Veluwe in the winter

Who says you can’t go for a weekend ride in the Dutch winter? It’s cold, it’s wet and the sun sets early, but camp sites are empty, there are very few other cyclists and we have red wine to keep us warm!
Saterday evening we head out for another microadventure in the Netherlands, this time we pick the Veluwe. In the summertime, the area around this National Park is filled with E-bikes, now we have the road to ourselves. Near Otterlo we set up our tipi tent in a wooded area and as the night falls and the temperature drops below zero, we warm ourselves with a bottle of wine we brought. After a long week of hard work the alcohol makes us sleepy and we hit the sack early. The next morning the tent is icy and we quickly brew ourselves a cup of coffee to get going. Armed with warm clothes, shoe covers and gloves we meander the Veluwe with a cold wind fiercely blowing into our faces.

It’s quiet on this beautiful Sunday morning. Maybe you won’t believe this, but it’s quite a hilly ride! After one last climb we drop down to the river, where the waterlevel is so high, that the ferry isn’t going. Even the picnic seats on the shore sit below water level. Crazy how much water! It means we have to go around and find a bridge to cross and it also means we leave the shelter of the trees behind us and we are riding through wide open spaces.

I’m beat. The low temperature, the hilly ride and the cold headwind has taken it’s toll. Apparently we missed all the restaurants and shops too, so it doesn’t really help that I’m hungry! We stop behind a couple of trees and Elmar digs up some old sandwiches, that taste extremely good. We really needed the energy. With a hot cup of tea we brought in our thermos flask we are ready to ride the final kilometers to a campsite near the city of Deventer, which we reach just as the sun is setting.

The next day we circumnavigate back to the campsite where we stayed the first night and where we had left our car. But this time we have tail wind!