When I turn 46, I say "No more nonsense": Through 20 km of dune wilderness reserve to Noordwijk

In the morning I have another look at the Corner of Holland.

I ride the sticky-outy paved rock jetty as far as the road reaches.

The weather is overcast and a tad chilly at 9 am so in contrast to yesterday this and other beaches are pretty much deserted. I check out of the musty smells of my hotel early.

This very clever piece of metal work has to be hung at exactly the right height!

It looks like rain

I had already come to terms with having to ride the bike today behind the dyke WITHOUT a view of the ocean, but already before Monster the bike route veers left and continues on the dyke crest. LIKE IT.

This is where your tulips come from

and this is where your tomatoes grow

Around Den Haag, by all accounts by friends and family a city not worth visiting, the road veers away from the beach. After Scheveningen, the bike route enters a Dune-protection nature reserve. And this reserve keeps going for 20 km.

And I thought I have too much luggage. BTW, it's the mother that pulls the wagon, not the father ;-)

I'm going that way ...

The beach is accessible everywhere, one just has to stay out of the dunes

A note on Dutch Speed-Bumps on bike routes: GO SLOW ! From Vancouver and its evil speed-bump mania I have learned that a bicycle can just blast over a regular speed-bump one only lifts one's derriere from the saddle. But the Dutch are clever. These bicycle speed bumps are just the right height and spacing to upset a speeding cyclist with saddle bags.

I would have not further noticed the bumps had not one of my saddle bags detached itself in mid air and crashed to the ground. Sound of broken glass! I had stuffed a glass jar of cherries into a separate compartment of one bag, which now was filled with exactly the same as before (glass, cherries, juice), just in a slightly different configuration ;-(
It's always good to look at the bright side of things! It could have been the OTHER saddle bag. True, there would have been no cherries to pick out, but if the bottle of Rose in the other saddle bag had infused my clothes, I would have smelled like a wino for the rest of the day!
I spend 10 minutes up-ending the bag to get all the remnants out. Since the Dutch didn't think of putting a garbage can next to their speed bumps, it has to go under the fence of the nature reserve. Maybe there is a hungry sandpiper that doesn't mind cherries.
This event has severe consequences: Not only is my load lightened a bit (but I miss those cherries), I also frantically brake when I encounter another one of those Dutch infernal devices!

The only paths crossing this reserve along its length are for bicycles, pedestrians, and horses ;-)

The second part of the dune reserve takes a break in Katwijk, shortly before Noordwijk, where I finally stop at one of those fresh fish stands present everywhere in Holland.