Ginkelseheide
This morning, we went with the club on one of my favorite local routes, to the Ginkelseheide. It was a route I have often gone on by myself, so was nice to be able to share it with the group. The weather was incredible as well, brilliant sunshine, not a cloud in the sky, but with pleasantly cool - especially compared to the sticky 33 degrees we had yesterday, before a thunderstorm freshened it up again. Yesterday's thunderstorm did mean that there was lots of water and mud on the ground, so we all arrived back looking like proper mountain bikers, all covered in grime. One of the nice things about that route is that it has quite a variety of different habitats; young fresh green broadleaf woodland, majestic stands of mature beech, open sandy areas and narrow tracks through heathland. The heathland is quite good for reptiles, with various snakes and lizards, and this morning a slow worm was basking in the sunshine, right across the path. Unfortunately the path was so narrow and winding at that point that it was not possible for us to avoid going over it. Normally I like to think that as cyclists, we have a minimal impact on the environment (see here for more on that), but this was a salutary reminder that that is not always the case. But aside from that incident, we all had a great ride and arrived back in Wageningen tired, happy and muddy.
Here is the route we took (right-click to download).
