DAY 1 – Feb 6th 2025
It’s been 2,5 weeks since I left Leiden – my friends and family waving goodbye after we’ve spent 1,5 hr packing my tuktuk in a way so not everything would fly off. Suitcases on the roof, Nepalese ‘luck’ flags knotted around the sides and sheep wool on the driver’s seat. My friends Noor & Huug joined me on the start of a trip that will probably take at least 6 months. They’ll join me for 2 days. The sun is out, we have choco with rum & our ski outfit packed. We’re ready to go!
We end up in a town called ‘Noorden’, but slowly get further east to where we want to go. 10KM before we reach Garderen, the exhaust pipe breaks. Timing! We feel like hot chocolate, so continue to Garderen, where a friend is so nice as to let us use his summer cabin. We enjoy a ‘borrelplank’ (of course), hot chocolate with rum and each other’s company.
DAY 2 – Feb 7th 2025
The next morning we continue to a garage, where they’re so nice to weld our exhaust pipe back on. “Should be good until Pakistan now” – awesome!! The owner asks his younger employees how they can watch my videos on big screen in their canteen, so they can follow my journey. How nice!! Love it.
We make our way to Huugs friends, meet two of my friends on the way and then just before we reach ‘Ambt-Delden’ smoke starts coming out of our engine. Nothing my tuk can’t handle though; we wait for 5 minutes, put some extra coolant in and make our way to our friends, who we’re meeting this weekend for a weekend of with the ‘Harde Werkers’ – my freelancer-office-mates.
DAY 4 – Feb 9th 2025 (sun)
After spending a lovely weekend with my Harde Werkers crew, I continue on my own. It feels like my trip has now really started. From now on, I won’t see my friends (except for the ones joining me of course) and have to organise everything myself. I sing along with the songs on my phone while driving south to Zieuwent. Here I want to look at my brakes, that are not really functioning well.
I meet Riet & Reinier and their huge, but lovely dogs. Two lovely people who are building hop in their garden, amongst many other things they do. Despite the limited room they have due to a big renovation of their house, they offer me to sleep on their couch, dinner and help fixing my tuk! Also their neighbour Edward turns out to be great – he happens to own 104 oldtimer cars haha. It turns out my brake cylinder is leak, so I order. a new one the next day.
I explore Zieuwent, the church paths, ‘talking pole’ and one cafe that’s open and wait till I can pick it up on Tuesday and manage to fix it. Oja, my mom also shows up with my ‘front doors’ – as she was still finishing those.
DAY 6 – Feb 11th 2025 (Tue)
I continue my way to Voerden – where unfortunately I don’t show up. Right from the moment I leave, the tuk is acting weird. Farting all the time, no power, then turbo’ing its way forward. I manage to make it 30km until my tuk really doesn’t do anything anymore. But hey! I’m in Germany!! Made it to my first country!!
At the moment my tuk really gives up on me, I’m standing 100m from a cow farm. A kind man offers his help and helps me to push my tuk to the farm. When I ring the bell, Josef can’t believe what he sees. He invites me in and him and his wife Veronica are so kind as to offer me a sausage and coffee. We talk all night (in German – I should have paid more attention back in school though) and Josef calls the entire family and tell them with a big big smile who just walked in. “A Dutch girl, traveling in a tuktuk, on her way to – can’t stop laughing – Pakistan.” Haha – the talk of the day.
I park my tuk between the cows, but they won’t let me sleep in it “it’s too cold! We have a bed for you”.
The next morning at 5.50 AM I meet them for coffee. They have my over-all ready: we’re going to milk some cows! They have over 70 and they need to be milked twice a day. Who thought I’d be milking cows at 6AM?! Haha, I love it!! I also meet their son, who will be taking over the farm in the future. Their situation is a bit insecure, as the municipality owns the land and both the city and the industry are closing in on them. So they’ll have to see how long they can continue their family farm, that’s been there for many many years.
I spend all day trying to fix my tuk and then finally – SHE STARTS! Wooohooo!! I drive to Voerden, where I meet Andrea, who’s hosting me tonight.
DAY 7 – Arriving in Cologne!
(Feb 12th 2025 (Wed))
After waking up in snow, then meeting her neighbor who builds old timers himself I’m on my way again. The goal is to make it to Cologne today. It’s a long 110km ride that I split up in 3x35km. Despite my ski outfit but thanks to my paladiums my feet freeze! After hot chocolate , lunch and my feet on the heater I continue for my last 30km to Cologne.
Just before I get there, my tuk starts giving up on me. The gears don’t shift, the lights don’t work, and the exhaust pipe has broken again – for the third time in 5 days! Wow. Haha. After taking a photo with the iconic church De Dom I make my way to Joey, who I’ve met in Corsica and who’s hosting me tonight.
AND THEN….
The next morning I wake up feeling a little shit. Again I have to think about how to fix things rather than about where to chill and when to go to my next stop. I manage to fix the exhaust pipe again, but feel a little tired of having to work on fixing things for pretty much 5 hrs a day. Pia & Fred -again, 2 people i’d never met before -take me in for 4 nights, help me with my tuk and then I decide I have to go back to properly fix everything. Too much is wrong at the moment so it’s time to take a very good look and fix stuff with new parts from Thailand. Friends at garage Schoot in Oosterbeek offer me to work in their garage there, so they can guide me while I fix everything.
One step back…two forward! .
One response
Das TUK TUK aus den Niederlanden mit der tollen Abenteuerin, habe ich heute auf einem Parkplatz im Westerwald gesehen. Ich war sofort von der Aufmachung, für alles gerüstet, und den Farben verzaubert. Bin ich doch öfters selbst im Urlaub Sri Lanka oder Thailand so unterwegs gewesen. Von den Niederlanden nach Pakistan geht die Reise. Ich wünsche eine tolle Reise und habe mich gefreut, dass wir ins Gespräch kamen. Tschüss Ulli