Bike trip to Veenendaal (75km)
Januari 1st, 2008,
I started off much later than I had planned, but that’s life.. new years eve is not really a day to go to bed early.
Around 13:30 o’clock I stepped on my bike, prepared as much as possible and checked my gear for the last time. It’s is a pretty cold day, around zero degree celsius and outside the city area even freezing a few degrees. I life in Lelystad, the capital of the province Flevoland, according to Wikipedia ‘the world’s largest artificial island’. Most the the province exists off flat farmer land, very very boring to make a big trip through, but it’s the only way to get to Veenendaal. While riding through Flevoland, it’s so misty that I can only see for about 200 meters and it looked like I took forever to get through. But after about 1,5 hour I was through it and drove in the province of Gelderland, into Harderwijk. Around this time, I had already about 30 km driven. After driving out of Harderwijk, it was time for another part of long straight road, through Ermelo and Putten. While riding between Ermelo and Putten I really wanted a break, my butt was starting to get sore. So I took a 5 minute break. Then get on with the trip. Putten, Voorthuizen, Barneveld, Renswoude. On the way between Renswoude and De Klomp I started to get hungry, it was just another 5 km to get to the Veenendaal-De Klomp train station, but all shops were closed and when I would be in the train I could not eat for another 2,5 hour. So when I found a woodenbench next to a road on a intersection between four farmer homes, I stopped to make my self some warm dinner. It was around 16:30 o’clock, already starting to get dark and the temperature was dropping and the wind was getting hars, it felt like -10 degree Celsius but it was really around -2 degree Celsius. I turned on my MSR burner, and boiled some water for my instant traveling food, Swedish Beef Stove Dish. I think I putted a bit to much water on it, because it wasn’t really tasty but it was warm and it was food. I boiled some extra water for hot chocolade, wow that was amazing with this freezing weather. After 30 minutes I had eaten my meal, packed everything back on my bike and I started on the last 5 km of my trip. Around 17:30 o’clock I was at the Veenendaal-De Klomp train station, parked my bike and took the 17:45 o’clock train home.
It was a really great experience, biking a long distance of 75 km in about 4 hours in partly freezing weather. It was my first long distance trip in freezing weather and during the trip I noticed I had prepared everything possible as of food, drink and my bike, but I had forgotten clothing. I had a sweater packed in my bag, but my body wasn’t cold at all, but my hands were almost frozen. So next time I will not forget a pair of gloves for my hands.
What did I bring with me during the trip?
- My bike, an old men’s bike, with working front and back light
- Garmin GPSmap 60CSx with bike handle, for directions. I had to turn off route directions because bike tracks are not supported so I was back to follow an arrow to Veenendaal-De Klomp train station
- A small day-rucksack packed with
- MSR WhisperLite stove with about 200 ml of fuel
- Dutch Mess-kit existing of two pans
- Spoon
- Swidish Foldacup
- A 2 liter water reservoir filled with water
- Instant adventure drinks/meals (mix with warm boiled water and it’s done)
- Swedish Beef Stove Dish
- Muesli
- A few cup-bags of hot chocolade, thee and soup
- A compleet Bike tire repair kit
- Bicycle pump
- Leatherman Charge multi-tool, so I got tools with me for almost every task I could possibly encounter
- Basic First Aid kit
- Mobile phone
- A bicycle map of the region
- My wallet with some cash and my personal information for emergencie
- In my coat I had
- My mp3-player, loaded with full batteries and music for a full day, just to make the long straight tracks a bit more pleasant
- A paper version of the road I planned to take
- A nose rag
Here some stats of the trip:
- Trip odem = 71,2 km
- Movingtime = 3 hours and 57 minutes
- Max speed = 27,4 km/h
- Moving average = 18 km/h
I’ll try to add some images of the route later on.