After a few hours of travel from Haarlem to Pieterburen, I walked the “Prologue” section of the Pieterpad.
The day started out rainy, as I finished packing for the trail. During a brief lull in the rain, I left my apartment, walking across Haarlem to the train station, and hoping the rain would cooperate for ten minutes or so. It didn’t, and I got annoyingly wet halfway there. Fortunately; I had my pack rain cover on, so my pack stayed dry, even if I didn’t.
From Haarlem, it took four trains and a bus to get to Pieterburen, the start of the trail, about three and a half hours of travel in total. Everything was running right on time, which was good, because I only had a few minutes for each transfer. There was basically no waiting around, and little margin for error.
Along the way, the rain gradually cleared, and once I was on the bus to Pieterburen, the sun even came out a little.
The bus stop in Pieterburen was almost right at the start of the trail, not even a hundred meters away. So, not even four hours after leaving home, I was at the start of the trail!
Rather than immediately turning south on the Pieterpad, I instead turned north, following a 10 km loop described in the Pieterpad’s guide as a prologue, or warmup. (Or epilogue, for northbounders).
Initially following a brick path, the trail quickly became a concrete road, following rows of fields towards the coast. A farmer was sitting in a large piece of equipment; I think for harvesting, though apparently was taking a break. Or perhaps waiting out the rain — a dark cloud followed me half way to the end of the fields, drizzling, and then raining hard for a minute or two, before quickly petering out. Once the cloud had passed, some blue sky ahead of me reasserted itself, and the atmosphere quickly improved.
A gate in front of a several-meter-tall berm separated the fields from a sheep station, and the trail turned east, going through the gate and following the space between the fields and the berm, and eventually climbing over the berm and following a farm road on the other side.
I immediately ran into a some sheep, milling about on the side of the road. One had taken cover underneath a sculpture on the top of the berm.
Crossing over the berm gave a view of the North Sea, a few hundred meters away. Between the base of berm and the ocean were more grazing areas for sheep, and marshlands home to a large flock of birds.
The seaward side of the berm was completely paved over, I think primarily to secure that side of the berm from erosion, but it also provided for a ledge farm equipment could drive on, and a place to put a few wooden shacks sheep were using as a shelter.
Also atop the ridge were milestones placed every half-kilometer. It’s about 70 km to somewhere along the path; Germany, I think.
I also saw a small sliver of a rainbow out over the ocean, which was nice since I got rained on.
After two kilometers, the trail turned south, crossing over the berm and heading back towards Pieterburen.
I took a short break at a conveniently-placed bench, just on the Pieterburen side of the sheep station fence. On the ocean side, a couple of sheep gathered to graze at a trail marker.
Following an active farm road — four large farm trucks drove past while I was on it — I passed by a monument for fourteen people who (I think, the translation is a bit weird) died as the result of some sort of fatal accident constructing the polder I was walking through. Given how high the berm was, it did not seem at all surprising that people died in the process of reclaiming the land.
On the walk back towards Pieterburen, dark clouds threatened more rain, though it remained dry the rest of the day.
It was great to turn off the busy farm road, even if that was onto a concrete walking path between fields, but at least there, I only had cyclists to contend with. Throughout the day, I saw maybe 15 or 20 people walking or cycling the route I was on.
Passing through Pieterburen, I again passed the start of the trail, and this time turned left, following the Pieterpad to its first campsite, Camping Boet’n Toen, immediately next to the trail, only about 100 meters from its start. (A very convenient place, indeed!)
Once I got to the campground and got signed in, the sun came out. Which was great, except the only place on the campground lawn where the sun was shining was already occupied by three tents. The next best spot along the edge of the lawn was a shaded, slightly damp site, but at least the ground wasn’t waterlogged, like it was a little further down next to a bank of power outlets. Thanks to the recent rain, the grass was a little taller and thicker than I’d have preferred, but I’ve camped in far worse grass before, so this wasn’t that big a problem.
I relaxed in my tent for a little while — I may only have hiked 10 km, but traveling is tiring too — then got out to cook dinner at the covered picnic tables at the center of this section of the campground, shared with a couple of permanently-stationed campers, a small kitchen, and the restrooms and showers.
It was nice out this evening, and relatively quiet, save for the occasional church bells.
By the time I was done with dinner, I’d developed a bit of a headache — probably I didn’t drink enough water today, so I turned in early. That’s the nice thing about camping out: staying up late is harder when there’s no lights to turn on!
Some time after dark, another camper arrived and set up next to me; I could hear their air mattress squeaking as they moved.
Tomorrow, I’ll continue on the first section of the Pieterpad, beginning my journey to the south end of the Netherlands.