Marion Freijsen A blog about Sports, Fitness & Health

Sun, Sand and Simple fun

Yesterday, I simply had a lot of fun…or even a lot of simple fun.
The weather was a little grey and not actually that great, so I decided a bike ride would definitely cheer me up. As I rode with two of my cycling buddies, the weather cleared up and it actually became a nice summer day. We often ride in the area, without having any fixed idea of where we want to go, but this time we had decided to find a new path that we knew had to be there specifically for hikers and bikers connecting two stretches of nature separated by a railline and main road  – but we hadn’t uncovered it before.

It took us through the “Hulshorster Zand” which is like major sand dunes, or so called shifting sands, in the middle of an extensive forest – quite an amazing natural phenomenon. And it was amazing – when we arrived, the sun now beating down on us from up high, it looked like a desert with low rises, stretching out as far as you could see in front of us, glittering and glistening, bright white sand. Simply gorgeous to behold.

I am still very much a child when it comes to these kind of situations – anything like that resembles one big sand pit …obviously meaning you have to play! So play we did, the path we were trying to find had to be right across the other side – so we started out cycling through these massive sand stretches. Well, you can only call it cycling because we had bikes with us I suppose. It was hilarious, if you hauled your bike to a stretch of grass, sporadically apparent amidst the sand, you could just get enough grip to get going. Pedalling like crazy I made about 200-300 yds before my wheels dug in the sand again. And that always happened suddenly, not leaving me enough time to unclick my feet so ofcourse I took a tumble off my bike every time…

By the time we left the Sahara, I had collected about 2 pounds of sand in extra weight, spread out across my shoes, my shirt and even my hair – but I had lost at least 1000 calories in extra expenditure plus a stitch in my sides from laughing so much….

I love trips like these – looking for another path to discover now leading me of to another adventure….