Garnwerd to Groningen (13 km) on Sunday, 27 April 2008

We left Garnwerd after nine in the morning, after a good honest Dutch breakfast prepared by our Francophile host.

Walking out of Garnwerd my right foot started to bother me, it got steadily worse as we walked on. In the end it was so painful -even with painkillers and Diclofenac- that I took the bus to Groningen station over the last km or so while Elma walked that last distance. Almost two weeks later the foot is still painful when I walk, so I'll have to have it medically seen to.

The walk itself was delightful, a good part of it ran alongside the Reitdiep canal. It seems that the Reitdiep valley is the oldest man-made landscape in Europe, created by the Hunze river that connected Groningen to the sea. The weather was sublime.

Along the way we saw a gorgeous little church at Oostum from the 13th century. it's built on on a terp wierde (In Groningen it's called wierde, in Friesland it's called terp), a piece of land that was artificially heightened back when this area was regularly flooded. Most of that has been excavated now, only the churches and graveyards are still up high.

A bit further on, just before crossing the canal, we encountered a restaurant with tables on the side of the road overlooking the water. Of course we sat down and enjoyed a cup of coffee and some cherry(?)tart. We heard from a variety of people there that good walking shoes are of the utmost importance when doing such a walk. My foot by that time was hurting a lot so I was pathetic, and Elma was walking in bright red ski boots which of course attracted comment ;-)
One couple told us of a long distance walk (old pilgrim route) of about 800 km called el Camino de Santiago, they made it sound very attractive but I think I'll have to be a bit fitter and more experienced before I tackle that one.

The walk took us over the meandering Paddepoelster Road which is a very old road. Eventually we crossed the Van Starkenborgh canal into Groningen, sat for a while on a bench and watched the world go by. Also sitting on a bench next to us were two youngsters who were also doing the walk, and I was relieved to see the one girl in even worse shape than I was! After that we followed cycle roads and walking paths until we reached the city itself and I hopped (crawled) on a bus towards the station. Elma will have to correct me on details or add some more info because I was rather wasted this day because of the pain in my foot.



And here are Elma's pictures:




I learned a few things on this walk:
- make the backpack as light as possible.
- walking with a human is completely different to walking with a dog.
- asphalt walking hurts the feet.
- definitely need to do something about the level of fitness.
- around 10 - 15 km a day is a good length for a weekend walker like me.
- I really loved walking like this even though the foot hurt like hell.
- I'm going to finish this walk, and then do a next one. And a next one. And a next.

Elma and I decided that we'd do the next leg on the weekend of 24 & 25 May. That will take us from Groningen to Zuidlaren, the total distance is 21 km. It's supposed to be one leg but we'll be splitting it over two days, it comes down to about 10km a day. As time goes on and we get fitter and more experienced we will probably do longer distances, but it's not an endurance race - the main intention after all, is to enjoy the walk and get to know this country of ours from a totally different angle.

Pieterburen to Garnwerd (16 km) on Saturday, 26 April 2008

Day one and it would not be a journey of mine if things did not go wrong.

I was supposed to transfer on station Gouda(!) to the intercity train that Elma was already travelling on. The train announcement said, cross over to platform 5 and get on the train to Utrecht, as we pulled into the station. So I did... into the stoptrain to Utrecht and not the intercity I should have been on. Elma had to get off her train in Utrecht to wait for me, or travel all the way to Groningen on her own. She waited, we met up and then we went all the way to Station Baflo where we waited for the Regiotaxi (which was half hour late!). Meanwhile, the man from the local VVV saw us standing there and regaled us with all kinds of information and he also gave us a couple of brochures to take along. That was very kind of him, we saw many of the things he described all along the route!

The regiotaxi took us to Pieterburen at breakneck speed (no wonder you never see any children outside in the little villages along the route... they had been yanked indoors by terrified parents!!!)

We started out quite late on day one and we had 16 km to walk, so we set off at a brisk pace and did not stop along the way until we hit Winsum. The pace was not so brisk at first but after the fifth group of geriatric walkers left us in a cloud of dust, we picked up speed. We managed to arrive in Winsum before a pair of very nice old ladies, which gave us some relief: we were not last!

Had some lovely apple pie and coffee sitting in the sun on a terrace in Winsum, then we continued on to the last leg of the day's journey. The first bit was fun, walking along a sloot, over fields and past some very bored horses, but after that it was less pleasant. We were walking on the verge of a very busy road with impatient cars whizzing past. Happy to arrive in Garnwerd, my tongue dragging on the road by that time, we looked for our overnight address and found it without any trouble. We then tottered off to see a bit of the old town and eat something at the local cafetaria. Uitsmijter (two slices of bread, three eggs runny yolks, thinly sliced ham, onion rings, fried mushrooms and some guilt salad), tea, glass of rose each and finally decadent ice cream on the banks of the canal sitting on a wooden bench watching the cows come home. Heaven!

We went to sleep earlier than I had done in years, around nine! Slept well, aside from the few mosquitoes that decided I was a nice snack.



For me, it was a lovely flat green countryside with many meandering little streams which (thank you VVV guy) by their very curves prove that they are the original natural waterways (farmers make straight lines, nature goes in bends and whorls) from back in the days when this province was regularly inundated by very high tides and storms.

Elma took some lovely pictures:

Pieterburen - Garnwerd - Groningen

For this part of the journey, it will be Anja and Elma walking.

Day 1: to Pieterburen with public transport.
Walk from Pieterburen to Garnwerd, 16 km.
Overnight in a B&B in Garnwerd (booked)
Day 2: walk to Groningen, 13 km.
Train back to our respective homes.

The KNMI weather forecast looks excellent:

	Saturday	Sunday
Chance of sunshine (%)	50	40
Chance of rain (%)	20	70
Expected rain (mm)	0	0-4
Minimum temp (°C)	6/9	8/11
Afternoon temp (°C)	16/18	17/20
Wind direction	ZW	Z
Wind speed (bft)	3	4

Voordeelurenabonnement

I applied for a Voordeelurenabonnement online, a few minutes ago. To my disgust it will only be valid from May 5 at the earliest. Seems it takes that long for the NS (Dutch Railway) to get one little card made. Hmph. My passport was more quickly created than that.

This means that it will be a really expensive trip next weekend. Perhaps we should look into leaving very early on the Saturday morning then, instead of overnighting in Pieterburen the night before. That will shave at least 23 Euro off the total cost of the weekend, per person.

So far, it seems it will be only Elma joining me this coming weekend, though others plan to join in along the way. Elma is determined to walk the entire Pieterpad as well.

Weather looks very promising. I can hardly wait.
This week I'll be organising a sleepover place in Winsum, and figuring out the train timetable so we can leave REALLY early on Saturday.


I just checked on 92920v.nl:
From Den Haag Centraal to Winsum will cost € 32,80 for a single, € 41,70 for a return ticket. With discount it would have been € 19,70 and € 25,00. Then we still need to take the bus from Winsum to Pieterburen, that's 4 strips and will cost € 1,84. Disgruntled does not even begin to cover it...

Well. It is what it is.

I figure we should buy a return ticket Den Haag Centraal to Groningen (valid for the weekend), and a single from Groningen to Winsum. If we leave from Den Haag Centraal at 6.36 from track 4, we should reach Pieterburen around 10.00 in the morning. Ouch. Three and a half hours travel on train and bus-taxi before walking one meter, that will have us feeling quite shattered...

The alternative is to choose to kick off in style, and overnight in Pieterburen on Friday night after all. I'll talk it through with Elma - my first instinct is to go Saturday morning. Friday after work, three and a half hours train etc is no picnic either.

Pieterburen, starting point

Pieterburen's main claim to fame is the seal rescue centre of Lenie 't Hart (PS they do really good work, and can always use a little extra cash) and the starting point of the Pieterpad (or the end, depending on from which direction you walk the route). It lies in the Province of Groningen and it's pretty old - the oldest paperwork that mentions Pieterburen is from 1371.

I've been there before, many years ago when I went walking on the Wad (mud flats in the Wadden Sea), back when I was a student. Next weekend I'll be there again. As my memory serves me, it's a sleepy little village where the people are friendly. I don't expect it to have changed much.

Marjon won't be joining me (us??) next weekend, she says. It's okay, she can always join me on another leg of this walk. It will take a while to finish!

KNMI's long-term prediction is looking excellent:
vrijdag 25 april tot en met maandag 28 april 2008
Grote kans op rustig weer met een kleine kans op neerslag. Temperaturen een paar graden boven normaal.

I purchased the Nivon guide to the Pieterpad, part 1.
This week, I'll be booking the places I'll be staying overnight and packing my backpack.
I'm ready!! :-)

Next weekend, the weather and future walking dates

26 & 27 April is when I'm planning to start the walk. Unless we have torrential rain, that's a definite date.

Long term forecast of the KNMI is:

Verwachting 6 tot 9 dagen vooruit

dinsdag 22 april tot en met vrijdag 25 april 2008

Voortzetting van het wisselvallige weer met temperaturen iets boven normaal.

Typical spring weather, I can cope with that quite well.


I already may have Elma, Nic and the kids, as well as Marjon, joining me for the weekend.

Possible future walking dates for me are:
Long weekend 30 April - 4 May
Long weekend 10 - 12 May
17 & 18 May
24 & 25 May
31 May & 1 June
7 & 8 June
14 & 15 June
21 & 22 June
28 & 29 June
5 & 6 July
12 & 13 July
19 & 20 July
26 & 27 July
2 & 3 August
10 & 11 August
16 & 17 August
23 & 24 August
30 & 31 August
6 & 7 September
13 & 14 September, and after this I'll have to first talk things through with Connie because I am spending three weeks around this time (and perhaps in October) looking after her wild bunch.
I'll post the other dates well into autumn as soon as I know the exact dates she'll be gone.


18 & 19 October I'll be in the UK playing with a pack of wolves, if everything works out as planned.

Somewhere in the midst of all this, I'll be going to Friesland for a few weekends to go sailing with Martinus. I'm not sure yet what dates - I'll update this list as soon as I know.

Pieterpad planning: the routes and distances

These are the routes and distances for the first part of the Pieterpad, from Pieterburen to Vorden (taken from the official Pieterpad site):

	From	To	km
1	Pieterburen	Winsum	11
2	Winsum	Groningen	18
3	Groningen	Zuidlaren	21
4	Zuidlaren	Rolde	16
5	Rolde	Schoonloo	19
6	Schoonloo	Sleen	23
7	Sleen	Coevorden	19
8	Coevorden	Hardenberg	19
9	Hardenberg	Ommen	22
10	Ommen	Hellendoorn	20
11	Hellendoorn	Holten	15
12	Holten	Laren (Gld)	15
13	Laren (Gld)	Vorden	14

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.

2008 is going to be a walking year

I hope so.

I'll be starting out with the Pieterpad - break it up in pieces and walk over weekends.
Up to now, I've only been walking short distances of up to 25, 30 km max a day. That probably won't change much but there will be more structure to the walking now. I'll be walking a specific route from beginning to end.

Maybe I'll get people to join in now and then, but mostly I expect to be walking it by myself. Me and my camera.

First things first, next weekend I'll get the latest guidebook from the ANWB and start planning.