Nijmegen, Netherlands

As many of you may know, Nick has been involved with the Royal Australian Air Force as a Reservist. As such, he has been a military participant the in the Four Day Marches which are held in Nijmegen, The Netherlands every July. The Dutch have a quaint organisation that governs “Road Marching” and there is even an International Marching League! Who’d have thought it! Anyway, the Four-Day (or Vierdaagse, in Dutch) takes place over 4 days every July and has continued uninterrupted since 1909 (excluding wartime). This year was the 97^th Four-Day March and everyone is getting excited about the 100^th in 2016.

Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself. There are four category of entries – 30km, 40km, 40km (Military) and 50km, which means that over 4 days, you walk either 120km, 160km or 200km. The category you enter depends on age, gender, and level of stupidity. If you enter the Military category, then you are required to carry 10kg of weight for the entire duration. Once you have turned 50, then you don’t have to carry the pack. Nick has marched 3 times with the pack and 3 times without the pack. Surprisingly, he prefers it without the pack!

As a military entrant, he can arrange to stay on Kamp Heumensoord which is administered by the Dutch Military. They feed you 3 times a day, make sure you get up in time to step off each day, you can access first aid support and have the opportunity to mingle with like-minded military types from all over the world. There are large contingents from Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, UK and Canada and then there are the smaller groups who stay in the section called “Small Contingents”. That is where the Aussies stay when they march and you can find yourself in a room of Americans, or a mixture of Belgians & Italians, you never know what you will encounter. We have met new people every year and made news friends with walkers from Austria, Italy, USA & UK. The staff at Small Contingents return every year (with a few minor changes) but when you turn up, you are greeted like an old friend.

After 4 days of being woken up at the ungodly hour of 3am, so that you can dress and have breakfast, and then prepare for the march for that day, (on Day 4, you get woken up one hour earlier!), you can step off (as an individual) at 4:30am. Is it sounding like fun yet? Each day, as you walk around the route, there are a couple of rest stops for military walkers and then there are literally 100s of people all along the route who hand out lollies or salty crackers, there will be groups who hand out fruit and drinks, or even stress-balls, so that your hands don’t get swollen! The military walkers walk in their work uniform (camouflage) and have to wear boots. Civilian walkers can wear whatever they want – we’ve seen people walking in wooden clogs! Anyway, your feet swell and you get hot spots, blisters, heat rash… and tomorrow you can do it all over again! Is it sounding fun yet?

BUT, at the end of 4 days of torture, when you are successful, you are given a medal. Everyone gets the same sort of medal – the only difference depends on how many times you have completed the Vierdaagse. We know people who only do it once, who have done it 5 times, 25 times, 38 times. I believe the record for the most walks by a single person is 62 times!! Nick has successfully earned his medal for his 6^th Vierdaagse and I think that he is more proud of that medal than any of the medals he earned from either the Defence or Fire Brigade. He certainly worked harder!!

And while Nick was enjoying his nice amble around the Dutch countryside, what was MJ up to? I was staying at a campground about 10kms from Nijmegen. I had some lovely neighbours from the UK with more Aussies as their guests – Robin & Linda Van Geene with Doug & Di Townsend. Though life wasn’t all beer & skittles for us – Robin & Doug were also walking the Four-Days Marches, but in the “Old *****” category, which meant that they were only walking 30kms each day. We (the girls) had to tend to these poor footsore old men – by providing lovingly prepared meals, cold beers, scintillating conversations, medical aid to deal with sore feet and generally being at their beck & call!!

We had one day on the route (Day 2) but even then, we had to work! I stood on the side of the road, holding two bowls which we kept filled with TUC biscuits and/or lollies and held them out so that walkers could grab a handful as they went past. We also yelled out encouragement to the military walkers, especially the individual walkers. It was amazing how many people went past – you had to be fast on your feet because sometimes, they would be concentrating so much on the walk that they wouldn’t see you and would almost run you down (so to speak). On the last day (Day 4), we went into town to take up our position in the grandstands so that we could see our respective husbands cross the line and also many friends. Again, we were yelling encouragement to people who looked like they were just ready to lay down and die!! I am always amazing at how many of these people come back year after year! You would see whole families walking together – from Oma & Opa down to the youngest eligible grandchild (14 years). There was even one old guy who had a young lad walking with him and holding a sign that said the old man was a Finnish veteran of World War 2 – he was STILL walking and finished the 4-Day Marches!

But now, we have completed another event. Nick “says” that it will be his last – we’ll see… But now our son Tyson is talking about walking next year for his 3^rd time, so we may be back – but ONLY as supporters!!