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Published: November 1st 2013
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What a day.
8:30am departure, good job. I was eyeing a bakery in the neighborhood corner. I think we have time to sit down for a cup of coffee and food. According to my homework, we should be taking 9:40 train to be in Wierum by 1pm. This will give us ample margin for missed train and what not, and ensure that we make 3pm mud walk meeting time. Except! Food didn't come until 9! Vinh’s quiche and my homemade jam with biscuit were of quality - fitting for their high-tea offering in the afternoon. Unfortunately, we had to go. We also had to make a quick stop at a supermarket for the road and 4-hr mud walk. Adding to a tiny pressure of time of because of it, train station just couldn’t be found. It seemed like we were circling the same place. We were really cutting close to the train time and my stress level was off the roof!! Walking faster, asking people, finally saw it, yes!! Phew, we made it on the train.
The first connection was 1hr later in Zwollen. Another 1hour to Leeuwarden got us to Dokkam. So far so good. From
there, we caught a bus #50 to Dokkam bus station. Although the name is identical, it was a good 30min bus ride across town. When we got on a bus, our final destination of Wierum. The bus driver was kind enough to check our connection in Dokkam but told us something peculiar. He said our next connection of #669 won't be running. Instead, take 52 at 2:45p. 2:45?! We won't make it! Is he on crack?? I checked it on 511.org-like site. Let’s hope he was wrong and see what Dokkam bus station brings us…nada. Dokkam station was a tiny depot in a boonies. Nothing around. We looked around. Info window is shut. There was #52 but nobody inside. Found time table. One for 669 was there, see. Hmm, 52 has 12:45 bus? But doesn't say Wierum. At that moment, a bus was passing by us...52! It was 12:45. Nooo! 12:50 rolled around when a 669 was supposed to leave here. Nada. Something is definitely wrong. Drivers of buses that were pulling into depot were disappearing quickly into thin air but we managed to find one. She confirmed #52 is it. But but but, see my itinerary? 669! She took
a second look at it and finally gave us the missing piece. 669 is an opstepper, which means hired taxi!! We had to reserve it by phone. And the number beside it was the 800 number! O M G!
I was pretty much in panic mode. Not making to Wierum was flashing in front of me. We came all this way. My cell phone looked dead. Later I found to be alive. That’s how lost I was. In this day and age, the idea of public phone shouldn't even cross my mind. But I had no other option. I asked around. A cafe guy at the depot pointed to a supermarket. I'm sure I was running like I stole something. In the store, perhaps I looked so desperate, a store lady called the number for me from the service counter. We needed 13:50 bus, no buts. That'll put us in Wierum at 2:30p. But the reservation had to be done at least 1hr ahead. It was 50min to 13:50. Oh c'mon! At that point, I was begging the operator. He gave it to us, woohoo! He said next time, 1hr ahead. Yes yes, will do! Still somewhat skeptical
after all this. But I was out of idea should 13:50 ride not show up.
At 13:50 sharp, a shiny black cab showed up. That's it!! For 4euro p.p., we were off to Wierum through narrow farm roads. Where are we going?! The driver was very friendly with her broken English. She asked me if we were returning to China after this, lol. After ~20min ride, we got to a stop. This is it?! I recognized the name of the café at the stop, our meeting point for wadlopen. It was 2p. Yes!! We made it!! Since we were early, we opted to scope out the area but there was nothing!! A few 100 yd walk came to the end of Wierum. Well, ok. At the meeting point, people were starting to show up in shorts and converse. A van full of tour unloaded a bunch too. Looks like we were the only bad a**es that reached here with public transportation, rrrraw. 3pm rolled around. Where is the organizer? Finally spotted a lady who was checking people in. Good thing we asked her where we can put our stuff during the walk. She kindly offered her car. And
since they decided to start the walk a short drive down the street, she totally took care of us. I guess they expected everyone to drive there. It was drizzling and sprinkling for some time on top of the dropped temperature due to lack of sunlight. All I could think of was being wet for 4hrs in cold. Is that really possible?
A short drive took us to an alternate start point. It was still drizzling. To be honest, I was dragging getting muddy at that moment. It was groom and cold. And my split toe nail was wide open for anything to get in. With some uncertainties in my mind, the group took off…into mud! Over the barbed wire fence, we reached heavy heavy mud; the kind that sucks your shoes in. Mud got softer and my feet sunk deeper. I had to be careful not to get tipped over for stuck foot…doh! I landed on a hand. I wasn’t expecting nothing less out of myself. I don’t know how everybody else was cruising through it. In no time, I was sweeping the tail end of the group.
Some nerve-wrecking distance later, mud gradually turned into deeper
water, cold water. From ankle-high to knee-high, then weist-high, ahhh! That was heartbeat-stoppingly cold! Really, how was I going to make it back?! I was still training the tail end. Saved by occasional re-grouping stops, feeling pretty helpless. There were first-timers and repeat-offenders. Repeat-offender man was chatty and fast. I could barely pay attention to talking since I had to focus hard on walking. Pro!
Gradually, water became shallower and the ground became more gravel than mud. Much easier to walk on. Suddenly, I saw an amazingly scenery when I looked around. O M G! Water had become so thin, just enough to cover the surface, leading all the way to the horizon. All I saw was the sky reflecting perfectly in front of me. I felt like I was standing in the sky. Absolutely gorgeous!!! This made it all worth it. It had been a long journey to Wierum but I’m so glad we followed through it!!!
Now I really had no idea how I was going to make it back. The thought of another dip in cold water was making me shiver, brrr. But the guide took us through a different route and we stayed more-or-less
in the shallow water. We made it through the last hurrah at the shore where we had to cross the deep mud before land. Evelyn who took care of us at the start came from, of all places, Utrecht! This was a crazy coincidence. She recently moved to Utrecht which is a good 2-hr drive. We decided to stay in Utrecht since we wouldn’t have made the last train to Brussels. After rinsing the mud off and changing into dry cloth, some of us went back to the café for dinner. We were starving since lunch didn’t make the priority list in the earlier debacle. A café in the town of few hundred(?) was super rustic and cozy, and served hearty meal. Beer went down smooth and warm soup was so soothing. Ummm, warmth 😊. At ~9pm, our last bus was long gone and Evelyn took us back to Utrecht. She was a trooper and drove us all the way while we couldn’t help ourselves from passing out. She could’ve easily dropped us off at one of the transfer train stations. Thank you so so so much! We were so beat by the time we reached our lodging but hot
shower was fantastic. My nail was in tact too 😊
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