Travelling to WHY on a bike (5/n)
Packing everything into the bags and the trailer still took me half a day longer than I had hoped, so I was quite stressed yesterday evening, wondering if I will actually still be able to start on that day.
I had my general route to #WHY2025 planned quickly, but not planned the overnight stops yet ... and the problem with staying on camping sites is that they often already close their reception desk around 18:00 - when I hadn't even started.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (6/n)
First I thought about asking around on fedi if anyone would let me stay in their garden when I arrive late at night.
But then I remembered that there is a platform actually made for that, and I even already had an account there. I had to upgrade to a paid membership for https://welcometomygarden.org, but a whole year of that is still cheaper than two nights on some random camping site, so it was an easy choice.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (7/n)
I contacted a few people on WTMG and finally found someone in Enschede who would let me in late enough that I could realistically make it.
It was still 62.5 km though, so I had to be quite fast. Luckily the roads and bike paths were mostly in good condition, so I actually made it there in 4 hours.
Made my legs hurt quite a bit though - usually I would go a bit slower and definitely take more breaks when I'm going that far with the trailer.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (8/n)
Setting up my tent in the dark, while it was rainy and windy (and I was hungry, didn't have time for breaks on the way), took me a while (at least I had a parking spot for my bike under a roof), but I managed to get it done.
And now I'm writing this from my tent, drying in the sun between some apple trees, and I'm confident that I can start earlier today.
First I have to eat breakfast though, pack my stuff again, and look for a place to stay the next night.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (9/n)
Finally everything packed up again... phew, that took longer than I expected.
I already asked some people on WTMG for a place to stay tonight, but haven't gotten a (positive) reply yet. So if anyone from near #Zwolle happens to read this here and have a garden with space for a tent, I'd be happy to hear from you ^^
Travelling to WHY on a bike (10/n)
Yeah, today I'm a lot slower. I'm just about halfway to Zwolle now and it feels like it already took forever...
Even if it's still a few minutes earlier than when I even started yesterday.
But yesterday was kinda stressful, and I knew I couldn't keep up with that speed for all the days.
Also I still don't know where I'll sleep tonight, so any clues are welcome...
Travelling to WHY on a bike (11/n), looking for a place to sleep
I actually made it to #Zwolle, and it's still more than half an hour earlier than when I arrived at the garden in Enschede yesterday.
But my bike battery is almost empty, all of the garden owners here on WTMG have either said they're not at home or booked out, or have just not replied at all :/
If anyone has a clue where I can find a camping spot that will let me in this late without having booked in advance, I'd be glad to know.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (12/n)
yawns good meowning ^^
Yesterday was very... adventurous 😬
but at least I did not have to sleep on the street.
I can tell you more in about two hours, I have to leave this place before 12 so I should start getting ready instead of posting on fedi.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (13/n)
So... yesterday. The weather was really annoying compared to the day before, when it was mostly cloudy with a little bit of rain that was even somewhat enjoyable.
Yesterday was switching back and forth between "the sun is too harsh and almost blinding me" and sudden heavy rain, while I was cycling against the wind most of the time.
Once I went off the road to seek shelter (at least for me, not the bike) under the roof of a carport with a tractor parked in it.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (14/n)
That was after I had gone through some short patch of forest while the rainstorm started, which was scary o.o
Also that forest road was the place where I noticed that I probably lost one of my trailer's rear lights earlier -.-
At least I got to see a rainbow once it had cleared up a bit ^^
Travelling to WHY on a bike (15/n)
That was neither the first nor the last rainstorm of the day.
While the first few kilometers felt like dragging on forever, I somehow managed to get the 75 km to Zwolle until about 22:00.
I was fairly tired already, my bike battery very low, and I just wanted whatever place where I could recharge, sleep, and go to the toilet... but that still took a while.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (16/n)
I slowly continued on my planned route, and used the headset in my helmet to talk on the phone with @carostar@eldritch.cafe (which helped a lot to keep my mood up), when it started raining heavily again. After a few minutes, I found shelter under the roof of the entrance to a shoe store, and could at least change my wet gloves for dry ones and have a snack while I waited for the rain to stop.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (17/n)
That's when I noticed that my phone had stopped charging, at a bit above 50 percent battery. I assumed that the powerbank I was charging it from just got empty, and wanted to switch to the other one. But then my phone complained about the USB port being wet and wouldn't let me charge any more until it's dry again.
I started to panic a bit, but went on slowly, pushing my bike on foot rather than riding, after we had to end the phone call.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (18/n)
With less than 30 percent phone battery left, I got a message from @lenaschimmel@chaos.social who then called me so we could talk while I had the display turned off. I had already sent her my route, so she helped navigate me further, and she found a hotel online that had the reception open around the clock and was not completely booked out. So I walked on, pushing my bike to that hotel and went in there to ask for a room, about half past midnight.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (19/n)
The check-in took a while, and the receptionist even showed me a place where I could park my trailer (outside, but hidden from view behind a high fence).
I carried my stuff to the room and got a nice warm shower ^^
My phone had dried enough so I could start charging it again, at 4 percent battery left.
I also plugged in my bike battery and my helmet for charging, and finally went to sleep around half past 2 ... phew.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (20/n)
In the morning, I packed up my stuff again and checked out of the room at noon. Putting everything into the trailer and the bags on the bike took me a while.
I looked for possible campsites to stop at for the next night, and found a few... that are all kind of meh though, because they're either slightly too far or not far enough. Around 13:00, I decided to just start riding, and continue looking for campsites later.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (21/n)
It's very windy today, and I'm riding against the wind most of the time, but at least it hasn't rained so far and looks like it will stay dry today.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (22/n)
On my way, I met a nice person in a velomobile, who rode alongside me for a while and told me about their vacation.
They also mentioned that it's common practice if you arrive on a campsite late at night when the reception is close, you can just ask the other campers there how it works, set up your tent, and check in the next morning when the reception opens again. Maybe I'll have to do that tonight... let's see.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (23/n)
So far I've travelled 49 km today. With the wind and a lot of going uphill (not actuall hills, but there's a lot of bridges I went over today), my bike battery is below a third of its charge already.
I'll try to stay around here tonight, even though I'm far from the 60 km that I had planned as a minimum per day.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (24/n)
I'm in Lelystad now, sitting at the entrace of a camping site and waiting for the reception to open again in half an hour (they actually have opening hours in the evening, yay!). Maybe I can at least eat an actual meal tonight instead of just snacks, and start earlier tomorrow morning.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (25/n)
I would have liked to go a bit further, but that's the issue with the route I've chosen: the next camping site (that's not in Lelystad) would be 39 km further on. And I don't think my bike battery would last that far today.
Stopping somewhere in between is not possible, because most of that distance is just a dam with two roads on it, and water on both sides. The next town on my route is Enkhuizen... which is on the other end of that dam.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (26/n)
I would have liked to get as far as Enkhuizen today, but I think it would be a bad idea to try now.
Earlier today, I had even emailed a camping site over there, to ask about late night check-in possibilities. But I didn't get a response yet. And while doing what the person with the velomobile had suggested might have worked out, it would have a high chance of me getting a place to sleep - but no electricity to recharge my bike.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (27/n)
Staying in Lelystad tonight means that I have to cover a distance of almost 80 km tomorrow o.o
Which means I'll only arrive at #WHY2025 in the evening. I would have liked the last day of travel to be a shorter distance, but well... it's not like I have much of a choice any more 🤷♀️
Travelling to WHY on a bike (28/n)
Well... I didn't actually manage to start earlier than yesterday. But assuming my average speed (including breaks) of 10 km/h from the last few days, I'll still arrive at #WHY2025 before it's completely dark.
I already got close to half of today's distance behind me ^^
And if I had known how much easier the Markerwaarddijk was than I had expected, I might actually have tried to get to Enkhuizen yesterday after all.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (29/n)
The camping site in Lelystad was really nice though, I should go back there some day with more time to enjoy seeing all the cute little "houses" and pet the alpacas :)
But anyway, it only took me about one and a half hours to get to the other end of the Markerwaarddijk \o/ I had expected it to be closer to three hours than to one o.o
Travelling to WHY on a bike (30/n)
The first part of the Markerwaarddijk (which is not a dike, but a dam - despite its name ... historical reasons) was very pleasant. It was the first time on this whole journey that I had a tailwind for more than a few minutes, and I could go fast enough to not even use much of my battery.
In the middle part, there was surprisingly little wind at all, and I saw sooo many birds ^^
Travelling to WHY on a bike (31/n)
Somwhere in the middle there's a beach and some touristy stuff, but once I saw how steep the way to get down to it was, I decided against taking a break there, because I don't think I could have gone back up that slope to the bike path with my trailer.
Instead, I took a short break on the highest point of the bike path, where it switches from being down on the east side of the dijk to the west side... or rather the middle?
Travelling to WHY on a bike (32/n)
The road for cars is west of the bike path along the whole length, but only in the nothern half they're right next to each other.
The noise from the cars was a bit annoying, and in the last third there was a lot of headwind.
Luckily, I was distracted from cursing about the headwind too much, because I met @cybso@osna.social on there, who recognized me and my trailer from my earlier posts in this thread. Hi 👋
Travelling to WHY on a bike (33/n)
In Enkhuizen, our routes split up again, and after a short waiting time at this confusing part of the path (once I saw other cylists going through there without being confused by the red traffic light with no visible way to switch it), I continued to Bovenkarspel, where I am sitting on a bench in a cute park now, having a little bit of lunch and posting on here ^^
Travelling to WHY on a bike (34/n)
I should get started again now though... the headwind here is a lot more than it was at the seaside, and I still have about 40km to go.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (35/n)
The rest of the distance was a bit more exhausting... a lot of headwind, many roads with paving stones, and it seems that the comfortable bike paths / bike lanes I had gotted used to from the first three days are not so common in this part of the country. I had to ride on actual roads a lot of the time here.
But I still arrived at WHY more than an hour earlier than first expected - thanks to being fast on the dijk and only taking one longer break.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (36/n)
A little bit of confusion right at the end: I had planned my route to end at the place where the pedestrian entrance was marked on the map when I planned it.
Shortly before there, I encountered this sign, and was not sure what to do at first - some cars just ignored the sign and went in anyway, but came back out after a while.
Travelling to WHY on a bike (37/n)
I decided to try it anyway, because my bike battery was almost empty and I didn't want to switch to the spare battery just for the diversion route.
Success: I was allowed to go in, pushing my bike through the pedestrian entrance, and got my wristband shortly after that 🎉
So I actually made it to #WHY2025 by bike, and there was even still some daylight when I arrived.
Travelling home from WHY on a bike (1/n)
It's my last evening at #WHY2025 and I'm planning my trip back home to Münster.
For more variety, I will take a different route than on the way here. It is (in theory, not counting detours to reach the spots for camping on the way) only about 9 km longer than the other one, 265 instead of 256 km... so it should be doable in a similar amount of time.
Travelling home from WHY on a bike (2/n)
Currently, I'm staring at my laptop, a bit annoyed by camping site owners who make important info hard or even impossible to find on their website.
I think I have found some ok-ish options for my overnight stays, but having more choice would still be nice.
Travelling home from WHY on a bike (3/n), looking for camping site recommendations
So if you know any #camping sites in Amsterdam, west of Apeldoorn, or near the german border about 25 km south of Hengelo, that...
- allow tents
- have the reception open in the evening
- provide electricity for tent camping (not only for caravans)
... I would like to know about them ^^
Kiki