Weather: 🌤️☁️🌥️☁️🌦️ (warm and humid 🥵 )
Picnic: 🥪🥪🥪 (3 out 5, lunch from the backpack. With fresh strawberries though!)
Track: 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪 (3 out of 5, pretty forest trail today)
Campsite: (5 out of 5, flat spot at camper parking spot, next to a swimming pool and sauna!)
Name of followed trail: X2/ E8
Today we had a nice day of hiking through the forest. We came through a few villages too, but none too interesting. After 5 km we came past a bakery and supermarket, so we did a little resupply + 2nd breakfast. And the best thing: there was a strawberry market stall!
Around lunchtime, we were even more happy with that, because the restaurant was closed and we now had wraps with Nutella and strawberries! A welcome addition to our lunch!
We enjoyed the hike through the forest, again very close to the Dutch border. It feels really strange to be hiking for almost 2 months and to be so close to home again. Even more strange than when we moored in Rotterdam.
After our lunch it’s only 10 km more to our planned campspot, just before Wassenberg. Today is a shorter day (25 km), but we’d like to go a bit further. We’ll walk into some fields to find a campspot, but we decide that we’ll have to start asking for a campspot anyway and today will be the day.
So we continue our trail through Wassenberg. Just before Wassenberg we go past a chapel in the forest in an open area. An ideal AOT checkpoint. We almost expect Rein to be here with a surprise-checkpoint😅.
When we go through Wassenberg we go past an Art-o-mat, an old cigarette vending machine that sells cigarette box size boxes with little pieces of art! We buy ourselves a surprise gift to bring to Istanbul.
Apart from the Art-o-mat, there’s not much to do in Wassenberg on a Monday afternoon. When we see someone outside, we ask for water so we are ready to camp.
We’re discussing that this means that from now on we can stop wherever we want to, when we see a camper parking with a nice feeld with picnic tables. Why not here? We ask the people in front of one of the campers and check if there is a sign that forbids pitching a tent. Everyone is fine with it, so this is our spot for the night! Pleased with ourselves, because on this cloudy, humid day it started to rain a little and we’re not sure if ‘a little’ will become a lot! For now, we’re happy to pitch when it’s virtually dry.
When our tent is up. a man comes to our tent and tells us there’s a swimming pool with a sauna across the parking lot. We don’t have swim clothes, but I go and ask what’s possible. The people at the Park bad Wassenberg are very welcoming and help us solve the issues that keep us from bathing by lending us swimsuits and towels. How very sweet! By now we’re over the moon with our decision to camp here!
We chill in the whirlpool, swim a few lanes and get sweaty in the sauna before we take a good shower. We’re the cleanest we’ve been in weeks! And never more relaxed in a hiking day! Thank you ladies at the swimming pool for making this possible!
After this, we make dinner and watch the ceremony of our national Remembrance day. We’re silent for 2 minutes. Silent to remember those who fought for our freedom all these years ago. Freedom we are thankful for, and celebrate every day by hiking through life as we do now. 2 minutes of intense gratitude.
We go to sleep happy, relaxed and grateful for another great day on trail.