Friday, April 11
From the beautiful little idyllic village of Ie with a full moon on the church tower, we look back on a fantastic first day. ‘It giet oan’ they say in fries. At half past eight we stood on the Oldehoofsterkerkhof explaining the map, drone tests, interview with Buma, etc. The sky was blue the sun was shining brightly, what a beautiful day to start the Tour. With all present in a circle around the map, Buma and Sjoerd told about the importance of Bosk for Leeuwarden and Arcadia, and they wished us a great trip. Because this “crazy” project, too, is bound to succeed. After a few laps around the map we cycled with I think 50 people, with Sybrand Buma in the lead, along the road to the Groningerstraatweg where we planted 16 trees in a circle. Thanks to the municipality for the trees and preparation. The first beginnings of what may become the first birthday forest. Leeuwarden has the scoop! Geertje van Hooijdonk and Ernestine Meyer from the LVVN ministry were also there. And Foppe, and Eric and Han, and Hilbert, and Linda, and Ilse, and Vincent, and Martine, and many others. Very nice. We ended the planting ritual with singing together led by Amarins, again in a circle. And then the time came, no escape. We set off, about 30 people I estimate, towards Ie, about 35 km, waved off by Buma and Lisa the children’s mayor, among others, who made another wonderful wish for the future, before planting her tree.
It is really unreal and I fortunately don’t realize it well yet, partly due to fatigue, but we are really cycling, we have started! The tree still needs some getting used to, and so do I. Especially maneuvering between the low branches of the existing trees requires quite a bit of focus. Sanne keeps track of the route on Komoot, which is nice, I don’t have to pay attention to that. Linda takes us to an elementary school in Oensjerk, where a six-year-old child has her birthday today. All children on the square, and of course she gets a birthday tree, the2nd one we hand out today. We still have to learn that system because we have to average 50 a day. The battery lasts about 20 km, then we change the battery, but that seemed easier than it was. The new battery did nothing at all. I call Luuk from Cargo Cycling for advice, but he can’t figure it out either. Fortunately we have another battery and it works. Great. We are now just before Damswoude, after 20 km, where we take a break on the sun terrace at restaurant het Kruispunt. The atmosphere is warm and relaxed. What do you want with this beautiful weather on April 11. Probably it will rain the whole month of May? We wait and see. With Foppe in front we cycle on to Ie, through loose villages, or what passes for them, and Frisian meadows with few trees, another 15 km or so. Along the way Richard’s drone flies with us regularly and we also see Floris standing along the road with a camera.
Around four o’clock we receive a warm welcome at the elementary school in Ie. After a short speech by the principal of the school, Matthijs ter Bork, director of IVN Noord, took the floor and drew attention to the importance of education, also about trees and about the relationship that we as humans can have with them, and about inspiration. I responded by taking it with me as an assignment during our tour. We are going to pay attention! Then we visit the Flax Museum and get a fascinating story about the mound on which the church is built, from about 400 BC. Talk about history and long-term thinking. We have a drink at the “pump station” and celebrate that we made it through the first day. Margret also stopped by and brought along leaflets and other prints that were delivered to Arcadia today via Theo. We say goodbye to yet another number of people, including Rose and Margret, and the six of us (Sanne, Daan, Rosalie, Richard and Floris) have dinner at the ‘Herberg’ a village down the road, Westergeast. Everyone is pretty tired and hungry, as lunch was not enough. After dinner we go through the logistics of tomorrow, a nice puzzle because we sleep at two locations, Floris and Richard stay in Westergeast to spot the filmed material and the rest goes back to Ie, 10 minutes apart. In Ie it is a bit of a search for the cottage where we sleep but we find it, with the help of the full moon. We put all the batteries on the charger, check the mails, search a bit more for a way to organize all the luggage in the cars and end the day. It was beautiful. On to tomorrow.