DESCRIPTION
Join us on the incredible Ronde van Nederland — a 1,400 km cycling adventure around the whole of the Netherlands. In this, the first episode, we kick off with the Dover → Dunkirk crossing aboard DFDS Ferries 🚢, then cycle for a day of sightseeing in Bruges before continuing our journey across the Scheldt aboard the Breskens–Vlissingen ferry and stay overnight at Minicamping Sint Jan. Join us on this epic adventure.
LINKS TO PLACES MENTIONED
DFDS Ferries (Dover–Dunkirk & to France): https://www.dfds.com/
Breskens–Vlissingen Ferry info: https://westerscheldeferry.nl/
Camping le Peroquet: https://www.campingleperroquet.com/
Camping Memling: https://camping-memling.be/en/
Minicamping Sint Jan: https://www.campingsintjan.nl/nl/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
LINKS TO OUR OTHER SITES
Check out my website at: https://www.mikekempster.co.uk
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LINKS TO OUR PLAYLISTS
#rondevannederland #biketour #cycling #cyclingnetherlands #cyclingbelgium #dfds erries #dovertodunkirk #bruges #campinglife #campinglife #eurovelo #longdistancecycling #ferryride #scheldtferry #braydunes #campingduperoquet #campingplatz #camping memling #minicamp #sintjin #cyclecycle cyclecamping #adventurecycling #cyclingholiday #flanders #belgium #netherlands #france
[Music] i guess now would be as good a time as any to do the explanation about what’s going on so what’s happening is we are uh we took ourselves down to Dover in the car parked it up some uh side street looks like it’d be all right there to live there for a couple of three weeks and we’re going ourselves across on the Dover Dunkerk Ferry with DFDS there we go and what we’re going to do is we’re going to have a ride up to Bruge in Belgium and then we’re going to do and I’ll show you the book um we’re going to do the Rand de Netherlands so there’s a tour of a bike on bikes thousand milesish round it’ll be 1,000 miles by the time we’ve been to Bruge anyway about uh round the Netherlands and we’re going to do that over the next few weeks it’s forecast glorious sunshine chzn’s first longd distanceance trek but she’s not trepidated by it all
no
nah she’s done loads of training i did say to her you’re not coming and then she said I’ll train for it so I got her a six week training program give her a dish she trained so join us come with us over the next few episodes cycling up to Bruge um and then round the [Music] Netherlands [Music] Nice one
are you carbo loading
i’m car load and then it’s got the worst of it is when she went up the van and then came in here she was out of there and and the woman says “Oh are you all right?” Right he’s only ridden up the van it’s got miles to drive around nice restaurant though is it there’s hardly anybody on this f [Music] Bonj where can I get the bags [Music] there you go that’s our tent and everything that’s our little setup chess is getting herself ready for a shower then we’ve got the uh the threeman Banshee Bango Banshee 3000 two sleep bags two pillars two air mattresses and then there we go but we didn’t bother to take the pas off tonight and we’ve got a shelter to go on this well I’ll show you all that tomorrow when we get to Bruge how it all sets up and my friend’s off for a shower and then we’re just down this little lane here it’s quite nice actually it’s very very quiet nobody around at all hardly well we just took ourselves for a ride down to the this massive site this is I’ll show you on the way back there’s loads and loads of vans here and everything but like everywhere is shut like this restaurant’s closed i’ll show you let’s go for a quick ride around look at this like here’s the pool later i think there’s all this lot here look gym i think there’s a pool in there frittery animation that’s the kid fun area the shop the restaurant and all that but because it’s out of season now it’s all pretty much closed up um but you know what is season you know we’re second week in end of the second week in May i think half the Europeans only gone all day from July and August and that’s it look there’s loads of these caravans everywhere there’s all sorts of different vans here um it’s gone a bit chilly now as well aren’t it Chill we’ve got our tent set up i’ll show you that in a second as well look at that one that’s nice isn’t it loads of people got all their different setups here and their little fences and everything apparently there’s 850 pitches on this site there you go and there must be they must have a little bit of problem here well they must be looking out for immigrants and I’ll tell you why because um the John Darmmer is just riding almost permanently round here for the last 2 hours um Oh there’s my back break not happy about riding around here my back break isn’t Look at that there’s the kids play park no kids on it now cuz it ain’t the season look at that there you go right let me show you the tent setup right that’s us all tidied up now and set up for the night i’ve locked them together against the tree we left the panas on tonight cuz it’s not going to rain there’s the crib tidied out a little bit and we’ll uh pick you guys up in the morning when uh we head off hopefully in the sunshine again in the direction of Bruge where we’re booked in for two nights [Music] [Music] [Music] morning it’s um very chilly this morning very windy um got the the uh cycling jacket on and the um wind stopper as well so it’s very very chilly but it’s not too bad um the wind’s moving around a little bit it’s off to our side but you can see us cycling on the canal here and everything over the bridge and we’ve been through a couple of little villages now we’ve come to the town of Vern and we are stopping for what my friend describes as what you call it Jez essential calm
first breakfast
first breakfast cuz she didn’t she was denied the first breakfast cuz they didn’t have any milk at the place um I’ll show you pictures a few pictures of her and it looks absolutely lovely um it’s quite early in the morning though so there’s nobody around but this is absolutely beautiful look at this so we got managed to get two rolls cheese and tomato pepper mayonnaise two coffees 10 €14 so that’ be about 10 or 11 quid [Music] beautiful heat heat morning right well after yesterday in the wind um which is just short of 40 miles into the headwind which was quite hard going towards the end i was losing art in the last five or six miles we arrived here look at our lovely pitch there’s our lovely friend there’s our lovely pitch got all our stuff laid out here got the washing line up look um got this Vango tent extension i’m definitely not sure about this Vango gear store extension there but here we are in the beautiful city of Bruge and in the beautiful campsite that is Camping Memling so we’re going to stay here for an extra day today going to go into Bruge have a look around Bruge so come with us and have a look around Bruge and uh on the way I’ll quickly show you the facilities here and you can see how smart it is as it with all European campsites everybody is crammed in a little bit especially in the motor homes but um you know the facilities are absolutely [Music] topn [Music] Heat heat [Music] what do we think of Bruise then bruise is really Bruise is a really nice city got house in the Baptist
we’re in Da um which was recommended to us just down a little alleyway
there you go it’s quite nice we’re sitting upstairs and the B brings you out a couple of beers some cheese
so we like Bruce bruce is nice very good friend we’re good to go
brilliant right we’re all packed up that’s chairs packed that’s me packed ready to go this is Camping Memling which has been nice the sky it says it’s going to clear up today but um we’ve got our jackets on there looks to be plenty of wind around still but uh hopefully it’s going to be warm because we got to catch the ferry don’t want it to be a rough crossing do you need a quail
no it’s only a short one it’s only half an hour crossing right come with us and have another little ride through the uh Belgian countryside today about 20 miles to go to catch a ferry and then we’re going to cross into Holland and then 15 miles or so after that maybe 20 at the most so come with us for the day [Music] hello whatever bye Chester now that’s how I want it to be okay let’s get on the back of these guys come on let’s Let’s ramp it up baby [Music] cheers [Music] two of your finest tickets please shall I do this Chaz
no
or do you need to do it in
Well you said you could speak French you told me you could speak French you learned it at school now you’re trying to tell me you can’t speak French here’s bikes here look there look it’s just leaving the last one’s just leaving look we just missed that one 30 minutes to the next one eh how cool is that
that’s fine
happy
who’s in charge of the tickets
i’m in charge of the tickets
oh thank goodness for that that’s very simple €15 €15.90
oh I don’t know i didn’t look
€15.90 two tickets with our bikes go down there you enter through here there’s a little ramp here apparently yeah that’s where you go up this ramp here look Jez yeah you come up here look this is what they said there look yeah so she said you come up here look from down there there’s loads of people arriving now i think they’re on rental bikes but you come up here like this round here and in there with your bikes you’re too excitable look at that a ferry will never lose its magic for me and even the short ferry it’s magic in it i love them even the short ferry cheers
smile that’s it then we’re on We’re on the cus route we’re on the Randy Netherland we’ve only got It’s only 900 miles now nothing
nothing nothing for a woman like you right look at that how beautiful is that i think the wind’s just going to follow us around the whole place but this is absolutely beautiful isn’t it right onwards we [Music] go i love [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Right here we are then at mini camping sing John right um it’s a lovely little place little farmard here in the buildings and that there’s a campsitey bit over there right in the big round bit and there’s I don’t know 10 or 15 places in there but the woman said “Uh do you want some shelter from the wind?” And we said “Yeah thanks very much.” So she said we could camp here there is a spot there and the electric there pictures there somebody has been there before so we just camped here and then we’re right next to the facilities block here as well they’ve got this room here on the right that’s got a fridge freezer in it bike park you know and somewhere to charge your bikes and everything as well and then look at that how smart is that for a toilet block and I’ll show you inside it now right i’ve actually just been for a shower in there and I didn’t feel worthy to wash my dirty body in that shower cuz it is so posh come and have a quick look inside of this this is like the best look at that really smart sink rainwater shower ceiling unlimited hot water little washing one there look at that something to wipe down with afterwards this is like the poshest place in Got the toilets as well toilet little hand basin and everything little soap and everything to use as well really really smart then this is the little room so you can you can park your bikes in there there’s a bike rack there as well then she’s got these fridges here and then there’s a washing machine and a dryer you have to pay for them right there’s a price on the board there 5 to wash for to dry but and then on the wall here there’s also you can charge your bikes up here as well so how nice is that this is proper lovely this is €25 for the night me and Chess have just been to a shop called Albert Hine which I think is the equivalent of Waitro we’ve got beautiful uh spinach and ricotta sauce strawberries cream and then we’ve got some yogurt and that to have with the rest of the strawberries in the morning how healthy are we it’s And it’s as if we hadn’t got any beers in that fridge oh we have got some beers in our fridge haven’t we