Cluck…..Cluck……Cluck……..went the chicken……….
Cock a doodle doo…………went the rooster……… on numerous
occasions…….. from an early hour…..
Coo…Coo….. ……..Coo….Coo…….went the pigeons in the trees
Caw….Caw….Caw…..Caw……. went the peacock, as he strutted with
his feathers magnificently expanded…….
Rat ta tat tat…..Rat ta tat tat….. went Pete’s machine gun,
as life was silent on the farm once more……
Yes another early awakening from our farmyard friends, but
hey, this camp has been our best by a country mile. Due to the free wifi, we were able to get our
blog posted last night and power up the computer from the plug in the lounge
area. Because we had stopped early, we
had the time and the energy to get showered as well so all that was left to do this
morning was get breakfast and pack up.
So we hit the road at 9 am, heading for the village of Tubbergen. This was a lovely tidy village with some nice
homes and after that it was into Vasse.
We decided to take the main road here as it wasn’t too busy and it had a
separate cycle track and we were sick of doing 10km cycling to make about 5km
progress due to the indirectness of the quiet roads.
 |
| Pete in Vasse |
After Vasse, we had some lovely cycling through back roads
towards the town of Uelsen. But this was
where we left the plentiful signposts of Holland and entered the sparseness of
German signposting. There were plenty of
signposts with bicycles printed on them.
Well thanks Sherlock, we know we’re on bikes, tell us something we don’t
know, like which direction is Uelsen? Passed an awesome kids playground on the
way that was full of little kids having a blast.
Shortly after this the signposts let us down
once again and we found ourselves cycling through some gorgeous forest roads
with no idea which way we were headed.
We were looking at the shadows and figuring the sun rises in the east so
we must be heading….south?! No, that
can’t be right. Unfortunately it was, so
we had to guess our way out and actually managed to find our way to a main
road. It was here we had our first run in
with the German police. Actually we just
asked them for directions and found out we had got ourselves back on track and
were just short of the town of Lage.
 |
| Some of the lovely houses we saw today |
Once there we treated ourselves to some bakery food before heading
north-east once again. We stuck with the
main roads through Neuenhaus and the small villages of Veldhausen and Osterwald
before stopping for lunch at a bus stop.
 |
| How's this for a bus stop? All we needed was free wifi! |
Talk about a well-made bus stop.
Brick and timber with a brick floor, very roomy with a seat and well
sheltered from the wind. We were both
feeling extremely tired for some reason.
Figured it was the lack of coffee so brewed up one of Wendy’s specials
and that really did seem to do the trick.
Having checked the map I was able to tell Pete we had made 25 km
progress this morning. Having checked
the speedometer, he told me we’d actually cycled 47km, hence our decision to
flag the cycle tracks for the rest of the afternoon.
Next we were to head for the village of Dalum, but with a
lack of signs with that name on, we asked a bunch of German ladies out for
their Saturday afternoon bike ride. They
could only speak a little English (that’s one of the biggest differences
between here and Holland where nearly everyone speaks English), but told us we
were on the right path.
We passed through Dalum and Geeste and then took the busy
road to Haselunne as it was after 5pm and we wanted to eat at a pub and watch
the Brazil-Chile game.
Actually found a
campsite at Haselunne so seeing as we’d done 90km, we pitched the tent and then
went to the camp restaurant to watch the game.
Unfortunately there were a bunch of drunk Germans who’d just driven
their horse and cart from Bremen to Haselunne that day and a couple of them
took a shine to us and wouldn’t stop talking so we missed most of the first
half. Also in Germany it would appear
you’re still allowed to smoke in bars so we had to put up with this guy blowing
smoke in our faces as he leered into our personal space as drunk people tend to
do. Fortunately they had to go and eat
their dinner at half-time so we got to watch the second half in peace. We ate schnitzel with champignon (mushrooms)
and pommes (potatoes) in the form of chips.
Very nice and just what the doctor ordered. Shared some apple strudel with ice-cream
after that which was also delicious. We
decided to eat at the restaurant to be able to watch the soccer but also
because we’re running low on gas. Doubt
we’ll find anywhere open tomorrow, being Sunday, so hopefully we’ll find
somewhere in Bremen on Monday.
Back at the tent I started to download the photos while Pete
lay down and dropped straight off to sleep, despite the noise from the drunk
party which had now spilled out of the bar and into the campground. I hoped these people, who had been drinking
all day by the sounds of it, would be too tired to carry on much longer, but
they kept up a steady stream of noise until 10pm at least which was when I
finished writing the blog and checking our directions for tomorrow and turned
in, too tired now to let anything keep me awake.
PETE AGAIN – No sooner had Julia fallen asleep [ and believe
me when Ju falls asleep, she sleeps the sleep of the dead ] our inherited
friends and their entourage from the bar start. Arguments all over the place, I
kid you not, it was like a Western Front war zone. Then the bottles started
being smashed. Why is it when you pitch your tent somewhere you think others won’t
bother you, it’s the first place they gravitate to. Suddenly, we’ve got wailing
women and guys yelling at full voice right next to the tent……..and still Julia
sleeps. I think the only thing that woke her was me trying to peek out at what
was going on and the tent flap brushed her face. Still, at least I know that
whenever I’m slaughtered in my bed one night, at least she’ll get a full eight
hours sleep before she finds what they’ve done. Last I heard of the noise was
3am, when even I couldn’t keep my eyes open.
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