Christmas Holiday, Lauwersoog

After our stay at the island of Texel we wanted to drive to Germany and stay there until the new-year. On the way over to Germany we stopped at a camping site in Lauwersoog.
We arrived there when it was almost dark so we enjoyed a peaceful first night there and the next day we went for a walk in the neighbourhood.

The walk lead us through beautiful surrounding. Although it was a very cold day, but since the sun was shining it was overall a very pleasant day.

At one point there was a look-out tower, and when the boys see stairs they want to climb them so here a picture of them upstairs.

With this cold weather the dogs are very thirsty and here they are looking for water underneath the ice.

Here you can see us relaxing on a bench before we continued with the walk.

Christmas Holiday, Texel

On Monday we took our motor-home to enjoy a holiday, we first went to Texel, one of the islands in the North of the Netherlands, where we've been before and that we like a lot.
When we arrived the dogs needed to investigate the environment.

We immediately went to the beach that is very close-by the site that we were staying at. It was already starting to get dark when we arrived at the beach.

We stayed a mid-week on Texel. We took the bikes for a tour around the island three times. The first time we took the doggy-rides with us and we drove to the North part of the island.

On the way we stopped a couple of times to find a cache. One of the caches was hidden on a small airport.

Another was hidden near the station of the rescue people.

And the target of that day was a cache near a beautiful lighthouse.

We had a week with a lot of sun, but overall it was very cold, but that doesn't seem to harm the boys.

On Christmas day we took the bikes without the doggy-rides to ride to two earth caches not to far from where we were staying. The dogs walked beside the bicycles the whole part.
The areas were very beautiful. Here we are standing at a look-out point of one of the earth caches.

We walked along the dunes towards another earth cache located on the highest dune of the island.

On the way back we walked along the beach, which is always a lot of fun. Toby ran towards the sea and looks back where we are staying.

Both doggies running towards the sea.

A movie that shows the fun we had at the beach.

On Boxing day we took the bikes again to go for an almost 30 KM ride to the South of the island. Again a beautiful sunny day.

I created a trip where we had a stop every 3 or 4 Km. The boys walked all by them selves.

A lovely piece of nature where our favorite cattle walk loose and we had to pass by them on very short distances. Rather impressive, sunny, but cold, what a blessed people we are.

Another stop at a nice church.

And after a day full of activity what's better than to relax in the motor home.

Christmas Holiday, first weekend

Friday December 19th was the last working day of the year 2008. We had a two week holiday. The first weekend we stayed at home but we did go out for a couple of geocaches.
On Saturday we went for a couple of the chapel caches that are of a series of 7.
The second of the series in Steensel.

It let us to a short walk in a peaceful environment.

The third of the series in Knegsel.
Again starting at a chapel, let us through a forest, and we finished this one when it was starting to get dark.

On Sunday we went to Belgium for a nice walk in a forest.

Always good to be able to run for free in a forest.

We could find the cache as you can see on the next picture.

Staying over

Saturday we had a party at Safaripark Beekse Bergen organized by my employer. It was including a stay-over in a safari bungalow. For this reason the doggies went to stay at a friends Bearded Collie hotel.
When we were awake this morning we went for a cache that is located beside the Safari Park.

The first time without the dogs. It felt a little strange walking in a forest without them.
We passed by the gate of the safari park, but didn't spot a lot of the animals inside.

At one point a couple of reindeer came to take a look at us. We named the one closest to the gate Rudolph.

When we picked up the boys, we decided to go to a nearby earth cache and make a little stroll in the beautiful town Valkenburg, a town complete in Christmas atmosphere.

Our friend got a present that we really liked, a Christmas stocking with a bearded collie on it, that looks a lot like Toby.

Happy Birthday Brego

Today Brego became 2 years old. Hip Hip Hooray. To celebrate this happy occasion I made a cake that the boys could eat. Here's the cake.

Here Toby and Brego are waiting for the cutting of the cake.

Here a movie of them both enjoying the cake.

Brego eating his piece.

Toby eating his piece.

So probably tomorrow they won't eat anything after this happy meal.

Reli Caching Weekend - Sunday

And today we continued with our religious caching weekend with a twist.
We visited a small village called Riethoven, just a couple of Km's away from home.
We did three caches, one 1 KM walk in the BraamBosch.

Here a pose after the cache has been found before going to the next one.

The second cache one near a little chapel, that contained a walk of about 1 KM through a little forest.

And then finally a 8 Km walk that led us through forest and meadows, the area is called "Huisven".

The dogs enjoyed this long walk and we as well.

More geocaching details can be found here.

Reli Caching Weekend - Saturday

This weekend we did a couple of caches with a religious theme. Nothing to serious but with a little twist.
On Saturday we did the pilgrimage cache, it is one of the most popular and appreciated caches in the Netherlands. The cache started at a little chapel.

While on our way to the parking spot, we passed by a shepherd that was herding sheep with two border collies. Toby and I trained with sheep when he was a youngster, so we always enjoy watching the pros.

It was a 7 KM walk in a beautiful area called "De Pan"

We parked our car and we let the dogs run free, on this picture Toby is checking out what dog went before us.

Brego is looking where we are staying.

While Rob is picking up the box with leaflets that contained the tasks we had to fulfill.

Brego is chewing on a stick, waiting for us to continue.

The rest of the trip brought us to very nice spots.

Forest and marshes....

A very strange tree, fallen against another one.

More creeks....

And moor, to bad the shepherd moved the herd to another location.

We were busy for four hours with this adventure, but we found what we were looking for so in the evening a well deserved rest to recover from this adventure.
More specific geocaching details you can find here.