Over 40 km of eating, eating, eating. A varied running tour along castles, monasteries, closed cafeterias and supermarkets.
Previous stage: Swalmen-Roermond
Spargel? I saw signs with this word everywhere. Perhaps I was still a little tired, because I couldn't immediately identify it. As a running fanatic, I already thought of Spar gel, very cheap running food and much more. Until I saw the asparagus harvesters in the fields. Yes, so close to the German border, they only advertise in that language.
Again this was a day that I really felt like running. The whole busride from Swalmen to Herkenbosch, about an hour, I was wagging my tail to continue. Thursday's stage was really too short. To be honest, this urge was a bit unexpected. I had had a very bad night because my blood sugars started to spike, then they dropped really fast in the middle of the night, and they went up again shortly after that. My body was a bit out of whack and lack of sleep is the unavoidable result.
Due to the long journey to the start, I took a rather fatal decision in the morning and injected a normal amount of insulin. Once I arrived at Meinweg, a national nature park with the adder as symbol, the blood sugar had already collapsed to below 4. So I could start by eating a nougat cube in addition to my dose of Ucan. Or should I have opted for the ‘Spargel’...
Snakes
My route didn't quite start at the same time as the official route of the Maas-Niederrheinpad. For the distance I would have liked to start a bit further on, but that was quite difficult with public transport. So I made a small loop along national park Meinweg and castle Dalenbroeck because I found those parts so interesting in the booklet.
Secretly I hoped to see the symbol of Meinweg: the adder. Within the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee it is a kind of badge of honor if you post a picture of a snake. The chances of finding a snake in the Netherlands are very slim (if you don't know where to look), but according to the route book, Meinweg would be a good place to start. Unfortunately my loop turned out to be just a bit too short to reach the real heathland.
I did pass through a swamp, where I got my first wet feet of the holiday. Again this day the temperature was high and the sun bright. And my blood sugar was borderlining, because I hadn't even run 3 km and I already needed extra food. Unfortunately it did so just before I reached the terrace of the castle – nowadays a hotel.
Shooting in silence
Sometimes you get surprised by what you see while running. At the exit of a bush – in the direction of an open field – I came across a signposted silence zone. That was already strange for such an open plain where the sound carries far. But stranger still, the meadow also appeared to be a shooting range whenever the red flag was waving. I hope they use a silencer.
Although on paper the route looked very nice, in practice there was a lot of asphalt. I had to follow long stretches of road and cycle path through vast farmlands with mainly grain, Spargel and horses. Not that it wasn't beautiful, the cornflowers and poppies made up for that, but it's not the surface I liked the most and the full sun made it all the more difficult.
Blood-letting
Although I didn't see a snake, I did have many companions along the way. Little birds with bright yellow markings, one bird even fluttered along like a butterfly, again the dark winged dragonflies, a squirrel. Except for snakes, there were also a lot of warning signs for badgers. But the more signs, the less chance you had of seeing them, it seemed.
If only they had put up signs for mosquitoes. At one point I came across some beautiful woodland with a babbling brook. Of course I wanted to stop to take a picture. But as soon as I slowed down, my legs were full of mosquitoes. And I was just a bit too slow in hitting them, causing the mosquitoes to disintegrate and leave red jets of my own blood on my calves. After I had to stop a couple of times because I was low again, my legs were almost orange from the blood mixed with sweat and sunburn; in the Middle Ages they would have thought this was a good solution for sore calves. In reality I luckily didn't have this calve problem all day, with or without bloodletting.
The fact that there were so many mosquitoes may have been partly due to the damp weather. I walked on until it was a little less mosquitoesy when the time had come for re-applying the sunscreen. The sweating was now so heavy that on the bench you could see exactly where I had been. And by now I started to crave a cold drink or ice cream again. And more food. Because the hypos went on and on. On to the next village.
Montfort
Beforehand, there were a few points on the route that strongly attracted my attention. The abbey of Sint Odiliënberg – which I could also see well from the bus – and the ruins of Montfort. You're either a romantic or you're not. I must have uknowingly passed by the latter, because I don't remember having seen anything about it.
I must say that I didn't like Montfort very much. It was the village where I wanted to score some food and drinks on a terrace. And according to Google Maps I would have enough choice for that, only about 100 meters from the trail there was a pub at a roundabout. It was closed. Just like the ice cream parlor opposite. And the next two terraces a few hundred meters further on were closed as well. This at a time when it normally should be crowded with lunching tourists.
In the end I took refuge in the Coop, with its bakery and chilled cola. I will not deny myself my snack. Although I admit that it is a bit difficult to eat without fork and dish, on a wall beside the parking lot.
Energy
Again I'm walking along a lovely little brook, the Vlootbeek. However, the view soon changed as in the distance I saw the impressive cooling towers of the Claus power plant that dominate the surroundings here. However impressive this power plant may look, it has been shut down for the past six years. It is a mainly gas-fired power station. A very clean fuel, but far too expensive next to the highly polluting brown coal that is mined in the opencast mines in Germany.
Via a little castle I now get to the larger lakes on the edge of the Meuse river. Now it's Roermond that dominates the skyline with its TV tower as a beacon. Fortunately, the city is getting closer, because again, I've finished my drinks. Satisfied and without really tired legs or cramps I enter the kiosk at the station. There I am immediately recognized as repeat offenderapparently my outfit was so conspicuous that the clerk had remembered me.
About the route: This day's route started with an extra loop around Herkenbosch; note that this loop includes a piece of farmland that I think was mistakenly seen as a path. In any case, I start approximately at the end of stage 15 (map 47) and walk towards Roermond via stages 16 and 17 (map 48-53) of the Maas-Niederrheinpad.
Because of the length of the story, I decided to break it up into five parts:
English (UK) 
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