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At 6 in the morning, we open our eyes, lay still and listen.

The campground is silent. Everyone is still asleep. But more to the point, there’s no wind! After fighting stiff breezes yesterday, we’re hopeful that today will be a little calmer. We’ve already been warned by the campground owner that the wind picks up in the afternoon so we don’t waste any time getting the coffee on. Less than an hour later, we’ve eaten a hearty breakfast of muesli and fruit and we’re on our way along the canals.

We don’t get very far before we have to stop. It’s not a flat tire that slows us down but rather a sign advertising jam for sale. Even better, the jam is being sold from a bicycle basket by the towpath. Friedel investigates and soon we’re on our way again, with some blackberry syrup in our panniers. As long as it doesn’t spill all over the inside of our bags before we get home, it’ll be fantastic on ice cream.

We’re barely on the road an hour when the wind starts to pick up again, but at least this time we’re changing direction. Maybe the wind won’t follow us. A sharp left takes us up a bike ramp and on to the Afsluitdijk, a 32km long causeway that runs across the North Sea and forms the top barrier of the IJsselmeer Lake. It is, like most causeways, a long, straight road with little other than the bike path and the highway to look at. From where we are, we don’t even get a good view of the water most of the time and we don’t take any pictures.

After a couple hours of pedalling, we come to the other side, and then things start to look like Holland again. We see green fields and windmills and spend a while trying to get just the right picture of Andrew cycling by a windmill.

It’s somewhere around this point that we get lost. We have a good map but somehow we get disoriented. There are too many canals and not enough town names to help us figure out exactly where we are in the canals. Maybe the hot sun is having an effect too. We didn’t expect such strong sun, we’re starting to burn (despite putting on factor 50 SPF sunscreen) and we’d really like a cafe to cool down in. Unfortunately, there aren’t any, so instead we find a bench on a sidewalk and drink some water in the shade.

A bottle of water later and after several handfuls of trail mix, we’re feeling revived so we carry on and eventually come to a campsite, where we get the last patch of grass to put our tent on. It’s a holiday weekend and perhaps we’re lucky to have found some grass at all. Our tent creates just enough of a shadow that we can sit in front of it without feeling like we’re being fried to a crisp by the sun.

In all our getting lost around the canals and our efforts to find a campsite, it seems we’ve cycled quite a long way. Later, we find out we’ve done well over 100km (compared to our more normal 80km). The result is that we’re both dead tired. Andrew cooks supper and then we both collapse into the tent. We don’t remember much more than that.

The next day is the home stretch. We’re not far from our house but we’re not in a hurry to get there either, so we decide to treat ourselves to Dutch pancakes. They’re great! Huge things – the size of a pizza – with the choice of hundreds of toppings. I get ham, pineapple and cheese. Andrew gets tomatoes, herbs and cheese. They go down perfectly with 2 milky coffees.

Just as we’re almost home, we spot this bike, waiting for its owner to come and retrieve it. Who knows how long it’s been there. It looks a bit rusty. But abandoned bikes are all over Holland. Every few months, the police come and clear out all the bikes that no one wants any more.

And then, before we know it, we’re rolling up to our front door. Our trip around the IJsselmeer went quickly, a little too quickly in fact. In 4-1/2 days, we’d just started to get into our rythym and build up our cycling appetites. Now, it’s back to work, but we’re already planning the next trip, hopefully for later this summer.

The Day Before: Day 3 Of Our Trip Around The IJsselmeer

Even before we get up and out of our tent, we can hear a strong wind blowing.

There’s a reason they build so many wind turbines here on the flat and open landscapes of Flevoland and, unfortunately for us, today the wind is not going in our direction.

“Don’t worry,” says Andrew confidently. “Once we turn around and start heading back home, we’ll have a great tailwind.”

That’s a nice thought to hold on to as we eat our muesli and ponder the long, straight road ahead. We’ve always said that bike touring is 90% about where you’re at mentally and just 10% a physical effort, so we try to put ourselves in the right frame of mind to tackle a headwind.

For us, that means not really concentrating on the distance. Instead, we look for the details in the landscape, to distract our attention away from the difficult effort of propelling our bikes in the right direction. These dandelions, giving up their seeds, grab our attention as we stare at the ground going by.

On the other end of the scale, it’s impossible to ignore the huge but also beautiful wind turbines. We strain our necks and turn the camera upwards to capture this.

It’s still hard work and we’re not exactly inspired by Flevoland either. “There’s never a dull moment in Flevoland,” according to the tourist brochures but we would have to disagree. The landscapes are mostly very dull indeed and the modern towns have none of the charm of the rest of the Netherlands.

It takes us until just past lunchtime to finally leave Flevoland and enter Friesland and we are thrilled. As we roll through the town of Lemmer, there is a character to it that we really missed in Flevloland. A beautiful harbour. Cobbled streets. Old houses. Gorgeous.

The wind is still blowing though, and even the sheep look like they’ve had enough of it.

So, we continue to take it slowly, admiring more wind turbines (look at the size difference between the turbine and Andrew!)…

And taking some pictures of us on the move…

Late in the afternoon, we reckon we’ve burned enough calories to justify this slice of apple cake, kindly bought for us by Paul, who wanted to treat us to something nice. Thanks, Paul! If you ever come to Holland the next slice of apple cake is on us.

By the time 4pm rolls around, we’re completely wiped from fighting the wind all day. We settle down in a campground and cook our supper, the usual mix of sauteed vegetables with pasta.

As the evening sets in, two German families roll up in their huge motorhomes and surround our tent. Within a few minutes they’ve got their tables and chairs out and are drinking beer and talking loudly. This goes on for the rest of the night and normally we’d be annoyed but we’re so tired that their little party just becomes a drone in the background as we fall asleep.

The Day Before: Day 2 of our tour around the IJsselmeer
Coming soon: Days 4 & 5 of our tour around the IJsselmeer