Total distance: 22732 m
Max elevation: -23 m
Total climbing: 100 m
Max elevation: -23 m
Total climbing: 100 m
Author: alasdair.geo (Page 12 of 13)
Total distance: 14640 m
Max elevation: -39 m
Total climbing: 112 m
Max elevation: -39 m
Total climbing: 112 m
Total distance: 21622 m
Max elevation: 1 m
Total climbing: 96 m
Max elevation: 1 m
Total climbing: 96 m
Into a cafe for breakfast and bought a sandwich for lunch. Walked through the outskirts of Bergen op Zoom, finally reaching the countryside. Weird how a relatively small barrier, canal on the way in, railway on way out, can have completely different classes of housing on either side. Lots of walking through the woods. The sandwich was money well spent and a big improvement on my basic ham and cheese. It had chicken, bacon, salad, mayonnaise; excellent. Finally crossed into Belgium, no sign, nothing. Surprised at the number of large houses in this area. Found a B&B and then off to a local restaurant for dinner. Left little toe started off fine, and I thought my strapping had fixed it, unfortunately it got worse as the day went on. All the others were fine. I finished the day in Heikant, at a fairly grim B&B. I discovered, when I woke during the night covered in sweat, that there was a rubber mat between the sheet and the mattress.
Total distance: 20468 m
Max elevation: -21 m
Total climbing: 101 m
Max elevation: -21 m
Total climbing: 101 m
Up bright and early for the bus. It arrived bang on time; asked if I could be dropped off at the nearest point to GR5, but had to go to bus stop on edge of Sint Philipsland and walk back. Sunny but cool, so great walking. Feet felt a bit; I stopped after two hours and added more to my toe. Success, or my toe has fallen off, as I didn’t feel anything the rest of the way to Bergen op Zoom. 25kms in 7 hours, two of which were not walking, moving average of 4.8kms. Ice cream and coffee and explored the centre of the old town. Still a bit stiff after each stop, but it is getting better.
Total distance: 24544 m
Max elevation: -4 m
Total climbing: 191 m
Max elevation: -4 m
Total climbing: 191 m
A rest day in Oude Tonge. My legs feel much better and my toe is also improving. (I sliced the toe area off the left side of my left foot trainer, so no pressure on my small toe) I had also visited the pharmacy and stocked up on plasters and tape, so was fully equipped for the next day’s walk. My plan for tomorrow is the early bus across the barrage, then back onto the GR5 and walk to Bergen op Zoom. I booked accommodation for tomorrow night in Bergen op Zoom and hope that the accommodation problem disappears once I’m back onto the mainland. Despite being a rest day, I walked out to the sea along the canal; thousands of geese, swans, ducks in the shallow water, then back into town to see the windmill.
I felt a lot better by the end of the day, and started to look forward to the rest of the trip.
Total distance: 5446 m
Max elevation: 84 m
Total climbing: 38 m
Max elevation: 84 m
Total climbing: 38 m
My goal was Dirksland, where there is a B&B; I planned to walk down the middle of the island, so as to pass through villages. I would then aim for somewhere close to the mainland crossing for the next day. The first hiccup was walking down a track, which I thought would be a nice short-cut, and finding a big ditch in between me and where I wanted to go… I retraced my steps and carried on. This was the first warm day and my left foot started suffering…phoned the B&B and found they were full… A bit of searching on the internet found the only (?) accommodation in the area at Oude Tonge. I planned to hitch and headed out of Dirksland to get to the main road. On my way out I noticed a bus coming in signed Rotterdam via Oude Tonge, which was perfect. I got to the main road and realised the traffic from the village was going in the opposite direction, and I needed to be at the next junction, so walked back into Dirksland. I spotted a bus parked and it was the one I had seen earlier, just about to leave. I jumped on and had a great ride to Oude Tonge where I stocked up on blister pads and plasters. More route planning, and found that again there was not much (any?) accommodation before Bergen op Zoom. I decided to have a rest day in Oude Tonge, and then plan for 7:15 bus to Sint Philipsland, where I could then walk on the GR5 to Bergen op Zoom.
Total distance: 16220 m
Max elevation: -11 m
Total climbing: 95 m
Max elevation: -11 m
Total climbing: 95 m
The morning was grey and windy, so rather than following the GR5, I decided not to follow the coast route, but cut south along country roads. I finally rejoined the GR5, with a walk through sand dunes. The tide was out and I got down on to the firm sand. Emptied my shoes; glad I hadn’t followed the GR5. Across the bridge, and then a real slog into the wind before arriving in Havenhoofd where I stayed in a small B&B. I had dinner in Goedereede, kindly driven there and back by the B&B owner, and then spent the evening trying to work out a route. The challenge ahead was crossing the barrage to get back onto the mainland in a couple of days, and not having to walk a huge distance because of the state of my feet.. The GR5 follows the south side of the island, and I couldn’t find any accommodation, only campsites. There was one B&B in the middle of the island, so I planned my route…
Total distance: 18922 m
Max elevation: -12 m
Total climbing: 186 m
Max elevation: -12 m
Total climbing: 186 m
Unfortunately, dinner last night matched all the terrible Google reviews. Our room was OK, and breakfast was alright but not worth the price.
It was 4.5C as we headed for the start of the trail, both wearing two fleeces, a woolly hat and gloves. The sun was out and the weather looked much better than yesterday. The first part of the trail led down to the lake, with lots of hairpins and partial steps. We made it slowly to the bottom and took a photo from the point where the glacier had been in 1980. There was no glacier at all 16000 years ago, and it has been growing and shrinking ever since.
We continued round the lakes, then enjoyed a walk through woods, but with some big descents as we dropped from one valley to another. We stopped for a short rest and removed our fleeces and swapped our woolly hats for sunhats. There was a huge waterfall where we stopped for photos and I noticed that the flow over the top had suddenly increased. We retreated higher up the path and watched as the water rose under the bridge that we had just crossed. A further few kms through pasture land and we stopped at a small café in the middle of nowhere. We had a good coffee with cream, and apple strudel with cream. Revived, we carried on to where we joined a small road and followed it to our hotel in Heiligenblut.
Total distance: 16281 m
Max elevation: 2374 m
Total climbing: 345 m
Max elevation: 2374 m
Total climbing: 345 m
Our driver picked us up to take us to Gatwick. This was (hopefully) the most dangerous part of the trip, as he regularly took both hands off the steering wheel, would drive up behind another vehicle and then slam the brakes on… It was just like being back in the Middle East. As we drove, the BBC announced a complete failure in UK air traffic control, and there were no planes in the sky as we approached Gatwick. We checked into the hotel and then walked to the terminal to investigate the bag wrapping. It was a bit like the fall of Saigon, with queues everywhere, and not a single BA desk manned. We found the bag wrapping service, and decided to get them wrapped the next morning as they opened at 4am.
Dinner in the hotel, then up early and over to the terminal. Sleeping bodies everywhere, but our check-in was easy using the bag drop. We arrived in the lounge, then were told that our 7:20 flight was delayed until 10:15. There was panic in the lounge when the board went from no information to showing that the gate had closed. We finally boarded and took off at 10:00. Landing at Salzburg was weird as we were the only plane in the entire airport. Our bags arrived and we removed the tens of metres of plastic wrapping. The customs officers had disappeared by the time we went through the green channel.
There was a very unfriendly ticket machine and we got our tickets about a minute before the tram arrived; several passengers didn’t bother with tickets.
We reached the main railway station to find more chaos; the train route we wanted to take was closed due to massive rainfall and there was a bus operating instead. We bought rail tickets and went outside where one of the organisers pointed us in the direction of a replacement bus. This left a couple of minutes after we boarded and we had about an hour’s drive down the motorway to another town. We filled in our waiting time with a coffee and cake, before heading back for the train. There were another four people on the platform and they suddenly all started off down the stairs. Someone had spotted that our train was now due to depart from a different platform. We made it, and had about an hour’s journey to Bruck, mostly alongside the incredibly swollen river. At Bruck it was a short walk to our hotel.
Two days of chaos; we hope that things improve!