Today was my first day of skating. This stage was probably the longest of my whole trip. It was planned to be 57 kilometres, but due to some unintended detours, it ended up being 63 kilometres in thirty degrees Celsius.

I started from Bakkum outside Amsterdam shortly before nine o’clock. Skating with a backpack (which I couldn’t motivate myself to do during my training) was not too bad. I packed as little as possible, so the backpack only weighs seven kilos including a polar bear.

The roads were very nice to start with. There are a lot of bike lanes in the Netherlands which I can use. Unfortunately, I learned today that whatever Google Maps finds suitable for cyclists, does not need to be appropriate whatsoever for a skater. I took a little tour into a dune nature reserve which was indeed pretty, but the brick paved route was terrible. So I turned around after a two kilometres, but had to continue another five or six kilometres on bad roads until I came back to a nice bicycle lane.

For the rest of the day, the roads were very good, and the landscape was picturesque. Shortly before the end of the trip today, I crossed the dyke between the Amstelmeer and the sea, and after four hours, I reached Hippolytushof, a cosy little town a few kilometres away from the IJsselmeer.

Tomorrow, I want to start early because the weather forecast predicts thunderstorms in the late afternoon. I first have to reach the Afsluitdijk which is currently closed for cyclist and hence for me as well. There I will take the cyclists’ bus and continue on skates towards Leeuwarden – a total of fifty kilometres, unless I include some unplanned detours again.

Strava link

Three years after the last blog post, it’s time again for a new Mountain Polar Bear adventure. 

This trip, I have planned since 2019. Then came Covid and two years of travel restrictions, and then one year with injuries and a lack of motivation. This year, however, I have been training fairly well, so I feel like this trip can finally happen. 

Here is the plan: I’m going to take a plane this Friday, the 7th of July, to Amsterdam and then skate on in-line skates to Hamburg. The distance is a bit more than 500 kilometres in total. Originally, I was planning with three weeks for this trip to allow for some rest and rain days. However, other plans came up in week three, so now I’ll try to finish in two weeks. This means roughly a marathon distance per day and no more than two rest days.

My planned route follows the coast all the way. I assume that there are some bike trails or roads with not too much traffic, and I hope for little gravel and a moderate amount of sheep poop. (I’ve been training at Fornebu which is full of goose poop, so I feel well-prepared for this particular challenge). I also hope for some vla breakfasts and pancakes to provide energy in the Netherlands, and some good fish dinners (sole Finkenwerder) in Germany.

Whether or not Mr. Nansen will join is still open for debate. He has been training little this spring, and I have to carry all my luggage on my back. So I need to do some test-packing and discuss with him if he will join or not.