Pieterpad background info and planning

The Pieterpad is not an ancient Dutch route as one might think. It was thought up between 1975 and 1981 by two enthusiastic old ladies who loved to walk: Toos Goorhuis-Tjalsma and Bertje Jens. They wanted the Netherlands to also have it's own LAW and so they designed this route to run from Pieterburen on the Wadden coast of Groningen to Sint-Pietersberg (snort. yes, Sint Pieter's Mountain, it's a sort of limestone hillock, a mountain by Dutch standards and geologically quite an interesting area with caves to explore) in Maastricht. The "Pieter" at the beginning and end is where the route got it's name from. One could choose to continue walking from Sint-Pietersberg, and follow the GR 5 straight to the Mediterranean.*

Who knows, I might.


This route is about 485km long has been split into two parts. Part 1 goes from Pieterburen to Vorden in 13 segments and is 232 km long. Part 2 goes from Vorden to Pietersberg in 14 segments and is about 256km long. Each segment is a daytrip of on average 15 - 20 km which is very much doable.

So, the entire route will take 27 days to complete from start to finish. If I walk it in two day weekend segments, that should take about 13 weekends to complete. Less, if I schedule in a long weekend here and there. The distance per day is quite short so it's more of an amble than a walk. All of it on fairly even surfaces... I can see myself easily doing three segments over a weekend instead of two, especially with the shorter ones. I'll wait and see though, before I try to push too hard.

I would like to start walking this month already. Best would be on the 26th April (oh dear, hope for good weather!). This is not brain surgery and does not need much planning but it gives me time to buy the walking guides next weekend and read up a bit on the route. Clothing, backpack etc are all things I already have.

I'm quite excited!


* I got this information from the official Pieterpad website.