The campground here is really nice and run by a young couple. There were a few other cyclists there as well and there’s a definite camaraderie between the longer termers. I spoke to a Swiss couple on the road for a couple of months.
I had the flat tyre from last night and when I looked at it this morning, I couldn’t find the cause, so I pumped it up and it held. I had only 3kms to get to a bike rental shop where I was hoping to buy some tubes. So I crossed my fingers and toes and everything else and headed off very gingerly.
I was surprised by the lovely, well-todo town of Bad Zwischenahn when I got there. So I stopped for some breakfast and as I sat there, I saw that the tyre was again flat. Luckily, I was only 400m from the shop.
I walked there and the lady serving up ebikes to the never ending queue of old farts, sold me two tubes. I couldn’t thank her enough. The alternative was to stay another night and visit a real bike shop the next day.
They must be having a fair here tonight. I wheeled my bike to the local park and replaced the tube, as the trucks moved stalls and equipment in. All of the workmen did their jobs with cigarettes in their mouths and there were half a dozen of them waiting for the beer stall to open, all blowing smoke while they waited. I was pleased to leave.
With half the day gone, I decided to go to Leer which was only 40kms away.
I could feel that I was getting close to Holland as the types of houses were changing, there were some canals, it was full of Friesian cows and it was absolutely dead flat. How does it happen that the landscape is so flat. Is it the agriculture over many many years ? Or what ?
There was one ferry crossing just south of Leer and I was suspicious of the inactivity as I pulled up. Then I read the little sign that apologised, but the next departure was Wednesday, two days away.
After a bit of back tracking, I arrived in Leer during bike peak hour which is a new experience for me. I went to a bike shop to look for tyres but didn’t see the ones I wanted, so I’ll have to put up with the ones I have for a bit longer. They’ve been great, but are full of cuts and they’re perishing. They’ve done more than 13,000 kms but I really thought they’d go further than that.
Leer looks nice. It’s a harbour town 30kms from the sea and the main river that I crossed to get to the campground is tidal. i.e. in the afternoon there was a fast current running north and it was the opposite the next morning.
I thought I’d come back to town for dinner but it’s a 5km trip and there’s a restaurant at the campground where I had a great chicken salad, washed down by an alcohol free Hefe weizen – very nice.
The tent area is a long way from reception and the campground is huge. I’d hate to be here when it’s full. There’s a constant stream of people bringing their containers of excrement to the dump point. I always find this strange and I always hope that the lids are screwed on properly.
Again, there were a few groups of cyclists – two french and one dutch. The dutchies came home late after dinner in the city and immediately made coffee. Only Dutch people can drink coffee at that hour – I wouldn’t sleep a wink.