So today was the big day, after 2 weeks of an injured foot, I started this week with short, 4.6Km walks. Today was the big 25km walk from Krommenie to Halfweg, also known as the Noord Holland walk.
I had my Iphone, where I took some pictures of crucial roads and obviously used my gps, worst of all I thought I had memorized the entire route. People who know me, know I have the memory of a wooden table. As I was toddling along, listening via Spotify to BB King using the mapmytrack app I saw that my battery was dying fast. But I figured surely it would last.
After about 45 minutes, I turned left where I should have walked straight on, and as I arrived at the same petrol station again, I figured I should really use the map more often.
1 ½ hours further I looked at the map and honestly didn’t know, am I walking straight on or do I have to turn right here? A call to my girlfriend was needed, and she told me to walk on straight. Naturally after I walked on for about 20 minutes, I declared in an angry text that she was wrong and I should have turned to the right. So I was in a pissy mood already, damn it damn it I have to walk further than planned, it was raining, it was cold and my battery was at 11%. I had turned off my music some time ago, but having to read the map a lot didn’t help the good old Iphone battery.
Finally after 16,8 ( yes everything after the comma is extremely important too) I arrived at the pontje at the North sea canal, my Iphone died on me. This nearly made me cry, I had no one to call if my foot was playing up again or when I was ready to be picked up. I could not resort to reading the map, damn it. I felt ..honestly I felt like I was in the freaking dutch jungle of nowhere.
So what did I do? I followed the street signs, which made take a even longer route than originally, but actually I started to enjoy this. I had to resort to the maps on the street, figure out where I was, where I should go. I actually used my brain! I loved it!
And then I saw one of the most beautiful things that day: From afar I saw the towers of Sugar City, which I knew was going to be my end point. And where my girlfriend should meet me to take me home. I actually said this aloud : Ahhhhhhh vrienden!!! ( friends in English)
But I still had to walk quite a bit, then I realised that I actually wasn’t able to call her because my battery was dead. Once I arrived in Halfweg I dropped into the Cafe Herberge and there were 8 men sitting at the bar. The first one pointed me to the ladies toilet and when I answered that I actually want to have a beer, they were cheering, nice….. . I asked if someone had an Iphone charger, nobody did. Anybody had a smartphone? One of the guys, called Marco, gave me his Iphone, with this I logged onto my Twitter (big freakin YEAh I love you Twitter – moment). I sent a help message to @BPenninx to call my girlfriend to pick me up. @BPenninx did and 20 Minutes later (during this I had a rather interesting chat with Marco, who also bought me a beer, how nice!) Carolien picked me up.
So what did I learn? Fucking Iphone battery is useless. Nobody needs to memorize a telephone number anymore, just know which Twitter handle and send a Help Tweet. I actually have a brain I can use when technology fails me. After all I walked 28Km today, saw some truly beautiful Dutch scenery, met some really nice guy called Marco and arrived home with a big smile and a feeling of YES I did it!
If after all of this you think. Whooohaaa I want to sponsor this girl..you can do this here !
PS: Carolien (girlfriend) was right..I had to walk straight on. Ahem..
See you over 25Km!
