Upleward – Bensersiel / (Wilhelmhaven)
From the Cottage in Upleward, where I slept in the living room, after breakfast around 9 o’clock we get on our bikes towards Norden. After a while we (Richard, Linda, Yka and I) cycle on a grass path impossible for the tree bike, because you can’t call it a real road. It scoots back and forth and the tree is probably not happy about this, sorry. This action does put us in contact with Imkerei Helmut Holtkamp who was working there with his bees. A great example of “Coincidence Harvesting. He told us, standing among the flowering rapeseed, that he has 400 bee colonies over an area of 500 km. And that in Germany 50% of the hives are failing. The biggest cause is pesticides. These fields here are sprayed with “bio-spritze. Another cause that many Beekeepers have to close is that a much cheaper fake honey from China has entered the market (made by bacteria). This only reinforces my earlier thought of giving the ‘Bee’ a voice, in the ‘European Voices of Nature’ series to be set up together with Foppe and IVN. I can contact him for more information. Very nice.
We cycle alternately through rural areas and through villages, mostly on the roadway because the trees along most bike paths have branches that are too low. But most people respond with broad smiles when they see the tree passing by. And we haven’t seen the police yet, either. At the first battery change after about 15 km, Richard and Daan also change, Richard from bike to car and Daan the other way around. Sanne plants another tree on an empty spot in the hedge of the cemetery, what do you want if your last name is Kerkhof. We cycle on and soon arrive at the Waddendijk, which we saw in the distance for quite some time. The route we follow is mostly outside the dike and is beautiful with alternating clouds and sunshine. The wind picks up a bit and the sloping dike is not very nice for the tree bike. The load is more on the left wheel, not nice. It does give beautiful images with the salt marshes in front of the dike. We cycle along the dike until we are almost at Nord-Deich, the battery is almost empty and we cross the dike into the country again. At a farmer’s we wait for the new battery and have lunch in the grass, it is at least 20 degrees today. Around 2 p.m. we continue the trip again towards the dike, but then we stay inside the dike. And we follow the dike for quite a while, actually all day. Every 15 km we change the battery of the tree bike and that determines the rhythm of the logistical stops. We hand out little trees wherever possible, especially to children. It is Yka’s last day and she cycles along the dike super happy one more time on the tree bike. Her son comes to pick her up. We drink and eat something at a simple restaurant because we want to cycle another 15 km so we can get closer to Jever, where we were actually supposed to arrive tonight. We get as far as Bensersiel, from which you can cross by boat to the Wadden Island of Langeroog. Tomorrow some 50 km to Jever. We park the tree bike and drive the two cars to Wilhelmshaven by dusk and agree that Daan, Richard and I will cycle the tree bike to Jever tomorrow and that Sanne and Linda will then update the Socials. The house in Wilhelmshaven is beautiful and especially very spacious. Here we stay for 3 nights now. Totally great. Hopefully we can get some rest and recharge a bit for the2nd week of the Tour which starts Friday.
The first week was mainly focused on logsitics. Today we are going to see if we can still make contact with the municipality in Jever, which can become our partner municipality. And we are going to lay out the map tomorrow to do another drone shot like we did in Leeuwarden, which will be a nice sequence along the whole circle.
Wednesday, April 16 – Bensersiel – Jever (Wilhelmshaven)
On our first “rest day” after five days of cycling, Daan, Richard and I pick up the tree bike from Bensersiel and cycle the tree bike to Jever. It is a lot cooler today, 14 degrees, but with a tailwind. In the first part we ride a lot on the through road because the bike path has too many and too low branches. The car rides behind it for safety. It is mainly kilometers, not so fascinating, but a strange sight. The second part of the route, a total of 37 km today, is a beautiful bike path through the countryside. How nice would it be if such a type of path, 2 meters wide, would be along a large part of the route throughout Europe? How do we get municipalities to invest in the most beautiful route through their municipality close to the line? It is actually a separate design task, for which we could give some tips, which are they? The route as a “module”?
Five kilometers before Jever, the tree bike starts whining. He just stops. No point anymore? We wait a while and call Cargo Cycling. A moment later we can continue. Without having done anything. What went wrong I don’t know, but it seems solved and we reach Jever around two and can park the tree bike at our own risk at the Schloss Museum in the heart of the center. Locked, the battery out and the gate closed tonight. Should go well it seems to me. We drive back to our lodging in Wilhelmshaven and put the batteries back on the chargers. I prepare for a video call about the Birthday Forest in Amsterdam on June 21, and in the meantime dinner is already being prepared. What a team, absolutely great!
We discuss together what could be better and note that it has been tough this first week, that is, the first five days of cycling. We need to take enough space for ourselves and avoid exhaustion. Getting a grip on the tasks per person can also help. In the coming week we will try to get into more of an efficient rhythm. So that there will be some space for content. We do not yet have contact with the municipality of Jever, we will try that tomorrow. We are also making the video we want to make weekly. Now let’s get some sleep first.
Thursday, April 17 – Jever – Jever (Wilhelmshaven)
The second night in the same place. Fine. Around 10 o’clock Sanne and I drive in the red E-camper to Jever where the tree bike is parked at the Schloss Museum. It is gray and really chilly today, 10-11 degrees, nothing on, fortunately it is dry. The tree bike is still nicely in place. We ask at the reception of the museum if the director (Ms. Antje Sander) is there but she is on vacation this week, well next weekend is Easter, so Easter vacation and so are the schools of course. We ask at the tourist office diagonally opposite where we should be for the culture department of the municipality. He tells us we’d better go to the climate department and gives us the contact information of Frau Eilers (Klimatschutzmanagerin). It’s around the corner so we knock on that too. And she too is on vacation. Bad luck. But we now have the data.
We buy eggs and mushrooms in the market near the church and have a tea at the enthusiastic Italian around the corner. Meanwhile, Daan, Linda and Richard have also arrived and we explain our big map in the little square next to a merry-go-round, two circular movements side by side, spinning in opposite directions. Some people come walking up to whom we tell the story, the cold doesn’t help. But we would like to take a picture from above in each partner town (after 250 km).
We prepare to cycle approx. 30 km on our rest day, so that tomorrow we still have 50 instead of 80 km to cover to Burhave, our next overnight stop. Again, the same problem as with Delfzijl, the ferry to the other side only runs from May, so we have to make a detour. So be it. With Richard and Linda we cycle away from the wind towards Dangast, which goes fine, over the road and along the dike. We still have to arrange a good flashing light so that we can guarantee optimum safety. In Dangast we struggle to get through the bike entrance and so we enter a tourist spot with lots of art, very pleasant. We park the tree bike on the side of a boutique and the three of us ride with Daan back to Wilhelmshaven, about 15 km. There Sanne has a delicious hot soup and a salad nicoise ready. It is, after all, our second day of rest.
Looking over the first week, we can be very satisfied. The tree bike made it to the target distance of 250 km, the bike is doing fine, the batteries are in order, the logistics of moving are getting better and better, the atmosphere is fine, the weather was very good, even if it is a little less now, so top. And of course there are points of attention that need improvement. Making contacts with municipalities, organizations and schools for birthday forests is not yet going well, handing out the trees could be better but is starting to go, doing presentations and collecting good examples has not yet started. And actually a little flatly put, we are cycling through an area without really touching it. And that, of course, is not the intention. But it was the first week that a tree cycled through Europe! Who could have dreamed that.