talked. We reminisced about all the places we had stayed and all the interesting people we met these past five weeks. It really has been the most amazing experience and by the end of our conversation I was just feeling happy and grateful that we have done this and that we both want to make trips like this again as a family in the future. And we will because it’s so important to both of us. Since we came back from cycling the world two years ago we haven’t done anything like this but now we know we can, and we know we must, because it has been and it is so good for us.
Tomorrow we ride one more time, to Belgium, with Kevin.
Today's ride: 42 km (26 miles)
Total: 1,104 km (686 miles)
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