| Where | Terpelân Route (Netherlands) |
|---|---|
| Date | 30 July 2008 |
| Duration | 3 hours 30 minutes |
| Distance | 21 miles (~34 km) |
| Weather | Hot and humid, with too much sunshine. |
| Trail conditions | Dry tarmac |
| Rider | Age | Bike(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Anonymous | Unknown | Batavus Barcelona |
| Anonymous (2) | Unknown | Altra University |
| Anonymous (3) | Unknown | Gazelle Jmpala |
| Emily Watson | 15 | Batavus Eagle |
| Josie Wilton-Jones | Unknown | Rider Hurricane |
| Mark 'Tarquin' Wilton-Jones | 28 | Rambler Voyager |
Trip report
Description by Mark 'Tarquin' Wilton-Jones
This was a functional bike ride, to visit local towns. A lot of time was spent at each place, giving a total end-to-end time of 6 hours.
We started just outside Ferwert, beginning with a cycle path. This quickly disappeared at Ferwert, where we turned towards Hegebeintum.
This soon gained cycle lanes, and we turned off to visit the terp museum at Hegebeintum.
From here, we should have been able to follow the Terpelân Route signs, but these are completely useless, and are either not where you need them, or point down the wrong roads. At Ginnum, we took the wrong road, and ended up at Raard.
About a mile after Raard, we joined the cycle path at a main road towards Dokkum. Once inside Dokkum, this followed a back road.
The road reaches the edge of the canal, which is incorrectly marked as not a cycle lane, but only in the opposite direction - seems someone got annoyed with bikes and put an unofficial sign there. Inside the town, we went past the windmills, and went shopping.
On the way back, we once again failed to find the right route, so went back to Raard, and turned left just before it, onto a fast road with no cycle lanes. A track on the left then took us down to the canal, where the main cycle route joined us from the left.
We followed the path to the right, which temporarily joined a road, then left the road, headed to the left and became a narrower path by the canal. Just after the small harbour and large windmill at Burdaard, we turned right. After some way, it reached Ginnum, where we headed back along the route we had started on, ending at Ferwert.
