Today was to be our last full day riding in The Netherlands. We have loved it. What would today bring?

Firstly, another amazing breakfast. Looking out the backyard. Serene. Flower hot houses to the upper right. The geese and their small growing broods over the canal.

Darker skies but it’s not raining, tick.

The forecast includes strong SW. Our direction today? SW.

The winds were blowing. Ominous start as we had 106 km to ride today, heading towards the coast and across the southern islands of Zeeland.

Back through Delft and Schipluiden, we headed to the ferry at Maassluis, to cross the Scheur River.

Waiting for the ferry. It costs 3 euro for the two bikes.

The ferry heading to us.

Me sheltering from the winds on the ferry.

My hammerhead computer says we are off route!

The ferry twists and turns in the short distance, plus needed to give way to three larger vessels.

Today we are riding through South Holland, across many islands.

Only one ferry, the rest is a mixture of bridges and causeways.

Great places to be in 35-40 kmh headwinds as they are usually more exposed 😳🤣

The wind turbines are in their element. Always delightful riding along and seeing they are receiving the same wind direction. The wind turbines here are much larger than those I’ve seen in Tasmania. These are seriously huge.

Finally a small forest section, where we enjoy a reprieve from the wind. It didn’t last long. We took a break at a table here.

Up to the coast. Blowing like blazes there.

Tony looks, and he climbs up the observation tower.

What Tony saw.

At ground level, plenty of bike signage. A strand is beach. Along this section, there are about 9 access points. Like Poland along their Baltic coast, numbered and designated points.

Tempting to turn and head back to Rotterdam. We’d have a tail wind.

A lighthouse at the southern end of the North Zealand island, Schouwen Duiveland.

If you look at this map of Zealand, you can see the narrow slivers of land we cross.

From South Holland the bridge and causeway across. Then another two around the Deltapark.

There are some wonderful beaches at one end. Today paradise for the kite surfers.

On the other side, no sand, calmer and the windsurfers are enjoying it.

The pathway across one causeway. It looks calm but you can’t photograph wind. It’s blowing a gale with gusts over 60 kmh.

The path is built on the dyke. In places, my legs were being sandblasted.

The best I could manage was 12-13 kmh along this beautiful straight and flat section. Cyclists coming the other way were flying.

There is a tourist train! Does it take bikes???

More beach, kite surfer. This area would be brilliant in a nice summers day. Oh yes, it is summer now 🤣🤣🤣

I look for seals. I see none.

Riding into as much wind as we did today is physically and mentally hard. To help counteract the mental I count things. How many wind turbines? I got up to 39 with one view from left to right.

52.2 kmh wind gust on Tony’s bike computer. We also looked at the wind apps and no good news there, still 32-38 kmh SW for the area.

I’m still smiling….or is it gritted teeth? Rain jackets on as it started spitting.

We stopped to put our rain booties on with 20 km remaining. No more photos.

So then we had driving headwind plus rain.

We arrive in Middelburg and have a self check in. Good bike storage as they also do local bike tours.

Our room has a wall heater, plus we put a portable fan on a bedside table, in front of hanging space, to dry our clothing.

The smell of drying cycle shoes is a less pleasant sensation.

We head out hunting food. It is a quiet night here in Middelburg, the capital of Zealand.

The closest restaurant says no. The next restaurant says no….feeling despondent the Spar supermarket looks like the best bet. Then we spot signage to another. She said yes!!!

Third time lucky, I could have kissed her.

We left with a full tummy and had a wander.

Just under 1,900 km ridden now. Today was one of our tougher days courtesy of the strong headwinds.

It was tough and you just have to mentally break it down into bite size chunks. We ate all our snacks today speaking of biting chunks. We did stock up at that Spar on our walk home.

Tomorrow the forecast is similar, but we are not riding as far. Shorter day as we head to Bruges in Belgium.

I think the Netherlands does not want us to leave. It’s saying, turnaround, head north and we will give you tail winds.

Tempting, but our journey does need to take us in another direction. Surely the headwinds will give up eventually?

Let’s see what tomorrow brings 😳🙏🙏🙏

Thanks for reading 😁🚴❣️