Day 71

30 June 2013

How low can you go?

I received several request to keep the blog going as a general blog for everyone to read, it means that many people are actually reading my stuff which is nice to know. Now as for the litle- this has nothing to do with how I feel. Actually I feel not to bad at all, the weather has cleared , it was even a warm day today.

When you look at the map on this page you can see that I am in a place called Lelystad. The large block you see bordering Harderwijk – Kampen is what they call a "Polder". Meaning: that this area was sea before. You can see the outlines on the map. The large block was reclaimed in two stages. Somewhere just left from where it says A6 there is a dike or division between the northern and southern part of the polder. The southern part was reclaimed during the latter half of the sixties. Once upon a time, when I was a student at the maritime college I was away for two weeks on one of the training ships. One day the captain called on the bridge and showed us a map which he projected over the sea chart and said” There will be a day that you will be driving 4 meters below the keel of the ship and visit the city of Almere”. It sounded surreal as the only thing we could see was the coast line and a dike being build in the middle of the sea. The dike is now the edge of the Marker meer. (Marker sea) What the captain had foretold has already taken place many years ago as I have been to Almere many times.

I am staying with my friend Rob and his girlfriend Suzan who live right on the edge of the Polder. They are one of the few people who, although they live in Lelystad, don't live below sea level. The unit they live in, is positioned right on the edge of the polder overlooking the inland sea. Just behind there street the land falls away in two stages by I guess about 4-5 meters. Most of this land was created for extensive farming. The interesting thing is that although Holland is a very densely populated country, around here, about 50 km from Amsterdam you can drive/ride around without seeing any people and have views as far the eye can see. Just north is another such polder with the town of Emmeloord right in the centre. The land is as flat as a pancake with exception of the town of Urk which used to be an island, so when you go there you find that just before you entre town you face a sharp rise and notice a sea dike which is now on land.

Rob had taken care of my motorcycle and had it ready for me to fit the GPS. He had changed the handle bars to a higher variety as the sport handlebars had given me a lot of grief the previous time as they are too low for me and caused carpel tunnel syndrome.

I am very lucky to have a friend like Rob. We have known each other since 2001 when he spotted me riding my Australian registered bike with the Qld number plate in the vicinity of Haarlem. Rob wanted to ride on his own motorcycle from Holland to Australia, which he accomplished the following year. I am lucky to have several “Friends for Life” as I call them . They are friends who laugh and cry with you and are there in the good and the bad times. You may not hear from them for years but then pick up again from where you left off and continue the lifetime’s journey of true friendship.

You will find a few of them come past these pages in the next few weeks, so If I quite the phrase “friend for life” you know what I mean There are in Holland, the UK, France and Turkey and a few places in between.

Anyway today I did a 100km test ride on the BMW following Rob and Suzan to a small (ex coastal) town of Elburg of which I have placed some pictures. So while riding I thought :How low can you go? Well the GPS showed minus 4.5 meters. The handle bars are just over a meter from the ground so I guess the lowest the answer is 5-6 meters below sea level.