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Extras. Autumn 2007 the missing NSCR link: from Nieuweschans to Delfzijl.

I hung back to take a few photos of the scenery, before speeding up to catch up Damae. Although the wind was mostly favourable it was easier when I finally fell in behind Damae and could slipstream a little. Catching up when touring can actually take quite a lot of energy so I was content to sit there watching the world go by. Not that there was that much to see that was of interest.

The 'Y' fork that the campsite manager had told us about appeared in no time. On approaching it we remembered it from the day before a rather strange junction where the main road dipped off to the left and the side road went straight on. As there was no traffic at that moment, we zipped across the road and headed off to the next junction. As mentioned already, points of interest in this flat landscape can be few and far between. However we were now heading directly towards two grand houses. I tried to photo them and ended up with Damae in the picture.

At the next junction it was not entirely clear which way we had to go. So we slowed down and were collared by an elderly German woman also on a tour. We communicated in Gerutchlish and managed to get her on her way again. She was looking for the 'Ijsselmeer tour', parts of which we had travelled on the day before.

Having just turned right we headed off again into the sunny empty landscape that is East Groningen. After a short section on tarmac a cyclepath appeared. A lot of the days cycling was to be on roads which were not generally busy. The odd section of cyclepath was welcome but some were short enough to ignore. This particular one was made up of large concrete flagstones with a wonderful smooth surface. Damae stayed on the rougher tarmac whilst I accelerated away listening to the sound of my Brompton tyres singing on the concrete.

This was to be the start of the rather uninteresting part of the route. After whizzing through the hamlets of Oude Statenzijl, Drieborg and Oudedijk we ended up on another straight section. In a moment of excitement we came to a T-junction where we had hoped we would get up onto the sea dyke. This was not to happen until much later at Termunten. This was a bit disappointing given the lovely weather and the mostly favourable winds. The straight section took us around two kilometres further to a cross-roads where the sign said clearly 'turn right'. For some reason I got there well ahead of Damae and whipped out my camera. In the garden of the only house to be seen were the only other living beings to be seen.

Damae had made some adjustments to her clothing, having finally warmed up, which was good as a warm Damae is a happy Damae. The right turn took us very close to the sea dyke but sadly not up onto it and we turned left again. We were to spend the next fifteen kilometres cycling next to it, looking at the scenery. The few people cycling the other way all greeted us cheerily. This was a bit surprising at first as they all had a headwind, however given the emptiness all around it was probably an essential moment of human contact in the expanse of brown earth and green grass.

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