Snow. Again. And sleet....

...and rain, hail and icing and snow again. All with a bitterly cold, strong wind. And another 19km of walking. I feel stronger every day.
After walking in our local forest with my wife and our dogs she, and the dogs, drove home and I walked around the Naardermeer, a natural lake/swamp and Holland's first nature reserve, est.1901.



After a pinkish sunrise the sky was soon overcast. Snow was predicted at the end of the morning. It was a few degrees below zero but felt much colder.

The walk around the Naardermeer is called 'Het Laarzenpad' (The Wellies Way) because parts of it go through pastures and wet areas. The pastures are trodden by cows and were frozen solid. Crossing it for 1km was more difficult than walking on a Scottish boulderfield. 

At 11.30am it started with sleet which turned into snow 20 minutes later. The wind was coming from the side but didn't bother me too much. I was comfy in my Paramo Alta I jacket and Goretex trousers.

 

 

The lake was frozen and the howling wind made beautifull patterns on the ice. The last stretch I walked straight into the wind but I made good progress despite the difficult circumstances. I arrived home at 13.00pm covering 19km in 3hrs45mins.

 

More snow



More snowfall yesterday and last night. Up to 18cm (7 inches) in places. Brings back memories from when I was a young lad. I had a nice walk with the dogs.

 

 

 

 

Practise makes Perfect : a 30km walk

I had the very rare opportunity of walking for as much as I wanted yesterday. Snow had fallen two days before and it was below zero so I decided to stretch my goal for the day a little bit.
Het Voetstappenpad is a nice circular walk around Hilversum (The Netherlands) through heath, forests and a bit of Hilversum itself.
The lenght is 25km and parking north of the walk the total lenght of the walk would be 30km.

Het Gebed-zonder-End

The temperature was minus 5 degrees but luckily there was hardly any wind so there was no windchill. I was carrying my backpack stuffed with jeans and filled waterbottles to reach the weight of 14kg. I was wearing a North Face Gore-tex trouser over synthetic longjohns, an Icebreaker Merino baselayer and midlayer and my Paramo Alta jacket together with Scarpa SL3 boots and a cheapish pair of walking poles and a thin fleece hat and gloves.
I never felt cold at all and sometimes even had to open the jacket to cool down a bit.

Bussummerheide

I started at 9.30 at a leisurely speed. There were a lot of tracks of small deer and rabbits in the snow. The human footprint you can see in the picture is the waymark of the Voetenpad, originally established in 1938.
I had my SatMap Active10 gps with me to test the batteries in cold conditions. I used rechargeable batteries that weren't freshly charged but all bars were shown on screen. The path is very well waymarked but I thought it was best to use the gps anyway. I had it turned on all the time in energy-save mode and the batteries only ran flat 600m before reaching my car again. During The TGO Challenge I will only turn it on when needed so I think I can get at least 2 full days walking out of 3 normal AA-sized batteries.  

Westerheide

Despite the lack of sunshine I was enjoying myself. I kept saying to myself this was all f...king fantastic, having decided to do this only 12 hours ago. The company was great (there was nobody around) and the views were stunning.   

Charolais cows

I didn't meet any Highland Coos, instead I met some Charolais cows who thought I was bringing something nice to chew on. I tend to ignore cattle, and in exchange they ignore me, but this time they followed me for a while at very close range. I had my poles ready to scare them off but didn't get the change (?) to test the theory.  


Dr.Albert Schweizer forest road

Kilometre after kilometere passed and I kept feeling good which was a bit of a surprise to me because I had injured my right knee 15 days ago. Despite the terrain being difficult to walk on from time to time - months of rain had turned the paths into deep mud and tracks of mountainbikers and walkers had frozen solid to form a sort of boulderfield - I didn't experience any pain in my knee. 

Hilversum's Wasmeer viewpoint

After walking for three hours I took a lunchbreak of 15 minutes at the Hilversum's Wasmeer viewpoint, south of Hilversum. As I was packing to leave two elderly men entered the viewpoint. One was obviously being 'guided' by the other and the newbie remarked this was a nice flat area. I thought : "It better be otherwise the Laws of Physics don't apply around here. It's a lake for God's sake !", but I kept my mouth shut.

The Hoorneboeg

Another 2 hours 15 minutes of walking on 'boulderfields' started to take its toll and at 3 o'clock I had another 15 minutes break. Calves, knees, hips and shouldermuscles were making clear they'd had enough of it but I still had to walk another 6km.


Me, Halvar Icebeard, getting a bit knackered 

I simply put one foot in front of the other and ending in my neck-of-the-woods meant I could split the remaing km's in manageable pieces : the pond, the left-turn at the road, three oaklanes, the campsite.... .

Spanderswoud

Eventually I reached the car having walked 30km for which I needed 7 hours. Time moving was 5hrs35mins, average speed was 4,3km and moving average was 5,3km/hour.

Today I expected to have sore and stiff legs (I remember coming down the stairs at Glenbrittle YH after a long day in The Cuillin) but that didn't happen. I actually feel good.
Some more of these walks and I'll be ready for the Challenge in May.

Winter has arrived.

Yesterday and the day before saw the very first snowfall this season. Only ten days ago the last leaves were blown from the trees. Yesterday the ground was still sodden from previous rainfall but today molten snow was frozen solid on firm surfaces making walking difficult from time to time.



 

The temperatures are around zero and a little rise is expected for the next days, followed by a colder period. I was cosy in my Paramo Alta jacket and the dogs, Atilla and Djengis, enjoyed the snow also. 

 

Part two of the treefelling that started the previous winterperiod has restarted a few weeks ago and some of my best friends have been chopped down. Beautifull Douglas Fir with 4ft wide trunks.
I don't like it.

Gooilust - some more pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warmest 22nd ever recorded

Today was the warmest 22nd of October ever recorded in The Netherlands. With a staggering 22 degr.C. it was one of the warmest places in Europe today. T-shirts all day.

However, it will all change in 5 days time when the max temperature will be 8 C..

I'm afraid the colours of autumn will leave us soon. 

The Gooilust estate - beeches.

Mass grave

Treefelling has started last week. It feels like I'm somewhere else. I don't know this place.

Is this an open space in a forest, a breach or a crime scene ?

It feels like part of my body has been amputated.

I know this trees have been planted in the past for the production of wood for commercial reasons but that idea has been abandoned a long time ago in this forest. Perhaps I'll be able to appreciate it ten years from now.

And not a word in the local papers. No questions asked. It's legal I suppose but does it make sense ? Not to me it does. It's a mass grave and a lot of my friends have died.  

Executed

The treefelling in The Spaanderswoud has started. Perhaps you remember my previous post about snipers. The creation of a corridor between two fields of heather had temporarily been stopped because of the presence of badgers in that part of the wood. Badgers are protected by law in the Netherlands, you're not allowed to disturb them or their habitat.
The Gooisch Natuur Reservaat (GNR) therefor decided to start on the northern side of the corridor.

The wood consists of mixed conifer and broadleaf trees. Part of it has been planted as production wood with larch and sitka spruce but cutting them for commercial reasons hasn't been done for many years. There's no profit in treefelling anymore.
Although their value for nature is nominal we still think it's a shame to cut down trees, whatever their origin.

Old pinetrees have been felled also. In Scotland it would be a major crime to cut down the old Scots Pine.

Perhaps the odd slowwurm, lizard and the greendotted yellowblue wingbeetle will be pleased with a sunny corridor to a little patch of heather - do these animals migrate a couple of kilometres ? - but do  the badgers, foxes and smalldeer feel the same ?
Next year the badgers will have moved because of the noise and the GNR will say there aren't any badgers living in the southern part of the future corridor so there's no reason not to cut down the rest of the trees anymore. The steward decides and that's final.

Autumn colours 2 and 3

It's exceptionally warm and dry for the time of year and not that many wind. The leaves are nevertheless falling rapidly at the moment. The first three pictures are taken a week ago, the last three today.

Oak leaves



All together now... 

Spanderswoud

Bantam

Schaep en Burgh

Alas, not my driveway (Schaep en Burgh) 

The Spanderswoud, Bantam and Schaep en Burgh are former estates between Bussum and 's Graveland. They are now owned by Natuurmonumenten en Goois Natuur Reservaat.

Little Britain

It really is. No, I'm not being sarcastic. Nor do I want to offend anyone. It really, really is.And it's Linda's. Not Elizabeth's.
It's Linda's Little Britain . 

She opened her little shop last week in Hilversum, The Netherlands. Linda herself is born in Inverurie, Scotland and she's been living in Holland for many years now.

She specialises in typical British groceries and gifts.










If you happen to pass Hilversum or live nearby,
please give her shop a visit. The address is Vaartweg 22a Hilversum, 28 km southeast of Amsterdam.

The tower of the Great Church of Naarden

Climbing the stairs inside the wall

  Yesterday we weren't really outdoors as we were ascending the local churchtower. Ascending that is using the stairs not climbing the outside.

Having been born in the neighbouring town the city of Naarden has always been the opponent. As a child I hadn't been to Naarden often and it has been one of my wishes to climb the churchtower of The Great Church of Naarden.

Yesterday I took 2 of my kids up the tower. Kids like to do these things.

 

The church was build during the fourteenth and fiftheenth century in the stronghold of Naarden. Naarden was rebuild after been flooded earlier as it's in spitting distance from the former Zuyderzee. Being part of the defenses around Amsterdam and Holland it got double starshaped canals around the city. People that wanted to live inside the city had to pay 2000 bricks for the construction of the church. With the small number of inhabitants 500 years ago it's a miracle the church has been completed - the walls are more than 8 feet wide. The staircase is inside the wall, turning clockwise so it could easely be defended with swords.

Floor of middle section : the churchbells
were hauled up through this hole

The ceiling of the lower part of the tower

The churchtower contained 5 bronze bells until WWII. The smallest of the bells was thrown in the canals to hide it for the German occupier. The 4 bigger bells were stolen by the Germans and transported to Germany where they were melted for warmaterial. Luckily plastermoulds were made so they could be reconstructed after the war.

5 bells in an oakframe

The views from the tower are wide and far.

It's windy on top

View north from the tower

View southeast with cityhall behind the church 

The Great Church of Naarden stitched together

Much too soon we had to get back down again after which we made a tour around the church. Ancient canonballs can still be seen sticking in the walls. Naarden has been occupied and looted by Spaniards, French and Germans and 'rentals' from all over Europe. As far as I know the British have never been here. Instead William of Orange went the other way.