We were rudely awoken up at 5.30am by loud music blaring and lots of people walking and talking past our camp. Clearly we didn’t cycle far enough to escape the walkers.

We got up at 6.30 (unheard of) and were packed up by 7.30am. The camp office was still closed so a free nights camping for us.

We inadvertently joined in with the march for a bit. We tried to turn right out of the campground but 50,000 walkers were coming at us. We decided to turn left and join them for a bit.

The Nijmagen march is a 4 day walking event. They walk 50 kms per day, walking a total of 200 kms over the 4 days. Madness. I struggle to cycle 50 kms per day, let alone walk it.

It’s quite cool though. They have loud music blaring through the villages and little coffee stalls along the way. We stopped for coffee and a cheese sandwich and chatted to a couple of walkers. Sister lynda, I reckon you would love doing this.

After our coffee we took a turning that left the walkers, never to cross their path again.

Then the rain came. Hard. Out of the middle of nowhere. We huddled under our tiny umbrella but it didn’t help much.  We made a break for a brick building and sheltered until it eased off and the sun came out.

Most of the morning was like this. Heavy rain, and then the sun would come out, steaming us inside our wet weather gear.  On the positive side, my skin feels nice and soft.

During one of these torrential downpours we sheltered outside a B&B. The owners invited us inside for coffee until it blew over. I love the dutch and their great hospitality.

It didn’t rain for the rest if the day. We had a lot of ferry crossings today. We even had a ferry just for us.

We didn’t want to leave it too late before stopping. I didn’t fancy sleeping in a mouldy tent so we started looking at hotels about 2.30pm. We started getting worried when the first 3 we looked at were full. Eventually we found one in our budget and stopped for the day.

A Ferry just fo us

Having coffee watching the march go by