Makkum. Friesland

The reason for the move to last nights camp was actually so we could get an early start to cross the Afsluitdijk, being just 5kms from It. The wind is usually lighter first thing in the morning ,but today, no such luck! We could hear the wind during the night getting stronger so all we could hope for was that it wasn’t a direct head windNot too bad, a cross wind which just made it very difficult to steer . Especially when we came to the exposed places. The statue is of Cornelius Lely. The Dutch engineer who designed this incredible Dyke. It’s 33kms Long and in the middle we couldn’t see land at either end.The last gap was filled in 1932 ,10 years after it was started and replaced 600 kms of dyke around the Zuiderzee. A constant supply of rock from Germany, 100s of barges and tugs and a workforce of 1000’s

I’ve been over it before but you really need to bike over it to appreciate its immensity . The sea inside is now called the Ijselmeer and is fresh water ( which finished a lot of coastal fishing villages)When we reached the northern end,2 hours later ,the bridge was just opening to let 5 of these monsters through. What a beautiful sight.That’s a duck house in the centre of Makkum. After crossing the dyke we followed the coast of Ijselmeer to Makkum where I had booked a ‘chalet ?’Strange ! 8 chalets inside a huge building . Cute but after a while you felt like you were playing in a large cubby houseFriesland has beautiful towns. All seem to have canals and there are lots of these old Dutch sailing barges. This was the fleet returning ( all loaded with tourists and German school children) that we’d previously watched go out through the dyke