There's nowt as good as having your best friend visit you in Cloggy land.
Me best mate, Scary Sares, and her brood flew into the Netherlands yesterday courtesy of Mr O'Leary and Ryan Air. 80 quid return for all 3 of them including the airport taxes and suitcases.
BARGIN!
Oldest Baby Cloggy along with his co-pilot, Youngest Baby Cloggy, drove down to Eindhoven to collect them from the airport and they all arrived back at the homestead just before dinner bearing
strawberry milkshakes for all!
A very pleasant BBQ ensued and now everyone has gone to beddy byes.
On the itinerary for the next few days is, Harmuhle - with the big beer glasses, DragonHeart - with the Owls and Medieval stuff, Bicycling tours of the neighbourhood, Swimming and a Movie if the
weather turns crap (which it will undoubtedly will) all of which will be accompanied with LASHINGS of Fizzy Pink Alcohol.
Dontcha just love it when your best friend comes to town? I do!
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Some times the best views are right outside your own backdoor .....
Here is a photograph I took last night whilst standing just outside the Cloggy Residence Backdoor. No camera gadgets, filters, flashes or fancy doodah crap
were used. Just the old faithful family 'Box Brownie'.
I love it. I hope you will enjoy it too!
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There was only one casualty during our 5 day jolly around the Flamingo Route.
Fortunately the casualty was bicycle related and not human.
During a cycle along a particularly bumpy section of the route a part of my saddle support cracked. This was then impounded further when Cloggy tried to lift up my bicycle and turn it around
using the saddle (remember I had all the camping equipment on the back which made the bike very heavy) cracking the other saddle support.
My bicycle saddle was now very unstable and really quite dangerous. Also, due to the lack of suspension, my posterior was beginning to turn black and blue.
Of course Cloggy shot off a few un-necesary comments about diets, weight limits and natural padding which he thought were very
amusing.
The support team, which consisted of Oldest baby Cloggy and his Fathers car, was contacted and instructed to get to the shop to buy a new saddle before it closed. A short while later he met us in
Oldenknott with the new saddle and a set of spanners. HOORAH!
Here's a link to the photo album of the trip if you are interested. 
Flamingo-Route
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Flamingo Route # 5
Day 5 - Southern Section and HOME!
40Km
Start Point: West of Zwillbrock.
End point: Home.
TODAY WE SPOTTED A FLAMINGO ON THE FLAMINGO ROUTE! We were so excited! I will now apologise for the quality of the photograph but the pink beast was further than my
crappy old camera lens can deal with. Never the less here is the trophy picture of our 5 day cycle tour.
Middle Baby Cloggy thought that it was a bag stuck on a stick but after we gave him the binoculars he relented and agreed that it was indeed a Flamingo.
According to the Nature Reserve Warden, if you want to see the Flamingo's you need to be here latest at the end of June. So I guess we were very lucky.
We cycled on through the city of Vreden and then on home via Ammeloe, Oldenkott and the Haaksbergerveen which has very nice green frogs this time of the year.
Eventually we ended up at our homestead where our lovely neighbours saw us and invited us in for a refreshing beer. How could we refuse! I leave you with a photo of Molly, the 11 year old
Mutt belonging to our neighbours.
The Flamingo Route is well worth a skirmish or two but i would not recommend it if your kids are younger than 10 years old.
Books and Route info can be found at your local VVV info centre. Alternatively you can always leave a comment and I will forward you the details.
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Flamingo Route #4
Day 4 - Southern Section
25Km
Start Point: Haaksbergen
End Point: De Goede Hoop Campsite West of Zwillbrock
A Lazy start to day 4 of our trip. We know the first part of the route very well because we walk the Dumbarse dog here every day so there were no surprises in store for us. After a while we
ventured into unknown territory. This was the part of the nature reserve where dogs are not allowed to go off leash, so therefore not interesting for us on a daily basis as Dumbarse needs as much
free space to run wild as we can legally find for him.
Almost
immediately after we had gone off of our normal route we found an information centre that was unknown to us. A small roundhouse with benches and maps for the whole of the southern section of the
route.
The Baby Cloggys were very impressed.
We cycled further through the Haaksbergerveen until we came to the old border village of Oldenkott. Very picturesque but apart
from a nice cafe nothing much.
Cycling on we skimmed around another nature Reserve called
Crosewicker Feld and then headed towards our ultimate goal of Zwillbrock.
The Village of Zwillbrock does not have a camping site so we had to head a wee bit to the west to finish at a camp site called 'De Goede Hoop'. It was not spectacular, but was clean, quiet,
had friendly staff and a swimming pool. Whatever you do though DO NOT EAT THERE! Put the tent up and then cycle approx 1.5 Km to Zwillbrock and eat in the cafe/restaurant Kloppendiek.
After dinner we let Cloggy play on the SeeSaw in the playground for a few minutes and then guided him safely back to his tent, where he
participated in a few rounds of 'Uno' and then crawled into his tent and snored for 12 hours!
Day 5 to follow and close our cycling tour.
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Flamingo Route Day 3
25Km
Start Point: Dreilander See
End Point: Home
After we received an alarming weather forecast from Cloggys Father, Professor Clog, (Heavy rain and thunderstorms for late Wednesday evening and Thursday
morning) we decided to not take any chances and head for home to restock on clean clothing and groceries.
There was enough time for The Baby Cloggys to have a bit of a splash around in the lake and an hour or so in the Pedalo's before we broke camp and headed on home. Cloggy was permitted to join
them for a while however it wasn't too long before the evil little monsters had upended him out of the boat and he was splashing around in the water.
We managed to make it home before the heavens opened (stopping off for dinner at our favorite waterhole Harmuhle where the Oldest Baby Cloggy joined us).
All in all we had a very enjoyable few days. Thursday was a rest day and as I write we are just making the final preparations to head back out with our gear for a final 2 day skirmish around the
Southern part of the Flamingo Route.
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Flamingo Route - Northern Section Part II.
25Km.
Start Point: Dreilander See
End Point: Dreilander See
Circular Route incorporating Epe and Gronau
Day 2 of our tour began early with a Cloggy made breakfast of bacon and eggs. The cooking facilities were a bit basic but the food was tasty none the less.
As the Dreilander See is such a nice area we decided to spend an extra night at the camping site there. There are 2 sanded beach area's, 1 of which has an extensive playground. Multiple
terraces, cafes and restaurants where you can order anything from a cup of black coffee to a 4 course meal. A pier and boat ramp. Pedalo's and canoes were also available for rent. All is a woodland
setting and the lake has a well maintained walking/bicycle path surrounding it.
One word of warning though, if you are cycling and camping ensure that you take all necessary provisions with you as there are no food stores.
The first half of the route took us through the countryside and the Ruenberger Venn Nature Reserve..
The second half of the route took us through the towns of Epe and Gronau. Epe was a sleepy sort of place by that
I do not mean that it was quiet, quite the opposite, what I mean is
that although there were plenty of people around no-body seemed to be in a hurry.
We cycled through the town centre and then took the route along the outskirts of the town through a well kept park following the river Dinkel towards Gronau.
On arrival in Gronau we were met by a small childrens farm, playground and community park. A bit of extra time was spent here because the Baby Cloggys insisted on petting the kid goats which I have
to admit were very cute.Gronau was formally involved in the 1890 boom period of the Textile industry. This is evident everywhere within the city by the number of old dis-used
factories.
Quite a lot of them have been transformed into tourist attractions such as the Pop and Rock Museam. The old infra-structure of the City is being tastfully modernised and work
complete so far gives a good indication of things to come.
Then it was a gentle cycle back to the campsite where the Baby Cloggys were given an ice cream treat for being such wonderful company all day.
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No Flamingo's sighted but we did see a few wild Storks!
Day One, 35km.
Don't be too alarmed about the lack of Flamingo's as they are only to be seen in the Southern half of the route. The Northern Route combines Nature Reserves and
Town Centers which are under-going urban re-generation programmes. It's a curious combination of complete opposites which makes the bicycle tour all the more worth while.
I'll try and explain ......
Start Point: Haaksbergen
End Point: Dreilander See
The route we took was not strictly the one dicated in the book mainly because I was in charge of the map reading. The most important part that
you need to know about that is that we got where we were wanting to go!
The route began in Haaksbergen and took us to Galgenbuiten, which was too far so we turned around and and headed back to Het Markslag. There we cycled through the Witteveen which is basically a
gorgeous Marshland nature reserve full of shaggy cows.
There after we cycled through a country garden 'gebeit' that Alan Titchmarsh could only dream off - Duiven Goor.
It was, as we cycled along Spechtholtshoek, that we saw the wild Storks. Cloggy was very excited as apparently Storks are not very common in the
Netherlands.
Thereafter was a quick sprint to the Dreilander See to set up camp before the heavens opened. I am still in awe about how much crap you can secure
on the back of 4 bicycles!
Day 2 to follow.
This was more of a cycle through the cities.
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However ....... The BIGGEST indicator that its the end of the Summer is that Pre-Season Hockey Training has begun!
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