(20th November 2006)
Some months ago I realised that I needed a hobby. Hobbies have always seemed a strange concept to me - I always look askance at people who ask what my hobbies are. It always makes me think of stamp collectors, train spotters and amateur dramatics. All worthwhile pursuits - but I always felt too busy to have a hobby. Being an environmental campaigner and writing a PhD don’t leave much time for hobbies. But right then (and now) a hobby is what I need. Something that takes me away from a keyboard and a screen (more perceptive readers will spot the irony here).
The obvious choice seemed to rekindle my long dormant habit of long distance walking. It's healthy, gets you outdoors, is cheap, and is something you can either do by yourself or in a group. It is something that can be done spontaneously by looking at the weather - rather than consulting one's diary and making plan x weeks in advance. But there are not many Munroes to bag in Holland (nor many Marilyns or Marshes either) and full blown alpinism involves too much travel and offers a very small seasonal window of opportunity. So I would have to start appreciating less elevated pathways.
I first thought of setting out to walk across the Netherlands while we were staying in a friend’s apartment in the picturesque village of Pitres. We had planned to do some walking. But we went there with bad doses of flu and it rained nearly everyday- (so much so that Malaga was flooded out). The most walking we did was between showers to neighbouring villages to find restaurants and enjoy long lunches. In the long evenings by the log burning stove I studied the map of the Alpurrajas and saw reference to the ER footpath that links the south of Spain to Finland (via the Czech Republic). A bit impractical for weekends away when you live in the Netherlands but it did remind me that the long distance European footpath network also runs through northern Europe: making day and weekend trips in and around the Netherlands and possibly, further afield, a real possibility.
So the next weekend I was down at my local specialist travel bookstore (thank goodness for specialist shops and the owners who know their stock- they deserve free plugs) rummaging through the long distance footpaths that run across the Netherlands. My first idea was to follow the Dutch portion of the ER2 , which starts from Hoek van Holland and runs down to the Mediterranean. There was also a symbolic reason to choose to start from Hoek van Holland as it was where I disembarked when I arrived in the Netherlands five years ago. So it would relate to an unfinished journey, maybe even help me rediscover my bearings. Practical considerations also played a role. If I could follow a line east-west across the Netherlands towards Nijmegen and then turn South and follow the Maas towards Maastricht I could make the best use of my position on the Dutch train network to make the comings and goings easier.
So I asked the owner if he had a map of the Dutch section of the ER2 – which he located in less than two minutes. Unfortunately it didn’t fit my expectations. Instead of running E-W across the country and then south it headed due south along the Zeeland coast and then cut across Belgium to Maastricht. Lovely to walk barefoot along the dunes in summer– but probably not the best walking to be do in the middle of winter, against a gale force SW wind. So I reconsidered the options and looked through all the alternatives in the long distance footpath section and within about half an hour cobbled together my own trans-Netherlands long distance footpath. Starting from Hoek van Holland it would follow the Oeverlopad to Leerdam, and from there the Lingepad to just west of Nijmegen and then the southern half of the Pieterspad from there to Maastricht. After that I could continue south along the Meuze (Maas) to pick up the ER2 to Nice, turn left and follow the ER8 to the East of Europe or go right and follow the path back across Belgium back to the Hoek, enjoying some fine Belgian beers and the chance to speak French along the way. What a great feeling to have the whole of Europe at my feet. But for the moment lest concentrate on things closer to home. I chose the first two books, which would guide me through to Nijmegen. The owner looked at me askance as if I had been wasting his time asking for the first book – and I tried to explain in my poor Dutch that the route along the coast wasn’t very attractive in winter time, nor practical for public transport links. I felt a bit like someone going into a butchers wanting lamb but coming out with pork. But as I also bought a Times World Atlas and a wallmap of Europe , I was probably one of his best customers of the day.
So the very same evening I started planning the trip – looking at the maps, the feasible distances to cover in a day, comparing them to a larger scale map for orientation and working out the public transport links. I got thoroughly lost in planning the trip. What a wondrous thing to be an armchair traveller. One big decision was whether to take route a starting by Hoek van Holland and skirting round the north side of Rotterdam, or route b starting at Europoort and going round the south and including a stretch along the world-famous Kinderdijk, a series of twelve or so old fashioned windmills, which I have still never seen. In the end practice considerations won the day – the train links were better and more direct on the northern side and I have two friends on that side of the river to call on along the way. Within a day of buying the books I had first four-five days walking planned. After that the public transport planning would become more complex. But I finally had a hobby and within a couple of days had already made plans to go to visit my German photographer friend living near Rotterdam.
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1 comment:
Hello Nick, I'm glad you've embarked on this hobby and look forward to following your progress.
I have recently been doing a lot of walking in Surrey and Kent. No Munros here either but plenty of hills and surprising peace despite the omnipresent motorways.
It's definitely good for the soul to get away from the computer. As the French say (or so I once read in a guidebook): 'Un jour de marche, huit jours de santé.'
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