Day 2. Hoog Soren to de Bijland.
Distance Cycled 89km. Average 16.6km/h.
We were greeted by the sound of rain on the tent. I was awake first although Damae said she had been dozing for a half hour or so. We got up in a relaxed manner and made breakfast of coffee and toast, and sandwiches for lunch. We ducked back into the tent twice, as a couple of short showers came and went and I added more profound insights to my diary. Oma phoned at at around nine to tell us that it was was raining in Harderwijk and that she thought it was going to rain all day. A little later in the morning one of the other campers told us that the rain clouds were moving north and would shortly be a long way from where we were. Fortunately the latter prognosis turned out to be the accurate one.
By eleven thirty we were ready to leave and moved the bikes to near the toilet block. Damae paid for the stay whilst I chatted to a lady who was curious about the trikes. They certainly seem to attract attention, which definitely confirmed their status on the 'cool wall'. She and her daughter both tried out the seats on the trikes, although we didn't adjust the boom. The daughter could not reach the pedals at all even on the Scorpion (set up for Stan's stumpy legs). Saying our goodbyes we hit the toilet block before heading out into the tree-lined damp misty countryside.
The day was to bring us a range of countryside with plenty of climbing to do and different road surfaces. We started mostly on quiet main roads and headed towards Hoenderloo and Dieren. The section to Hoenderloo then changed to forests with a mix of tarmac roads before we arrived at a nice well-made concrete path. Just as we hit the concrete path we overtook a couple on touring bikes. I hadn't noticed the change in the path, and ended up with the left front wheel off the concrete pulling the trike back onto the path after passing them. It was a tricky moment and another reminder that with a trike you have much less room for error.
Back to the cycling, we carried on alternating between high downhill speeds and low uphill ones. With all the effort coming from the legs the difference in our hill-climbing speeds seemed to be exaggerated even more. About three quarters of the way through this section the left front tyre went down on my trike. Luckily there was space to pull off the track and fix it. We discovered a plus point with trikes: you could simply tip the trike on its side and get to the tyre that way. As we were finishing off, a group of people came past with flags on their bikes. They were celebrating someone's birthday and the eighty year old birthday girl had already cycled past. Cool!
We headed off again and enjoyed the rest of the twisty switchback concrete path. However within a few minutes I had to slam on my brakes as the track just disappeared. The concrete stopped and turned into a sandy earthen surface. The two couples standing around with their bikes gave cheery encouragement and advised us that the track re-appeared a hundred metres or so further up and was narrower than our trikes.