Wednesday August 3, 2022, 57 km (35 miles) – Total so far: 2,377 km (1,477 miles)

Holland is becoming hard work! Yesterday we were following a well-marked cycle route which would take us to the coast, but because we got so far off the route trying to find a camping spot the previous night, we got a little lost today.

Mike used his Garmin to navigate, but it kept trying to send us down non-existent paths. I know, we’ve been here before! Then we thought, we’re in Holland, they have cycle routes everywhere using a number system. Every so often there would be a board with numbers on, showing you all the routes. So we knew we wanted to head west, so we collected all the numbers we needed to follow and I wrote them in a note on my phone. Then we were off.

It was actually a lot of fun. Follow the 2, then the 1, then the 70 etc, etc. Then we got to a board where the numbers had rubbed off. Oh well, let’s just follow the one going West. That worked out well. We got back on track and were following my numbers again in my note. We cycled through forests and fields, and sometimes on roads. But we still haven’t seen a windmill.

The numbering system worked well as we made good progress to the west. Then when I stopped to check my notes to see what the next number was, I accidentally deleted them all, no way to get them back. I could have cried. To top it all off, our internet stopped working so we couldn’t even come up with an alternate route.

So we followed our noses (the sun actually) until we arrived in the town of Tilburg. We’d done 40 kms for the day and thought it would be nice to finish early and navigate to either a campground or a hotel. I was leaning towards a hotel so we could get internet to find out why our internet wasn’t working. So we headed for the centre of town when suddenly we were thrust into a carnival in the main street.

‘Let’s go back!’ I said to Mike, but he was navigating to a campground and said to continue on. By then it was too late to turn back and we were trapped amongst the people and the rides. Loud booming techno music came from all different directions as we weaved our way through the covid-infested masses while keeping an eye out for pickpockets.

Claustrophobia weaved its way into my body, clutching my lungs and squeezing the air out. I don’t like crowds and I felt trapped amongst the people as I struggled to push my bike through, no end in sight.

We made slow progress, but eventually the crowds thinned, and I could breathe again. I asked Mike to navigate on his Garmin to get us out of here. I didn’t care where, just get me out!

It was scary having no internet, not knowing where we were going or where we would find to sleep. It was lucky Mike had his Garmin as that works regardless, despite it trying to send us some stupid ways.

Not long out of town, we found a hotel. I stopped and asked if they had a room, but they were fully booked. No surprises there.

I told the girl on reception of our problem of having no internet, and she said we could use theirs, so that was really nice of her. She also suggested some hotels on our route, but they were all booked. We finally found one about 20 kms away and booked in using their free Wi-Fi. And it was a straight line to get there, so no navigation required. So, with peace of mind, we navigated to the hotel and settled in just after 6pm and ordered a Domino’s pizza for dinner.

You can follow our journey on YouTube here:  https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAP03_iOV9QrtahRxRPBTVB9ZTNOmdizn