Pollarded willows are a common sight. Seen here on the road to Hoorn.
Grey and showery all day, it’s a long ride but the stops, widely spaced, not least a welcome bakery coffee in Oosthuizen, are enjoyable.
How can you resist a coffee shop with such an inviting portal?
Entering Hoorn, Nico suggests a stop at an excellent outdoor shop where riders can update or replace deficiencies in gear.
Gadget disease is communicable of course, and Jack and Tav succumb to the itch to add further Garmin GPS trackers to the inventory of the travelling entourage. As usual the choice of model numbers and functions is endless and confusing. Our friendly shop assistant insists on reading out slabs of model descriptions in Dutch, whether Nico is there to translate or not. Eventually a choice is made, providing no end of techno discussion on options, menus, operating tricks and settings — none of which will make the slightest difference to the outcome of the tour. [However, in defence of the boys’ toys, you O Gentle Reader might grant that the map and details of the track followed, which you will find at the end of relevant links here and there in this blog (when I can get to it), have been recorded by Web-Master’s humble Garmin Edge 810.]
Hoorn presents the appearance of a prosperous town in days gone by. Adorned with classic buildings around town square where we stop for another hot chocolate, it recalls the great old days of the VOC, or East India Company.
Replica of the Half Moon, c.1600
The port is crammed with vessels both ancient and modern, including several leeboard sailing barges preserved from 19th century days. Hoorn was a major a trading port for the expeditions to the Far East.
In the old port quarter is a workshop supporting a replica of the old sailing ship Half Moon, twin masts, high poop to protect against large following seas, square rigged, built around 1600. A friendly worker, a gentle man with ready smile and long greying hair, comes out of the workshop to apologise that the exhibit is closed but photos can still be taken. We start talking and soon he is telling the story of the Duyfken, the small ship that first landed on the NW coast of Australia in 1609. This kindly gentleman turns out to be an expert on the rigging of these old ships. “Everything above deck, nothing built after 1800” he says almost proudly. Such quiet passion and competence is inspiring.
Horn town centre
All this, plus the knowledge that Cape Horn was named after this town, sends the sailors in the team off on stories about their own, or Joshua Slocum’s dashing deeds on the briny. Joshua, with his first solo navigation around Cape Horn and the world c.1900, rather beats us into the amateur’ corner.
Riding on along the waterfront with constant drizzle (which does not worry us at all, as we are well equipped) and against an unexpectedly adverse winds (which does), we finally reach Enkhuisen and the barge.
Map and stats HERE>; distance for the day – 52:
Coffee in Oosthuizen. Shopkeepers are reliably welcoming and friendly
Elodie Spring 17 