What friendly people Lilly and Heine are. And Lilly is committed to seeing if a birthday forest in Uithuizen is possible. Top. On Sunday morning it’s already a nice crowd here, it’s raining a little bit and we already pick up the tree-bike from the farm (3.5 km). Before 10 o’clock one Rutger comes along who is going to walk 4 months to Compostella and gets the stamps from Lilly. And a little later Henry Menting of the Wheelbarrow Project is at the door, as agreed last night. We leave from Uithuizen, the High Country, with Boomfiets and Wheelbarrow together. Lilly cycles a bit with us, the total counter now stands at 136 km. That includes about 50 km of trial riding in Leeuwarden, but let’s keep this one anyway, after all, this is what the boom-bike has covered. The group gets smaller and today Linda and Ika cycle with me through the Groningen countryside. Still an open landscape but less flat and more varied in land use. We hand out little trees wherever we can, even a giant truck stops in the middle of the road and is happy to receive a little tree. Amazing how positive everyone responds to this. There is a lot of wind today (up to 24 km/hour) so the batteries have to work hard, 15 km per battery more is not possible, so it goes very fast. It is 26 km from Uithuizen to Delfzijl and we still have 1 full battery while we still have 45 km to go today. That will be puzzling. It seems to be one of those days where everything goes a little differently than expected. I notice from Daan and Sanne that they are also stressed because the camper is on 2% electricity and the charger does not seem to work. It is the day of ‘shortage’ of electricity. And on top of that, with filming the boom-bike on the narrow dike near the Eemshotel, turning around almost went wrong. With my heart in my throat, a helping hand and a running Floris managed to turn the bike around. We should not have done this. Another learning point for today.

All things considered, the conclusion is quickly reached: we are not going to make it to Rysum today. With a cup of soup or a sandwich we discuss the alternatives. We stay overnight in the Eemshotel for a sponsored sum of 25 euros per person. Very nice that gives peace of mind. Now we have time to charge everything properly and see how we get to the other side. The ferry at Ditzum appears to sail today but not tomorrow.

It is office afternoon at the Eemshotel. I app Cargo Cycling to ask if we can get 2 more batteries. We try an alternative way to get to the other side tomorrow, then we could cycle to Norden tomorrow and not lose a day. But whether that will work is not yet clear, it depends on a hoist system I just heard. And if all else fails, at least the ferry will go on Wednesday from Ditzum and we will then cycle directly to Jever. A training move along we call it. Turning a setback into a win is actually also a mindset thing.

And we quickly come to the conclusion that we should also keep 2028 in mind, because this Tour is the reconnaissance for that. And then the option of crossing directly now is suddenly less interesting again, because you don’t do that with the intended 100 tree bikes. So Ditzum becomes popular again. I send an email to the municipality if they might be able to help get across there today, even though they might not officially sail today. We’ll wait and see.