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Day 2. Loosdrecht to Utrecht.

Distance Cycled 18.3km. Average 19.5km/h.

Around 8 am (summer time) I awoke to see the sun playing on the tent. The MSR Wind 4 billed as an 'Expedition' tent, has a nice feature of a lighter strip of fabric round the middle which lights up in a warm orange way when the sun shines on it.

Poking my head out of the tent I noted that our trusty steeds had not wandered off in the night, and were quietly leaning against a tree grazing.

The early spring birdsong was lovely to hear. Although there is a lot greenery where we live it is still a town environment. In Loosdrecht the main sound was that of the birds all around us. We'd noticed the night before that a lot of scrub surrounding the fort had been cleared since we were last there in October. The result was a bit more of a view but also a little more noise from the road.

The wind in contrast to the sun was cold to say the least. We made and ate breakfast in the tent itself sheltering and enjoying the warmth the Trangia put out. The coffee was a bit strong but the onions mushrooms and potatoes were warm and yummy. Damae wisely chose to pack things up in the tent whilst I washed the dishes outside. Despite taking warm water from the showers I still ended up with freezing hands.

When I arrived back Damae was pretty much finished packing up but still enjoying the relative warmth of inside the tent. The bags went quickly on the bikes and the last thing to be packed was as usual the tent. We walked off round to the toilets and then up to look at the roof of one of the old fort.

We'd noticed the evening before a sand hill making the route to the field a little smaller. The owner had told that they were sealing the roof of the other building, something they had done with the toilet block a year or so earlier. The arches were already covered with pond liner, and all that now had to be done was to cover up the building with the sand. Looking at the heap of sand this seemed to me to be an awful lot of work to move it back on top of the building.

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