Touring with Tara

Whoop whoop! Camping season is in full swing here in the Netherlands. Not that we’ve let little details like that stop us before.

In fact, this is the 5th time that Tara has gone camping. But it’s been the first time the temperatures were actually above freezing at night!

It didn’t seem to make a huge difference to her.

For me it’s nice knowing I’m not gonna wake up with a frozen baby so I actually got some sleep too.

But let me take you a few weeks back.

 

John & Annechien set of from the Netherlands on an open-ish ended bike-tour and decided to visit us again. After all we hadn’t caught up for about 4 months now so it was about time.

The same week my niece, who I wrote about being born in this blog post ,

and when she got her first bicycle here,

had to do a show & tell at school.

incidentally her chosen subject was “People who ride bicycles around the world”

And it just so happened there were three of us here 🙂

When I asked her if she thought her mum would mind I write about her on my blog her reply was: “Don’t think so. I got my own YouTube channel”

…. ah right.

How things have changed.

So we showed up at her school all packed up and ready to ride including her own bike decked out for camping. Her classmates where very interested and had lots of questions,

and when school was out Stella, and her little brother & sister, joined Annechien, John, Tara & me on a mini-bicycle tour to my uncles farm. Where we set up camp. There was a trampoline that gave us all, including Tara, the giggles.

 

We enjoyed meeting the curious cows, and hanging out around our campfire watching the full moon rise. It was beautiful.

The one thing I had not counted on was that the temperature dropping to -2 overnight.And this was in May! Luckily Tara didn’t mind as she was well dressed for the occasion.We took our time and packed up leisurely the next morning and rode back into town.

We said goodbye to John & Annechien again who are now rambling around Swiss somewhere.And got back to our daily business,

of Tara asking when we’re going camping again…

Not caring what anyone says, she will sit in her bike seat the way she is comfortable…

Planning our next big adventure,And itching to get some wheels herself…Our next outing came just a few weeks later but with a temperature difference of nearly 40 degrees!!Summer has begun and we took a tour with my friend from way way way back(we’ve known each other since we’re 16, about 20… ok, 21 years ago!)

 

Her name is Mirjam as well and together we first rode to our National Park “de Hoge Veluwe”.I had not realised there is actually a campground within the park boundaries. So we stopped there. And I was lucky as Mirjam’s culinary skills way surpass mine.So no Pasta/tuna/cheese this trip!It was really great to be allowed in the Park after hours. And we rode our bikes around on a mini-safari to see if we could spot some wild animals.We did.

First we saw a little fox that hopped across the plains. Then a deer with a little baby crossed our path.

And just ahead a whole huge family of wild pigs crossed the bicycle trail.We were pretty excited and heading back to camp we spotted a huge animal in the distance. I though :”huh? surely we don’t got moose here” getting closer it was a massive huge boar all by itself wandering through the forest.

It stopped us in our tracks and even contemplating turning around. But we were less than half a km from camp! So with hearts pounding we quickly dashed back.So a safari on the “Hoge veluwe” can be pretty exciting indeed!Next day we meandered through the park towards Bennekom.

We cycled on lovely trails Enjoyed the view from a strategically placed towerand stopped to talk to the sheep and have a snack.

Tara built a hut.And I discovered it’s really practical to have her with me.

She could for example hold the umbrella when it started to rain and Mirjam & I wanted to enjoy some coffee and apple pie…

 

It’s also good to have somebody that regularly check the spoke tension and tyre pressure.

 

I tend to be slightly slack at the maintenance-side of things.

It was a warm weekend for bicycle-touring. Nice not to wrap up in a million layers of clothes and to take a nap in the shade.But the mornings where still chilly. Good thing I’d brought my complete doona so Tara stayed warm…

Somehow she reminded me of that show..

maybe you know it.

(my big fat gypsy wedding)

Now Tara is crawling I really have to keep a close watch on her.

She’s a little explorer and keeps trying to run off on her ownI have cycled a lot in the Netherlands over the years, but I keep being surprised by the loveliness of the trails here. Ok, so it’s not the Himalayas or the rocky mountains.

But it’s got its charm.And with Tara everything is a new adventure 😉 We camped two nights together and explored the area around Bennekom a little bit

 

Mirjam knew a great little camp area that even on this busy weekend (pentecost) was pretty quiet. And we could make a fire! This is not allowed on every campground. So it’s nice when you can.

Then we had to part ways as Mirjam was heading to a work meeting so took the (bicycle-) ferry across the Rijn.And we had a picknick with our friends Dennis & Florianne near Arnhem.They got married last weekend  (Congratulations guys!)

We continued our route over the Posbank,  a nature-area north of Arnhem.

Just riding along a fast guy on a race bike came our way and shouted; “Hey CyclingDutchgirl! I follow you!”

… and sped away in the opposite direction.

That made me smile. 🙂The tour ended with our first night camping all by ourselves  and packing up in the rain the next morning.Tara was as happy as always and I managed to keep her, and most of the gear, dry. Now it’s back home to dream up more adventures!

and what a home!…

but more about that next time

🙂