through the deep, dark woods.. looking for puma..

2005-07-14 Apeldoorn

My camera spent most of its time in ‘dam locked up and I’m just not taking many photos. Better for all of us I’m sure! 😛

Some new videos:

Haarlem Tent Storm 1

Haarlem Tent Storm 2

Haarlem Tent Whinge 1

Apeldoorn Ride 1

Apeldoorn Ride 2

Earlier Photos:

2005-07-03 Haarlem

2005-06-21 Brugge

2005-06-09 Tournai

2005-05-29 London

2005-05-28 London

2005-05-13 London

Earlier Videos:

Den Haag Marching Band 1

Den Haag Marching Band 2

Den Haag Marching Band 3

Den Haag Cheerleaders 1

Den Haag Marching Band 5

Riding along on my pushbike honey..

Gent canal cruise

Tunnel bike path, Belgium somewhere

Today I rode to Hell and back. Well, I never found a sign confirming it was Hell but the map and area I was in seemed to match up, so I’m claiming I rode to Hell and back!

What the hell are you talking about hippy?

I can hear you all saying. Okay, let me explain:

At breakfast (which was lacking the croissants today!! Noooo!!) I was looking at the map of the area trying to work out where to ride. I spotted a place named ‘Hell‘ west of Apeldoorn so of course that was decision made! Ride to Hell and back..

Rode through Stroe, Voorthuizen, found Hell, then onto Nijerk, Putten, took a wrong turn and hit Ermelo, corrected course and landed in Speuld, then towards Udel and towards Nieuw Milligen and finally I arrived back at Apeldoorn, via the same way I arrived from Amsterdam. All very nice scenery again and often with stacks of choice: road, path or off-road.

I confirmed the presence of hills on the final run into town (for those doubters!). It was freaky! It looked downhill with a big dip at the bottom and I almost took a photo to prove that hills exist here. I took off and my speed dropped from mid-30’s to mid-teens!! WTF?! I looked to my left and sure enough.. I was climbing a frickin’ hill! Looked straight ahead and it looked like I was going downhill again.. like I said.. freaky!

I was killing myself to get back in time for the Tour and I did. Make it, I mean, not kill myself! Watched from about 6k before the top of the Col du Galibier. Pfft.. too easy I reckon! 😉

Bought a half-loaf of bread, some nice chicken slice, some cheese, lollies, Coke and bananas for lunch. No, I didn’t actually consume the whole lot for once!

The ride ended up being over 90k, 4hrs with an average speed over 23kph!!! That’s pretty good when I think about how many times I dawdled to check stuff out, checked maps, look at signs, sometimes I even slowed down before busting through intersections! ;P (Sorry officer, I’m a tourist, I didn’t realise red means stop..)

I’m just happy I decided to wear knicks today instead of jocks like yesterday.. eek!

Apeldoorn

They have croissants at breakfast!! Yeees!!

Now all they need to do is sort out their frickin’ coffee machine and its overpouring tendencies.. 🙂

I decide to head out into the surrounding forest. I find a full-on athletic track buried in there and spend some time work on my runnnig form. Not!

There is so much difference in terrain in such a small area! I’m only 10k from the hostel and I’ve seen: Deep, dark, green forests. Arid, cleared areas that remind me of the Mallee. Fields of wheat. Fields of green things – vegetables I think people call them? A farm covered in animals. Tracks of mud, tracks of sand, tracks of tarmac.. everything!

MTB’ing in thongs, with slicks, no tools, a rack with tent and sleeping bag attached and no witnesses to such stupidity is fun and silly and fun and yay for being hyped! It was fun. The map I got off the hostel dude rocked. I could actually follow it. It was called ‘D? fietskaart Veluwe‘.

Found a very undulating track which was heaps of fun to ride fast over, pumping the bike like I was riding on a half-pipe. I called it ‘Wave Road’. How clever of me. Took a flukey shot of a fast moving train, almost on top of me.. bee hives.. remote cabins.. aerials for something.. all kinds of stuff.

I saw a wild deer! It ran across one of the tracks in front of me. No antlers so perhaps a female (according to the dudes at the hostel)? Some rabits as well and always plenty of birds.

Rode to Huug Boorlow and found the place I called ‘RGB’ forest. RGB as in Red, Green, Blue. Red tint of the fallen leaves. Green moss on the tree trunks and green leafy ‘rooftop’. Blue sky. It was a very pretty place. This could be my favourite place in the Netherlands..

Returning to town, I saw 29degC reported on the temperature gauge. Knew it was warm!

Sat in the hostel with a really friendly bunch of Dutch-speaking ‘walkers’ (English speaking too) and watched Le Tour. It was in Dutch so they translated bits for me. Found out they were on a walking tour thing – four days of 40k per day! One guy had a little book of other walks he’d done, with stamps from various walks and stickers and his own comments. Very cool. I finished the pancakes for lunch with some ‘brekkie’ jam I hassled out of the staff and apple stroop. There was also the Man with the Hammer! He was a bit of a character. I want his photo.. he walks around with a big inflatable orange hammer.. hehe.. he was funny..

Found cheaper net cafe 2euro per hour, near the station, on Hoofstraat(?). Open late too. On the way back hit Albert Hein (supermarket) and found… ICED COFFEE!!!!!!! Call the PM! Call the President! Call the Queen! 1.29 per hit of Emmi Cafe Latte Cappucino or Macchiato. The Cappucino wasn’t too bad actually. Quite sweet which is good and with a hint of chocolate (confirmed on checking the ingredients list..). Bought some ‘Deventer’ biscuits which are made near here, in a town called, wait for it, Deventer!

Might stay at the hostel a few more days (they have tour coverage!) and then camp, or maybe, I dunno.. whatever.. It’s pretty cool here.

A shoe fetishist once told me to straight lace my shoes to make ’em a bit wider. I didn’t agree in this particular case becausse they needed to be wider further forward than the shoe-lace section. Anyway, I’ve done it now. Not for any width increase, but with all these shoe troubles I’ve noticed my left foot seems to be bigger than my right foot! I didn’t have enough lace remaining to tie up properly! So, recalling the straight lacing comment, I sorted the bastards out this morning and can now tie both shoes properly. Of course, it still doesn’t stop my feet being totally crushed after four hours..

Yes, Tam, you beat me! But you don?t have to pay 5-fricking-euro per hour to get online.. 😛

Woke at 10min to 6am Monday morning. Showered. Pushed bike up the steepest, tightest stairs ever, in Hotel Aroza (should be ‘Aroma’, after the stench) and packed it. The included breakfast wasn?t included this morning because someone didn?t get the bread. I wasn?t gonna wait here any longer, so I left (around 8am) without even a coffee (my god, how DOES he do it?!). Visited the first bakery I saw on the way out of town and grabbed some goodies.

Surprisingly, I managed to head in the right direction and, even though I asked a dude for directions, I was heading the right way anyway. It’s amazing what looking at a map before you leave can do!

The weather was sweet, the ride was sweeter. Canals, birds, bridges, brilliant!

It felt so good to get out of Amsterdamned! I reckon two days for that place, max, and make sure they are spent in a hotel where people don?t smoke in bed!

Not to say I didn?t have fun.. but leaving it too long I could see myself becoming part of the furniture, until I was transferred outside to the Begging, Scamming and Thieving Department, that is.

6k out of Hilversum or 14k from Amersfoort I stumbled onto Kastel Groeneveld. I apologise to the owners for the damage and then explore the grounds surrounding the large, moderately impressive building. Riding here is so cool!

So, for four hours I was doing well, in control of my navigation for once, doing some bits fast and some slow as the scenery and my mood dictated.

About 4.5hrs though and I’m feeling pretty rooted. Luckily, a target, I mean roadie appeared ahead. Yay, if there’s anything that will let me ignore the pain and tiredness it’s a chase!

I caught him after a while and then he noticed me sucking his wheel and tried to drop me, by accelerating, down a hill? Duh! Drop this fat bastard down a hill with no corners? haha silly move dude! 🙂

He proceeded to pull a foot (from his LOOK copies) and spent a few minutes trying to clip in, much to my perverse delight. I left him be as I found a scooter to chase. That really left me cained, and I could only keep up with it because it had two people on-board, but I was in Apeldoorn now, so I didn?t care.

Walked into some building and asked where the VVV (tourist info) place was. A dude told me and then asked if I was a Kiwi. I said ‘Nah, Aussie’ and he was like ‘Downunder, yeah!’ and I congratulated him on being closer than almost everyone else when picking my accent – everyone else thinks I’m a yank.

Found the StayOkay, which was about 3k out of town

(sidenote: I fucking hate squealing kids, can someone please throw that fscking thing in a canal!!??).

Where was I? Um, yeah 23euro per night. Very nice surrounds bordering a national park or very close to one, at least.

Ride into town and buy some crap for dinner (‘gezoet’ or ‘sweet’ pancakes and Apple Stroop, Peanut MnMs and Sisi raspberry fruit drink).

Spend ages in the shower trying to wash out the stench from Amsterdam and then read a bit before flaking out in bed. Hey, the other guy in the 4-bed room was in bed when I arrived mid-afternoon!

Amsterdam to Apeldoorn Stats:

110k, 4.5hr?, 19.6kph

Saturday.. Um.. dunno.. something?

Got back to the hostel to change and got talking with the two Irish guys who were in the room with me. One had just got back from a visit with stunning ‘red light’ window girl apparently. I was going to the pub around the corner to watch Le Tour. We went together. I saw the finish (a break won – wtf?!) and drank a few beers. Then we went to Teasers, a very popular bar, where the waitresses are all bursting out from low cut tops and down below the g-string/hotpants allowed for a very high perve factor. 6euro/beer though – ouch. Lucky guys (where luck = cashed up) get to do tequila slammers off the lovely ladies’ chests.. what a bar! 😉

On to the large bar “Grasshopper”. 3 levels of tourist-money-taking fun.

Then to some restaurant for the 10euro special (meat and chips and stuff) and more beer.

Bought a free paper for 2euro off a funny (you know the kind of funny) woman who had a peculiar interest in retro motor-scooters.. 🙂

Then to Dam square? for more beers outside some other place. One of the Irish guys (Tim) gets talking to two Swedish chicks (Fatima and and and um..sorry.. I forget).

In time, I take over, haha. The girls get free shots from the funny, curly-haired bartender. We chat for quite a while. I must be drunk – I actually manage small talk! They want to go to a coffeeshop so other Irish guy, Nile, leads us back to Grasshopper. Smoke a joint. Chat. Tim gets shit from the bar girl because they don’t serve alcohol in the coffeeshop area and he leaves or something. Nile might’ve followed and come back – I went for a piss so I’m not sure. I do remember skillfully dodging the chick that wanted 50c to use the toilets – sucked in!

I stick with the girls – tough job right but someone has to do it. End up with Fatima’s phone number. Oh, she has an Egyptian parent – I think that explains what I thought was a fairly non-Swedish name. Neither girl was blonde for the record. Possible reason to stay in Amsterdam longer? 🙂

Anyway, the girls leave. I’m totally fscked now so I move to go back to the hotel so I can be sick (hehe it’s only midnight-ish).

I think the Irish guys missed their flight home this morning – I heard a lot of swearing when they got up and stuff about getting to the airport and “We’ll never make it!”. I booked another night coz I’m not riding anywhere today and those Swedes were pretty stunning.. 😉

Um.. after this morning.. hangover. Vlaamse Frites from the Verse place on Damrak.

Then up to the Sex Museum for a good dose of porn “through the ages”.

Caught a tram to Leidseplein and relaxed at a cafe in the shade. Wandered into the nearby Vondelpark – an awesome park used to its fullest potential by the locals and tourists today! The weather is back to being awesome – hence the massive numbers in the park this Sunday.

So I wandered around the park and eventually fell asleep on a park bench (classy eh?).

Woke up with a lush golden-haired Dutch girl tearing off my clothes and.. no, wait, that didn’t happen. Fark! Oh well.. at least I woke up! 🙂

Grabbed an ice-cream and then headed over to the crowd in the park arena. There was some hiphop festival going on yeah yeah yo break it down n shit! Nah, seriously I can handle some hiphop and I love watching good breakdancing.. and these two crews that were battling.. they were VERY good at it! The crowd was huge too and really getting into it. I caught the end of the battle. After doing his thing one guy ran up the side of the stage and backflipped back into centre-stage.. it was bloody awesome!

I was keeping an eye out for the guy drumming on a metal hand drum but he’d gone by then. I knew I shoulda hassled him when I first spotted him. I’ve never seen that kind of drum before but it makes the coolest sound – nothing like a drum at all. It was like a reverse steel drum and he played it with his fingers – no sticks. Gotta check some of that stuff out, you know to stop all that “idle hands do the devil’s dishes” stuff.. I hate doing dishes..

Walked back to the hotel via the bridge that Dutchy mentioned. Had one guy offer a bike for 5euro and another guy (who might’ve actually been genuine? Nah! Just well practised!) offer his bike with lock for 15euro – he was going back to his home country you see..

Did I mention it’s farkin hot today!! Yay for finally bringing back the good weather!

Me: “What do you mean it’s FRIDAY?!”

That says it all really..