Day 1. Utrecht to Loosdrecht contd.
We stopped at one of the more picturesque meanders in the Vecht, to take photos of the sun as it was setting. There was that lovely honey coloured light which although beautiful meant the end to the sun's warmth. Damae was fine in her new Löfller rain jacket in a tasteful shade of red (one of the more recent additions to our gear).
Now that it was cooler, in contrary fashion, Damae started to warm up. So we paused again a few kilometers further along. Whilst stopped, we were passed by a participant of the Maastricht to Groningen walk. He was still going strong as twilight approached.We waited until a 2CV turned round and left and then we carried on. Not much later the Dutch style swing bridge near to Loosdrecht appeared, and we knew it was only a matter of a few minutes more.
We arrived at Fort Spion and headed straight for the camping field. There was still enough light to see, and we started putting up the tent. We had phoned earlier in the day to see if they were open, and heard from the owners that we would have to share the field with two sheep.
They turned out to be two large and very bored (or hungry) sheep. We decided they were mostly harmless and got on with making camp. We had to shoo the sheep away several times, as we'd just spent a few minutes flicking the bigger bits of sheep poo away and didn't want any more round the tent.
One of the owners arrived and chatted with us as we unpacked. After a few minutes he wished us a good night and went back to his warm house. By now the temperature had dropped, although it was not unpleasantly cold. Damae finished putting up the tent whilst I made some dinner. We ate outside by the light of the gas lamp and after a glass of wine, and a trip to the toilets settled down for the night.
Snuggled down into our sleeping bags it was just warm enough after the gas light was turned off. I slept in just a T-shirt, whilst Damae was fully covered and had a second sleeping mat under her super warm down sleeping. I woke a couple of times in the night and pulled the hood of my sleeping bag tighter over my head. Damae resorted to dragging her raincoat over her feet to keep the cold at bay.