How it started
The first time we met long distance walking in The Netherlands was during a short holyday in Limburg in 1991. One day we decided to do the NS-wandeling: De zeven heuvelen route in the neigbourhood of Nijmegen. This tour went along the Pieterpad (LAW 9) and Lingepad (LAW 6-2). This walk guided by white-red waymarkers (
) made us curious.The first serious hike we made was on June 26th 1992. A very close friend of us had his birthday and we descided to walk to him. This first walk was over a distance of 20 km from Hoogvliet (Rotterdam) to Zwijndrecht along the Groene riviervariant of Oeverloperpad (LAW 601). After this walk I had serious sore muscles, but that didn't matter because I had enjoyed every step. A few days later we made our second walk; this time from Leerdam to Beesd along LAW 6-2 Lingepad. Since than we walked along Dutch and foreign long-distance foothpaths.
The Netherlands
Most of our tours in the Netherlands we day tours along long-distance-footpaths (LAW - Lange Afstand Wandelpad). In the beginnig, when we were still students, we used public transport to get to the beginning of the route and at the end to get back home again. Later we decided to use our car and ours bikes as transport. We drop our bikes at the end of our trip, drive by car to the beginning, walk along the route to our bikes and cycle back to the car. This way we are not dependent of the expensive and awkward public transport.Since we started, we finished next trails:
| LAW 2-2 | - | Overijsselpad |
| LAW 2-3 | - | Gelrepad |
| LAW 4-2 | - | Utrechtse Heuvelrugpad |
| LAW 6-2 | - | Lingepad |
| LAW 3-1 | - | Marskramerpad I |
| LAW 9 | - | Pieterpad |
| LAW 202 | - | Maarten van Rossumpad |
We also did some regional footpaths (RP). These footpaths are marked with yellow-red stripes (
). The trails we completed are: | RP 1 | - | Scholtenpad |
| RP 2 | - | Twentepad |
| RP 3 | - | Streekpad Nijmegen |
| RP 4 | - | Texelpad |
| RP 8 | - | Graafschapspad |
| RP 11 | - | Hanzestedenpad |
Europe
We also looked across the border. We made four long walks:(1) the GR5-E2 from Maastricht in the Netherlands to Nice in France over a distance of 1900 km and
(2) Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk from St-Bees to Robin Hoodsbay over a distance of 300 km.
(3) GR10 from Hendaye to Banyuls-sur-Mer over a distance of about 800 km.
(4) GR20 from Calenzana to Conca over a distance of about 170 km.
Next spring/summer we want to do the West Highland Way - a footpath from Milngavie to Fort William over a distance of 152 km.
| Last modified August 2008 |