Schokland and Surroundings and Veenhuizen

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Schokland and Surroundings

   Schokland was once an island in the Zuiderzee, a long, narrow strip of peat and clay surrounded by an inland sea that constantly threatened to swallow it. For centuries, its inhabitants lived on raised mounds and fought a losing battle against the water, as storms ate away at the island's edges. By the mid-nineteenth century, life had become so precarious that in 1859 the Dutch government ordered the island to be evacuated. Then, in the twentieth century, the Dutch did something extraordinary: they enclosed the Zuiderzee with a dam, the Afsluitdijk, completed in 1932, and drained large parts of it to create new land. The Noordoostpolder, drained in 1942, swallowed Schokland, and the former island now rises slightly above the surrounding fields, a long green ridge in a flat landscape of farmland. In 1995, Schokland became the first Dutch site to be listed by UNESCO, as a symbol of the Netherlands' heroic struggle against the water.

   Read the complete Schokland and Surroundings write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Schokland and Surroundings is where the day begins. Next is Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal, 37 km on.

2. 2. Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal

   The Netherlands has always had to fight water, and Friesland's battle was won in part by a single building on the shore of the IJsselmeer near Lemmer. The Ir. D.F. Woudagemaal, a steam pumping station opened in 1920, is the largest steam-driven pumping station ever built that is still in working order, and it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. When the water in Friesland's canals and lakes rises too high, the old steam engines can still be fired up to pump it out.

   Read the complete Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord.

3. 3. Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord

   In 1818, after years of war, famine and poverty, a former general named Johannes van den Bosch founded the Society of Benevolence in the Netherlands, with a radical idea: to take poor families from the cities and give them a new life as farmers in the empty heathlands of the north east. The first colony was established at Frederiksoord, in the south of Drenthe, and others followed at Wilhelminaoord, Willemsoord, Veenhuizen and elsewhere. Each family was given a small house, a plot of land and training in farming, and children were educated in schools, an unusual provision for the time. The Colonies of Benevolence, in the Netherlands and Belgium, were listed by UNESCO in 2021.

   Read the complete Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 85 km into the recorded legs you reach Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord. Next is Veenhuizen.

4. 4. Veenhuizen

   Veenhuizen does not look like a prison town at first. It looks like an orderly village in the flat green countryside of Drenthe, with long avenues of trees, neat brick buildings, canals and fields. But read the inscriptions on the gables, with mottos like "Werken is zalig", work is blessed, and the history starts to show. In 1818, a philanthropic organisation called the Society of Benevolence, founded by General Johannes van den Bosch, began establishing colonies in the poor, empty peatlands of the northern Netherlands, where poor families from the cities could be resettled and taught to farm. Veenhuizen became a colony for orphans, beggars and vagrants, and over time it turned into a state institution, and then into a prison village.

   Read the complete Veenhuizen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Veenhuizen, about halfway. Next is back through Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord.

5. 5. back through Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord sits at 148 km, about halfway. Next is back through Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal, 37 km on.

6. 6. back through Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal comes up about 207 km into the recorded legs. Next is Schokland and Surroundings.

7. 7. Schokland and Surroundings

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Schokland and Surroundings write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Schokland and Surroundings closes the day.