Reaching the Rhine and Trouble at the Hook

 Campground 14km north of The Hague to the Hook of Holland 57 km

Day 2 started off beautifully on an excellent cycle path right from the campground, snaking through sand dunes and wooded areas of pine and oak under sunny skies. We started to see signs for EuroVelo 12 (known as the Kust ie coast Route here in the Netherlands). After entering the Hague, we somehow lost that trail and ended up on some other cycleways as we headed towards the Hook of Holland and the Rhine estuary.

Beach along our route - those are Heineken flags!

Touching the North Sea - nobody is swimming

Happy bikers

Signage along the cycleway - the middle sign Kustroute EV 12 is the one we're trying to follow. The path is busy with cyclists as it's the weekend 

We reached the Hook in the late afternoon and cycled the 3km out to the end of the pier (known as the "mole") which forms the bank of one of the shipping channels along this section of the Rhine basin. We watched ships come and go, including a large ferry coming in from Harwich, England with a distant misty backdrop of rows of cranes and storage tanks serving this busy port area.

The pier at the Hague

The first working windmill we've seen, in a village along the way

Ferry from England near the entrance to the Rhine at the Hook of Holland

As we proceeded "up river" watching for signs for the Rhine Route (EuroVelo 15), it was now about 5.30pm and we were starting to look for somewhere to stay the night. Trouble struck suddenly when my bike came to a grinding halt to the awful sound of crunching metal in my back wheel. My derailleur had broken off completely and wound up tangled around the spokes in a real mess. This was not good! We were in the middle of nowhere along the waterway without phone data, getting late in the day and the weather taking a turn for the worse. What to do?

Calm heads prevailed and Frank got to work removing the derailleur in the hope of breaking the chain, removing a section of links and making it a single speed so that I would be able to continue riding to at least get to somewhere to spend the night and find a place to have it repaired. Fortunately Frank is travelling with a good set of bike tools. As he worked away, a couple out for an evening ride stopped to see if we were ok and offered to help us get to a hotel. They then offered to ride on home and come back with their car and bike rack and take us wherever we needed to go. Best of all they were able to give us advice about where the nearest towns and hotels were. Like most Dutch people, they spoke English very well.

Frank did succeed in making the bike rideable and just then Bob returned with his car and took my panniers in the vehicle and with his phone, booked us a hotel back in the Hook, which was only about 3km, and has a couple of excellent bike shops. He drove alongside us to lead us there and made sure we were taken care of at the hotel. Of course being a Saturday, we were going to have to hang about till Monday for the bike shops to open, so we would have a couple of nights here and would become much more familiar with the Hook of Holland than anticipated!

Frank at work on the injured bike. Note the nice grassy surroundings which we had each

 silently assessed as a possible "wild camping" option for the night as plan B!

We are now comfortably settled in here in this fairly low-key town a few blocks back from the Rhine and feel so grateful to have encountered such kind fellow-bikers. Last night ended well with hot showers and a fine Chinese meal just up the street. And turns out Bob has done his share of long-distance cycling in his day and he knows his way around a bike. We have invited him and his wife Jose for dinner tonight and look forward to spending some time with these good folks.

As for the bike, its fate is unknown at this point. If it can be repaired, great. Parts could be an issue though. We'll know more tomorrow, so stay tuned for further developments ☺

Today's ride