August 24, 2023
Westkapelle to Ellemeet
We didn't really look at the forecast this morning, but after the 3rd guest at the camping offered us to shelter in the front tent of their caravan we thought we should have a look - thunderstorms and heavy rain starting at 11am. Perfect. We decided to pack up and get going regardless. Waiting for rain sucks and we needed to get moving if we are going to get back to Utrecht in time. We did put all our semi-dry washing in the panniers and get everything ready for a quick transition of Tobias into the trailer.
As often seems to be the case it wasn't so bad once we were moving. There was the occasional rain drop but nothing that irritated Tobias (he has the lowest level of rain frustration of the 3 of us) until we were just about at Oostkapelle. We boosted to the seaside and a strand cafe for a coffee and then ended up staying for some pretty average lunch. I think you pay for the view. It had stopped raining by the time we were done so Tobias could play in the sand for a bit before we left. I looked up some potential hotel options for tonight if it rained too much, but the sun was shining and it was hard to imagine wanting to be indoors.
We wound through forest and dunes until we caught sight of the delta works ahead of us. The windmills were all facing the right direction and we had a great tail wind across the water. In 2015 the tour de France rode in the other direction straight into the prevailing wind to provide some chaos. It is not the most beautiful ride, but it really is impressive. And getting up close under some of the big windmills is fascinating. They are so much bigger than they look from a distance.
Tobias was ready to get out once we reached Burg-Haamstede so we got our groceries there. We passed dozens of vacation parks until we reached our destination near Ellemeet. At least we thought it was our destination because Komoot said so. But it felt a lot more dodgy and uncomfortable than the camping we intended to stay in and google confirmed that we were indeed one campsite short. They lady had gone back to cutting her clients hair and so we just did a quick exit and carried on to the place we actually wanted to stay down the road.
All the campgrounds here seem to have go-karts for the kids which Tobias loves. He's too small to use them but loves to be pushed around in one. It was warm and windy so we could get all our laundry dried. Unfortunately it started vaguely raining at about 6 just as we started cooking. Nothing to chase us inside, but just put us on edge. The heavy rain held off until just after we got Tobias to bed, but we could shelter in the hedge while he fell asleep (he gets really distracted by anything while going to sleep, so we need to be out of sight for about half an hour). Its stopped now but it's wet and cold out there so I guess we are having an early night.
We both commented today that our bodies feel tired and sore on the bikes. I'm not sure if it's because we are riding more kilometers, although the lack of hills means it's not any more time in the saddle. Maybe it's that we've ridden our bikes almost 3,000km without really taking more than a few days off. Or more likely it's because we are 3 days from the end and our bodies are anticipating the finish line. In any case we have some friendly faces tomorrow because we'll stay with our good friend Gidi's parents in Hellevoetsluis.
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Today's ride: 42 km (26 miles)
Total: 3,165 km (1,965 miles)
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