4 Days, 100 miles. Part 2

Day 2: The Day of Wijchen, 39.6km, Wednesday 18th July 2018

Start times alternate between 5am and 6am. 5am starts are favourite to avoid the heat of the day – my start for today was 6am. Ho hum.

Waiting to start Day 2

The Wedren was bouncing with activity when I arrived at 5.45am. Bands were blasting out their favourite music. Spectators, many of them worse for wear after a night of partying, lined the route to cheer the walkers as they left the start. And it was hot – again.

At 6am our wristbands were scanned as we passed through the start tunnel and we were off.

 

Entertainment everywhere!

Only in Holland

Pink, so it must be Vierdaagse Wednesday

Accordian + modified cajon = a nice sound

Wijchen Welcome

I entered Wijchen around 9am, around 9 – 10 miles into the day’s walk. The speed was about right – around 3mph. I stopped off for a 20 minute break to enjoy lovely coffee being dished out, free, gratis and for nothing, at a cafe-bar.

Checkpoints, where barcoded wristbands are scanned, appear a couple or three times on each day’s route….just to discourage those who might want to sneak in a short-cut!

Mayoral welcome in Wijchen

And then there was more pink

Free hugs – for those who could reach

Hydration is important

2.30pm and the end of Day 2

Another 25 miles completed, time taken (including rest stops): 8hours 35mins, around 3mph. Although it’s not a race it’s nice to maintain  a decent pace.

Day 3: The Day of Groesbeek, 39.2km, Thursday 19th July 2018

Another 5am start…thankfully!

Also known as the Day of Hills…but hills aren’t very big in Holland.

Vierdaagse Thursday sees the very moving Memorial Service takes place at the Groesbeek Canadian Military Cemetery.

After an uncomfortably hot night I bounced (eh?) out of bed at 3.30am, got myself sorted and arrived at the start before 4.45am. The queue for the start was enormous, when we were allowed to start at 5am it took a good 15 minutes to get through the start gate.

These ladies are regular Marchers, each day they sport different attire based on national costumes of EU countries where they either live or where they were born. They were powerful walkers, rarely taking much more than 8 hours to complete each day’s 40km route. We spent an interesting hour discussing the insanity of Brexit, they were all very informed…and amazed at the route the UK was taking.

I don’t know why, maybe I was tired, but I didn’t take many photographs.

Walkers as far as the eye can see

Dutch inland waterways are generally a bit(!) wider than those in the UK. They make full use of them for heavy transport, keeping a substantial amount of heavy traffic off the roads.

Difficult to get lost!

At the Canadian War Cemetery (Photo from Vierdaagse website)

By late morning it really very hot, garden hose pipes spraying water onto the procession of walkers were very welcome.

I’d been walking at a reasonable lick (3 – 3.2mph including stops) and was drinking lots of fluid. I started each day with 1.5 litres of water in a Platy plus 500ml of SiS hydration stuff. It was barely enough – I took every opportunity to take on more water en-route to supplement what I was carrying.

A hill

It was on the pull up this hill that I first noticed a twinge in my L shin. A mile or so later it had vanished - until the next incline. I stopped and gave it a good, deep massage – it seemed to help a little but it gradually worsened as the day wore on.

Another one for AlanR

Pink egg anyone?

I had a 20 minute sit down: shoes off, feet up, and eating my pink egg and a couple of Ibruprofen…all washed down with a huge glug of Corporation Pop.

After a slow re-start my shin pain had eased and I was soon back up to my normal pace again.

By the time I got to the finish at 1.45pm I was hot, knackered…and the Ibruprofen had worn off.

I hobbled back to base, hoping and praying that a good rest, more Ibruprofen and lots of ice would sort my leg – only one day to go!

4 Days, 100 miles. Part 1

Nijmegen Four Days Marches 2018…In the beginning:

July in Holland can only mean one thing: Vierdaagse…the Nijmegen Four Days Marches, when 45,000+ happy walkers from all over the world converge on Nijmegen to go for a bit of a walk.

You understand Dutch (of course) so have a watch of this (there are

English subtitles): https://youtu.be/i3ko1JCnGn0

If anyone can show me how to successfully embed a YouTube video into this blog I will buy you beer.

History of the event is here.

https://www.4daagse.nl/en/event/history.html

I’ve taken part in the event, on and off, since 2006 – it’s great fun!

I flew from Manchester to Schiphol then travelled by train to Nijmegen. Trains, often double-deckers, run on time in Holland, and there are loads of them. And they’re clean. And comfortable. And train fares are definitely affordable: one side of Holland to t’other for less than £20. British train companies could learn a lot from the Dutch.

Day 1: The Day of Elst, 39.6km. Tuesday 17th July 2018

 

My allocated start time of 5am meant I had to be up and about by 3.30am, time for a decent breakfast and the 2km walk to the start. It was hot, 22degC, even at that time. Many of the good folk of Nijmegen had been partying all night in readiness for the start – they know how to enjoy themselves in this part of Holland!

Queueing at the start

Being piped out from the start

The Dutch are very fond of Scottish pipers and pipe bands, this piper was just one of many I came across on the Marches – he wasn’t walking the route though!

Bridge over the River Waal

A couple for Alan R:

Times on some of these photographs is an hour behind ‘real’ time, I’d neglected to change the clock on my camera….duh.

18 km to go at 9.30am and it was now seriously hot. I was carrying 2 litres of water, I topped that up with 500ml of SiS hydration stuff. It was only just enough.

Entering Arnhem at 9.30am

The atmosphere on the Marches is quite unique. walking in the company of 45,000 walkers, a mixture of military and civilians, is something that’s really special – as the Dutch would say.

Every village you walk through celebrates the event, civic dignitaries turn out in their finest regalia, bands play on street corners – it’s a huge party and I love it!

Many rufty-tufty walkers criticise the event as not offering ‘proper’ walking because most of the routes are now on tarmac and, lets face it, Holland is pretty flat! Despite all this, 100 miles in four days isn’t a walk in the park…it IS fun though!

I really don’t know…

In memory of WW2, the Dutch suffered terribly 

Flowers - where ever possible

Time for a breather for those in the know

Cavorting with the German Army

Almost the end of Day 1

I clocked into the event centre in the Wedren around 1pm, 25 miles in 8 hours, including a 20 minute rest stop. I was quite happy with that time, especially considering the heat of the day which was hot. Very hot in fact.

I wandered back to my accommodation, walking back along the route and cheering the later finishers – the were all (mostly) smiling!

En-route I called for a quick beer with The Irregulars at a bar in Nijmegen….they recognise the importance of re-hydrating after a long walk in the heat.

After a shower, a good feed and another cold beer, I hit the sack at around 8.30pm. I needed a decent kip before the exertions of the next day and it’s later 6am start.

A few more photos here.

A Sweltering Dales Backpack, 24th–26th June 2018

Messrs Rye & Walker had planned this little jaunt and foolishly invited me along….probably knowing I’d bring them beer. Which I did. Obv.

The Plan was to meet up at Hebden near Grassington on Sunday around 2pm. I’d had a particularly tough week and so decided to make my own way to the first camp spot of the trip on Conistone Moor, meeting up with Martin and Andrew at 10pm. My alternative plan was a good ‘un, it meant that my walk avoided the silly high temperatures of the day.

The Planned Route

A few shots from my evening walk from Hebden to Conistone Moor, Sunday’s overnight pitch  :

I eventually found Alan and Martin just after 10pm. I wasted no time in getting my tent up (I used my TN LaserComp….just to remind it that I still loved it) and distributing the cans of beer I’d lugged up.

Monday morning dawned very brightly and rather warmly. After a quick breakfast and a few mugs of reviving caffeine we were off, via Great Whernside, to Kettlewell for tea, coffee, bacon butties etc.

It was now getting very hot. I don’t know how Martin & Andy coped with long trousers, I was cookingly hot in my lightweight kilt and T shirt.

Wot?

Looking back to Kettlewell

After our refreshment stop we headed out, climbing out of the valley. This was tough going in the very strong sun.

We’d had a good day of walking, but the high temperature and very strong sun slowed us down. Water was very scarce. We eventually found an almost dried-out tarn. My Sawyer filter clogged in seconds. Andy’s MSR Guardian filter was a life saver, it filtered what was virtually mud, converting it to clear and potable water.

We needed to find a suitable pitch for the night, ideally with a water source – not easy. Eventually we pitched up at Horse Head Gate, actually on the wide path. There was a trickle of a stream nearby so we were sorted for the night. 

Decision time.

The Plan for the next day was to head over to Pen-y-ghent, this was clearly going to be a problem. Limestone country isn’t known for a surplus of surface water – and water was going to be a vital requirement if we were to continue with our route.

Home for the night on Monday:

Sunset

Sunrise

We chose to re-route and cut our trip short by a day. We’d camped on the Pennine Journey LDP, this offered us an easy way off the top and down to the River Wharfe at Yockenthwaite and then to pick up the Dales Way – much easier walking, plus far more chance of picking up water.

An ex-mole on the Pennine Journey LDP

Descending to Yockenthwaite

The dried-up River Wharfe at Yockenthwaite

At 7.45am it was so hot that we were actively searching out shade. Bits of woodland provided some relief from the blazing sun – but the flying insects were a damned nuisance. Smidge helped.

St Michael and All Angels Church at Hubberholme

At Buckden we sat outside the village shop, ate ice creams and glugged cold drinks.

The Dales Way follows the course of the River Wharfe so it was fairly flat (apart from some hilly bits) and easy walking.

At last, water in the River Wharfe

Conistone Pie

Limestone pavement

En-route to Kettlewell and more ice cream

Posing outside Kettlewell’s village shop: purveyors of el-cheapo electrolyte drink. And ice cream. (Poor quality pic due to a mucky lens on my phone)

Next stop: Grassington…and a pub. No beer though, we drank copious amounts of coke, water, shandy – anything that was refreshing, cooling and rehydrating.

Hebden, so near….

We arrived back at Hebden around 4.45pm, we needed more ice cream and cold drinks – the tea room was still open it was doing good business. We made full use of it’s facilities…all of them!

We parted company around 6pm, Andy and Martin headed off darn sarf whilst I enjoyed a very pleasant drive through the Dales and eventually back home to Manchester.

First job when I arrived home was to run a much needed cool bath and have a good long soak, that cooled me down nicely.

I’d considered going to the monthly music session at the Lord Eldon in Knutsford….but I was too knackered! A cold beer at home suffficed.

Thanks to andy & Martin for planning the trip, for cutting it sort and for inviting me along. It was good.

Full photograph album here.