Around the Adriatic Sea
The challenge: cycling round the Adriatic Sea. Will I manage it before the weather in the Balkans gets too rough? I’m curious to find out myself….
The one-way boat to Vlieland only sails once a day 17:15. So I had to 'Texel' for another day. By now I have done enough cycling, so I decided to join a boat trip to spot seals on large sandbanks near Vlieland.
And there was indeed a club sunbathing there. Both common as grey seals. The latter immigrated here from Scotland. They can weigh up to 130 kg. The young seals with their pretty blonde coats were a little further down the sandbank behind the adults.
My minute photographic equipment is not enough to take good close-ups, but with the strong binoculars provided by the boat 'The Friendship', I was able to observe the company very well.
Seals on Vlieland
It was worth it, I am glad I sailed with you. For those interested: 17€ for a +1.5-hour trip.
In the dunes near the jetty, I also passed a beautiful gold pheasant.
On the boat and in a tavern afterwards, I struck up a conversation with interested Dutch people who will hopefully consider donating to Tibet.
At 17:15 I was able to join the boat to Vlieland, an island on which, except for residents, no cars allowed are.
The crossing was as 'adventurous' announced, but I thought this could be taken with a grain of salt. Edoch....
To get to the jetty, I had to drag my heavily loaded cart through the loose beach sand. That wasn't too bad in the end because it was downhill. There were only four fellow passengers on the boat. The return trip, however, would be more crowded, as it turned out, with day-trippers who had visited Vlieland for one day.
After five, it cools off sharply here and I wondered if I would not swap my sandals for my trainers on the boat. Fortunately, I didn't, or I would have sat with soggy shoes and socks.
Retrieved from Vlieland is there no mooring more. Until last year, there was still a wooden jetty on stilts, but due to the violent storms last winter, the sandbanks have moved and the jetty is no longer accessible to the boat. That now sailed right up to the beach, after which there was a step ladder tipped over the bow became until... a few metres before the beach. You had to cover that distance through the water.
Then it was back to ploughing my bike through loose sand until the open truck which would take us as far as the 'Post House', a half-hour drive away. Quite a bumpy ride through the loose beach sand, as it was high tide by now.
Vlieland - without mooring
At one point Volkert the truck driver and asked us where we were staying. There was wind force 5 from the east - i.e. headwind - and from the Post house it was 8 km of cycling to the village. He suggested taking us to a beach pavilion at the head of the island, after which we could cycle back to our lodgings with a tailwind. What a friendly man! Everyone eagerly accepted this offer.
As a result, I only had to cycle 2.5 km into the wind until Camping site Stortemelk.
With wind force 5 it will be a noisy night in my little tent.... And my Tibet flags survived the gale force winds so far. They can take a beating.
This morning at seven o'clock I went for a walk on the beach. Yesterday during the truck ride from the boat to the east side of Vlieland, we had noticed that the profile of the tyres pressed a text into the hard beach sand.
The truck had apparently already passed because there were fresh tracks in the sand and the text in one track was still clearly legible:
"What makes the deepest impression was touched by water
Disturbed by no man, the sea takes the last word"
The other track contained a different text, but it had already disappeared under a layer of powdered sand.
After the beach walk, I reported to the reception of Camping site Stortemelk at Vlieland. Last night when I arrived, the reception was already closed. 21€ it was, for a mega-sized campsite with everything: restaurant, supermarket, even their own events hall as far as I could see on the plan. They mainly rent out tents and bungalows, but there is also a tent meadow and pitches with electricity for passers-by. The campsite lies behind the dunes near the beach. In the high season, just about 3,000 people stay here.
Not that I am a big fan of such mega-holiday parks, but it does show that the small farm campsite on Texel was overpriced at 25€....
The taxi boat to Terschelling only left at 15:15, so I still had plenty of time to cycle around the island at my leisure, a total of 24 km.
The southern part facing the mainland has no beaches. For campers who prefer peace and birds to beach crowds, here lies Nature campsite De Lange Paal, with some grassy areas with very spacious pitches. However, I saw no movement there yet.... From here, a beautiful cycle route of over 10 km through the dunes starts.
The wide beach is on the northern part of the island. Via a cycle path made of broken shovels, it was incredible cycling through the dunes. The seagulls there are apparently used to passing cyclists. They did not fly up and willingly allowed themselves to be photographed. Too bad, though, that the military from the Vliehors barracks (main photo) were playing with their jets just today. That engine roar then disturbed the peace.
At 15:15 I embarked on the waddentaxi to get to Terschelling to sail. Fortunately, the wind had died down during the day and the sea had calmed down. When I think back to the storm ride on the boat taxi from Northern Ireland to Mull of Kintyre (Scotland), my stomach still gets spasms....
At Terschelling, I cycled another 16 km to farm campsite De Duinkant, a quiet campsite that borders a vast dune area, at the very end of the 'Duinweg'.
Farm campsite De Duinkant is right against the dunes, is very quiet, has strong wifi and a sheltered seating area. This is where I will stay for a few days to rest and do some updating. A short rest holiday.
My main activities today were: giving all my clothes a good wash, organising my photos on Flickr and adding them to albums, and updating Facebook. In the evening, a short bike ride through the dunes and a twilight walk on the beach.
I had hoped to spot wildlife at this evening hour, but all I saw was a hare and some goats behind wire.
On the beach, I met a couple I had also spoken to the day before on the cycle path next to the mud flats (south side of the island). We walked together for a while and I gave them a flyer. They are considering a donation. My day always turns good when someone with genuine interest and compassion for the fate of Tibetans accepts a flyer.
Terschelling dunes behind Boschplaat
Yesterday an evening walk, today my day order was reversed.
I got up at six and was on my bike towards the Boschplaat, a EU-recognised nature reserve. Boschplaat is a plain of 10 km long and almost 5 km wide, a paradise for migratory birds.
I got to within 4km of the manned birdwatching hut. The first kilometre of the hike still took me through dunes, then along a long straight footpath with the sand dunes on the left and the immense Boschplaat on the right. During the breeding season the area is not accessible from 15 March to 1 August.
Along the way, I photographed some plantlets using the Obsidentify app. I also noticed a huge number of bastard satin butterfly caterpillars (tx Obsidentify) crawled around.
Arriving at the bird hide, I had a chat with the bird watcher, a volunteer who stays there with his partner for a full week, day and night. They are dropped there by the Forestry Commission with a food supply for a week.
He agreed that this year's real caterpillar infestation was, probably because it rained so much last summer and the critters had had plenty to eat. The caterpillars go through six life stages before becoming butterflies. The first three are in 'nests' attached to shrub willows in the dunes. Then they appear as caterpillars, the stage they were in now. Then they would return to their nests to eventually pupate as butterflies.
What is less fun about these colourful caterpillars is that, like oak processionary caterpillars, fire hairs have that cause red rashes and itching. For this reason, they are also shunned by birds and they can go about their feeding business undisturbed in the dunes.
The bird watcher, who was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, showed his forearms: they were full of red bumps, not because he had been in a nest of caterpillars, but because the caterpillars had lost their fire hairs are also flying around because of the drought in the air. Fortunately, it was still chilly this early in the morning and I wore long trousers and a long-sleeved jacket... I didn't suffer much.
Furthermore, we chatted some more about Boschplaat. A 120 spoonbill flocks. These can be observed from the bird hide with a good telescope, but the Forestry Commission has unfortunately removed them.
The plate used to be separate from the rest of Terschelling, but shifting sandbanks caused them to grow together. The Forestry Commission is now going to build a opening in the dunes making loose beach sand to the plain can blow, to get back some more dunes and variation on the slab. Initially, this was opposed by the population, who feared that this would cause the slab to become detached from the rest of the island again. Should this turn out to be the case, the dune wedge could be resealed in one day with a bulldozer.
I crossed the sand dunes across and returned along the immense sandy beach, with a gentle salty headwind.
Oosterend sky painting
This morning at six o'clock, a severe thunderstorm loose that lasted for about an hour. After that, it continued to rain softly as the parched nature likes. The first wetness after almost three weeks on the road, that doesn't happen much.
Around 1pm, it was briefly dry and I rocked on my bike to go buy food four kilometres from the campsite. After 15 minutes, however, it started pouring again and I had forgotten my shoe protectors. I was left with a pair of wet shoes from this short shopping trip.
In the evening it cleared up and I made another walk to the mudflats. I hiked my wet shoes and socks almost dry and was treated on top to beautiful sky paintings.
A nice end to a quiet day.
It was dry this morning and the sun came through occasionally. I was able to leave in the direction of Hantum, my next stop. There I'm going to make it Karma Deleg Chö Phel Ling Buddhist Study and Meditation Centre visit, the very first Tibetan centre in the Netherlands.
In the morning I had risen with unexplained diarrhoea - I can't question my own camping cooking, can I? After a few firm relievers, I started to feel pretty flat, but there was little wind and it was only 15 km to the ferry. That had to work.
From Harlingen I wanted to cycle another 20 km east, so that I could arrive in Hantum shortly after noon on the following day. Sherab, the local Loma (student of a Lama, religious teacher), is expecting me.
Until embarking on the ferry, it remained dry, but at sea - the crossing takes 2 hours - it started to drip casting. That squall would last till evening.
I wanted to update my social media on the ferry, but the stomach bug forced me to take a nap after half an hour. I suspect it might have been due to the island water? My stomach can normally take a beating.
The challenge: cycling round the Adriatic Sea. Will I manage it before the weather in the Balkans gets too rough? I’m curious to find out myself….
From 2026, Eva will be raising funds for the International Campaign for Tibet Europe, the world’s largest Tibetan advocacy organisation.
