Friday August 5, 2022, 73 km (45 miles) – Total so far: 2,540 km (1,578 miles)

We’re glad we did that extra 20 kms yesterday with a tailwind as it would have been a headwind today.

We’d done so well, camping right on the route. This morning we followed the signs from our camp, then got distracted by an Aldi. We stopped, grabbed some lunch, and continued on. But where have those signs gone?

Mike checked his phone to double check and said we were right on the route. Feeling satisfied, we continued cycling along a path next to a busy road. Something didn’t feel right. I thought back to a conversation we’d had at the campground when someone had said the cycle path followed the inlet all the way to the coast. Mike checked again, and sure enough, we had gone astray. I’m blaming the Aldi.

We got back on the inlet track, happy to be beside the water again. Onions permeated the air, fields of them growing beside the track, a sudden craving for onion soup invading my thoughts.

Some onions had spilled onto the road. I stopped to gather some for my soup when a tractor came along and splattered them.

We had a ferry crossing coming up, so I googled the ferry times, not wanting to miss one and end up waiting. Google informed me the ferry from Vlissengen to Breskens leaves at 10 minutes to the hour. That’s easy, at 10 kms/hr we’ll get the 15:48 ferry. But of course, this didn’t allow for getting lost, and the Garmin squiggling us around all over the place.

We decided the pick up the pace, determined to make the ferry, but it was a hard slog into the wind.

“We’re probably not going to make it,” I said to Mike, not happy about having to wait an hour for the next ferry.

But then we changed the direction, and we had an amazing tailwind alongside an inlet. My mood peaked, thinking we might actually have a chance of catching the ferry! But then it shattered into a million pieces when the Garmin turned us off, and directed us straight into a blocked off path. I will not mention the profanities that came from my mouth at that moment. Any hopes of making the ferry were now a distant goal.

I checked my phone for directions, and it was telling us to get back on the path we were on, the one with the amazing tailwind. So off we went, hurling along the path at 25 kms/hr. Not sure why, we were too late for the ferry.

We found our way to the ferry terminal, but it wasn’t very well sign-posted and we had to ask people for directions. At 4pm, we made it to the ticket booth and bought our tickets.

“When is the next ferry?” I asked.

“4.15pm,” she said, so just a 15 minute wait. How does Google not know these things???

The ferry was busy and we had to stand, but it was only a 25 minute journey. We thought we were going to Belgium, but we’re actually still in Holland.

It was nice to see the sea again, but the beaches were so crowded. We stopped at the first campground we came across, not really expecting to get a spot. It was 5.30pm and there were throngs of people heading back from the beach, kids running feral all over the place. Basically, my idea of hell, but we needed a place to sleep, and they had space.

We tried to pay with credit card, but they only take cash. We were running low on cash, as we also needed to eat. They said no campgrounds in the Netherlands take credit card. It was at this moment I realised we weren’t in belgium, doh”.

They showed us on a map where to go, so we put up our tent and went to find the showers. According to the map, they were on the right-hand side. But after walking around for ages trying to find them and asking two people, we found out they were actually on our left.

When I got back to our camp, I double checked the map and it was definitely wrong. Either that or we’d camped in the wrong spot. On closer inspection, the latter was correct. We were in the wrong spot. I just hope they don’t ask us to move.

We went into the restaurant next door and asked if they take credit card, making sure we had a way of paying as the last of our cash had taken up by the campground fees. They said no. So we tried the restaurant next to them. They said they take credit cards but they only serve chips and if we wanted a meal to go to the restaurant next door.

“But they don’t take cards,” we said.

“Yes they do,” she replied. “It’s the same owner as us.”

She rang to double check for us and sure enough, we won’t be going to bed hungry. We had a massive burger each and really enjoyed it.

You can follow our journey on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAP03_iOV9QrtahRxRPBTVB9ZTNOmdiznv