September 12, 2012
Day 116: Brielle to Zierikzee, Netherlands
For some reason our tent fly was dry inside and out this morning, allowing us to pack up without any desperate efforts to first dry things out. We headed back towards the centre of town, thinking to perhaps have another little look around.
Before really getting to town we noticed a polling booth, reminding us that this day there was a national election. Juul had explained the system and situation to us a bit. I am sure most people (even most Dutch?) can not name the Dutch prime minister, or say what he stands for as opposed to those in the opposition. Perhaps that means it is not important. On the other hand, issues in this election include whether to align most closely with Germany or with France in the euro crisis, and what to do about rising costs of health care, a natural consequence of aging population. Those things do sound important. Surely though, no matter what happens today we will just peddle on, and will never know the result unless we Google it.
After the polling station we ran into the sign for our next knoopunt (node point), we said oh well, and just followed it off into the countryside.
The countryside in this case meant back to the dunes and the North Sea coast, as we ground our way around the island toward the dike (dam) leading to the next island. Zeeland comprises the delta area of the Rhine (and other rivers), and no doubt has many islands. From our point of view, though, there are four. We crossed onto the first one with a ferry (yesterday) and crossed two dams today, (putting us us on the "third" island: Schouwen-Duiveland). There remains one more dam and one ferry before we reach the "mainland" and Belgium.
The dunes and dike featured a very brisk headwind. This area is famous for winds, of course, and we expected headwind. All the same, pedalling and getting nowhere is a bit of a strain on one's patience. We took a couple of shortcuts inland, but basically if you are doing this route you are going down a coast. If the coast has wind, you just put up with it.
The windiest wind was on the Brouersdam, the dike that leads to our present island from Goeree-Overflakkee (listen - it's not me that makes up these names!). We have mentioned before that Netherlands makes use of its wind resource not only with wind mills and turbines but also with wind sports. On the North Sea side of the dam, lots of people had prked their campers and were busy wind surfing and kite surfing. We could easily see them on the one side, and the passage leading toward Rotterdam on the other, since the bike path had been placed high atop the dike. Some pessimists in our party thought this was to treat us to the full force of the wind, while optimists thought it was to offer the best view.
Coming down off the dike, we had had enough of headwind for the day, and headed for the more inland of the two dikes that could take us to the next island. Heading inland actually made little difference to the wind, so there was little benefit in our course change. On the other hand, we have found ourselves camped now just at Zierikzee, which looks to be a nice town. We will have a peek at it tomorrow.
We passed a lot of small campgrounds as we came down here. They are normally sidelines of farms. The one we stopped at is the same. One big thing about it that we like is that the camping spots are each separated by tall hedges. Also, there is almost nobody here. It means we can comfortably charge our electronics in the shower room. Plus, they have free wifi. As I usually say - that is how come you are getting to read this!
Dodie looked up at the sky from cooking, and said "Better move not just the computer but all this stuff to the shower room, those clouds are going to burst!" As usual she was right, and the sky opened within about 30 seconds. So we completed our dining experience in the ladies'. It was pretty good, I only had to flee once, when an actual lady showed up.
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Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 6,096 km (3,786 miles)
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