Day 3, Friday May 7th 2010, Lemelerveld – Zwolle
Distance: 35½ km
Weather: cool, rainy
Route:
Lemelerveld, Heino, Lierderholthuis, Laag Zuthem, Hoog Zuthem, Zwolle-Zuid, Hattem, Spoolde, Frankhuis, Stadshagen (Zwolle)
It started to rain in the night and it’s still raining when we wake up. We may stay here as long as we like, says the owner. We have breakfast in De Beste Kamer and we both decide this is really a perfect camp site.
As soon as it stops raining, we take the tent down. There’s no point in waiting till it is dry too, as it can start raining again any minute.
It is windy and cold when we get on our bikes. But we don’t mind, at least it’s not raining (yet).
At lunchtime we buy a few rolls at the baker’s in Heino. As we can see a huge shower coming, I ask them if there is a bandstand in the village, or somewhere else where we can eat our rolls under cover. But the ladies have a better idea. “Put the bread basket on the ground and then you can sit on the chairs in front of the shop”. That’s very nice, of course!
While we’re sitting in front of the shop, it starts to rain. We see two more holiday cyclists going past. A woman and a boy. What a coincidence!
And when we are back on our bikes a little later, we see them again at the level-crossing beyond Heino. From a distance, we see someone lifting their bikes over the crossing. By the time we get there, we realise why we shouldn’t have taken this road ... Instead of a level-crossing, there is an enormous hole in the road. We too lift our bikes over it. A few hundred metres later, we really have to cross the lines again, but here they are at work. And this time, we’re not allowed to go on.
Never mind, we wanted to make a few extra kilometres today anyway.
We stop for a moment in Lierderholthuis as I want to turn the map round. The other two cyclists see that we have stopped and come towards us. They turn out to have no map and now that we have to make a detour, they don’t know the way anymore. Their destination is Zwolle-Zuid, so they quickly learn the numbers of the few remaining junctions by heart. We cycle on together, Erwin and the boy in front. The woman tells me she is the granny. She first cycled with his brother for a few days and now with him. I say that I can understand her doing that, it is quite a responsibility, two boys of twelve and ten. “Oh no, that’s not the reason”, is her reaction. “They don’t get along at all and are always quarrelling. No, I really wouldn’t want to have them at the same time”.
I ask her if the boys enjoyed it and whether she enjoyed it too. She grumbles a bit, it was too cold and too wet and the boys were rather bored. No, she’s glad to be going home again.
When the two of us go on after a few kilometres, I hear quite different stories from Erwin! The boy had boasted a lot and told him that they had camped, while granny had told me that they had slept in a guest house every night. Both of us are quite indignant, the more so because the boy had no luggage: granny had everything on her bike.
We conclude that apparently we are having much more fun together.
We cycle round Zwolle-Zuid and reach a lovely cycle path along the Ijssel. Three ladies are taking up all the room, walking along it. We ring our bells, they go a bit to the side and Erwin, who is in front, can just get past. But then his bike slides off the path, which is slightly raised, and he is suddenly lying on the ground.
Immediately the three ladies are standing round him. “Oh dear, the poor thing. Oh sonny... Have you hurt yourself? Oh, your hands, they’re icy cold!” They look at me accusingly, as if to say: what are you doing to the poor boy?
Grrr ...
I can see that Erwin is hating it all; as far as I can see, it’s worse than the pain in his hands and knees. Bravely, he stands up. Luckily the bike is unscathed and we cycle on. One of his knees is painful and there are grazes on his hands. He has had gloves on all this time and just today he had taken them off.
I ask if he wouldn’t rather go straight home. No! Otherwise we won’t make over a hundred kilometres, so we go on to Hattem as planned.
Waiting for the ferry across the IJssel to Hattem
We cycle through Hattem, along the river and back over the bridge. We stop at the new railway bridge to see how far they’ve got. Some time ago, Erwin went with his parents to have a look when they were placing the bridge and he wants to see what it’s like now. It looks as though it won’t be finished for a long time yet.
And so, with 103 kilometres on the counter, we arrive in Stadshagen. Wow... I’m so proud of Erwin! And we haven’t yet gone indoors when he asks if he can come with me again some time...
Of course he can! Erwin, you were great fun and a good fellow traveller. Thank you very much!
The End!
