Day 2. Loosdrecht to Utrecht.
We enjoyed the view whilst standing up there (you can see the bikes parked by the block containing showers). With no leaves yet on the trees it looked so much more bare than in the summer. Still, it was nice to see the sun again after a mild and grey winter
We paid up for the night and then chatted a little to the lady of the house. Then wheeling our bikes out of the fort we carefully crossed the road before heading back towards Utrecht. Contrary to our expectations of a tailwind we had a stiff headwind. As a result we didn't actually warm up properly until we had been cycling for 10km. We stopped just before the centre of Maarssen to take off our raincoats and cycle that last few kilometres home.
We got back rested from the change of environment and had a productive day doing Sunday like things. It was nice to get the season under way.
Did we learn anything? Well apart from don't make the coffee too strong, we decided to get a footprint for the MSR tent. Sadly the groundsheet is just too thin, so you have to use another bit of fabric which adds 500g to the weight of the tent. I'd much prefer to add that weight to the groundsheet making it thick enough on its own and have one less thing to carry.
We have also had confirmed how nice the luxury of this big tent is. I think when it gets warmer we will revert to the Macpac or Moonshadow Duo, but until then it is hard to find arguments not to cart the extra 4 kg round with us. Hmmmm. The only thing that springs to mind is that the Macpac is very quick to put up, which has saved our bacon a number of times in rainy weather.
We also decided to bite the bullet and mount our handlebar bags on the conventional side. Both our Ortliebs are just that tiny bit bigger that the Agu bags they replaced. We spent an hour or so fiddling on Sunday and Damae was quite satisfied when she had finished as now her knees don't hit anything anymore.