South Holland – The Last Broadcast

10 years in the making

Lucas and I had at this point visited Cornwall on holiday twice, 2018 and 2019, he loves it but I thought we needed to do more. I suggested we bike ride around south Holland. He loves riding like me, he is/ was good at it and Holland is mostly flat. I planned it in my usual way to the finest detail. Then the pandemic hit and that idea went out of the window and back to Cornwall we went for 2020/ 21/ 22 /23 & 24 already.

I booked 5 nights and 6 days, 3 campsites, travel insurance and the ferry, I then discovered my passport was out of date, so I got a crappy new blue one. Then got a spin bike… which we barely used, that proposed another problem all together. Lucas and I had completed a a couple of rides each leading up to it. That was a concern, the total route was roughly 50 miles over the 5 days and I was worried if I was pushing him too hard and reality dictates I was. He handled it like a champion, he did the whole journey with bag on his back. I am proud!

The trip was amazing, from the moment we left the ship, I knew I had made the right decision. The first people we met we incredibly friendly and helpful. We met an English Chap called ‘Bang’ on the ride onto the ship and he was on his way to India by bike and was trailing a trailer, something I confess, I didn’t think of. After seeing his, I realised how much of a good idea that was. I was carrying our clothes in a rucksack on my back, I didn’t see anyone doing that across the whole trip.

We rode with Bang and his trailer in tow (he was looking for a campsite and I told him about ours) to the camping Hoek Van Holland site and he got the plot next to ours. On the other plot was a youth group having an amazing time with music, which they promptly turned off at 10:30pm. It was a clean site, with good showers but this day, the Friday was the big day. Over 20 miles to cover to the next campsite. No need to cover this again, but it was a lovely ride, mostly flat. The scenery was breathtaking and it was a beautiful day. We arrived at camping Maaldrift in good time and set up. Then we rode to the beach. The reason for being in this year was to visit the theme park Duinrell and it was a lot of fun. I never would have of imagined we would spend every day at the beach in Holland and it was amazing sunny weather.

Lastly and the finale to our trip was a visit the space Expo an excellent place. This is a design and test place for ESA, we saw the ISS modules and satellites and the new Roslind Franklin rover.

Till next year.