Mountain biking

The melting snow in Germany and Switzerland means that the Rhine has now flooded over the summer dikes and is lapping half way up the taller winter dikes protecting the cities. The water is lower than a few years ago (due to extensive projects creating basins for storing water in nature reserves on the floodplain), but as we cycled out along the top of the dike protecting Wageningen from the Rhine it was still quite dramatic to see all the flooded land. Somewhat to our suprise, the flooding was not confined to the floodplain. At this spot in the forest near Ede there is always a pool, caused by upwelling ground water. However, today the pool was 3-4 times as large as usual, and spread right out so that you either had to go a long way round, or go through it. As it was spring water, it was crystal clear, so even though it was in places about 1/2 m deep, it was still possible to see the ground and cycle through it without too much difficulty, so long as getting wet does not count as difficulty. At least my apparently foolish decision to wear shorts was a good one in this case. Route (right-click to download)