Wednesday 5 September 2018

An adventure on Mars - no. 216




Today was... I don’t know how to explain it... unusual. Well, all of our adventures are unusual but that’s the only way I can explain it.

After taking the usual picture of myself showing the number 216, we continued in the direction of 217. A while later, Tonio told me that he was finding this place familiar. After about 2 more minutes of walking Tonio remembered that we were where we were in the last adventure. Then we saw the sign saying go left towards 215. But we weren’t supposed to go to 215, so we turned round and started walking the way we came. Then we reached a sign that said we were at 216 next to a broken log (by the way, that broken log was quite strange. Well, that’s the tree of the day!) 


But it wasn’t the same 216 we saw last time. That was near a river with somebody fishing. Then we realised that there were two signs saying 216. 

Starting again, at a second no. 216 pillar
We went towards 217 and moved on.

Into the field we went, with the usual trees in the distance and the green and yellow colours, in their own little farm space. We saw what looked like a giant pyramid of hay bales and it looked quite familiar to me. We then passed what looked like a fishing pole, which also looked familiar. I was trying to think why everything looked so familiar. Then it all clicked. We were doing the adventure 204 the other way round, the one where we had Sue as our special guest. We spotted the place we parked and I still remember that adventure quite well.


After that, we encountered our animal(s) of the day. Just after the familiar farm we passed, we saw a herd of cows. We walked up to them and we politely said hello but the cows didn’t show much interest. One kilometre later and we suddenly hear a faint ‘moo' in the distance. It sounded like a cow had finally become excited. I was just fascinated by how a cow could moo so loud.


Tonio was looking at the fields and said that this used to be the Martian landscape we were talking about a few adventures back. It now had lots of yellowish plants.



Then he proceeded to make a joke. He said that there was ‘life on mars'. Quite typical of him to make a joke or pun during an adventure.

Finally, we saw the car, went in it and drove home... did you enjoy our adventure today? If you have then make sure to join us on our next one. Also, make sure to check out Tonio's blog called The Wanderer. I will see you on the next adventure in Adventures In Dijleland!


GianlucaDeGringu 




"Looks like Toblerone", according to Gianluca. Quite appropriate, considering the field next to here used to look like Mars.


[by Tonio]:

We had a false start today. Two anomalies, in fact, one an error of ours and another error by the walking network maintenance team. We started at no. 216. Even before the beginning of the walk, I was taking pictures...


The light was good today, as was the thoroughly comfortable temperature, unlike the terrible heat of July and August.

The plan was to proceed to 217 and then 218, 205, 204, back to 217 and finally 216 again. As I said, conditions were pleasant and the path next to a spring picturesque and enjoyable.


Forest furniture from a fallen tree trunk

I then realised that a field and a large shed on our right were very familiar. A couple of minutes later we learned why. We had taken a wrong path, and were walking back to 215, in the opposite direction of our previous adventure! So we went all the way back to the start... well, almost, as we learned of the second anomaly. At the fallen tree trunk, where we should have turned to the right, the wooden post had no. 216 written on it, but it was not the same place where we had started at 216! There are two posts marked as 216, at two different places.

We set off again, correctly now along the planned route, to 217 etc. Again, the terrain was so familiar. This was a path that we had walked, also in the opposite direction, on a freezing Sunday afternoon last winter, with Sue as a special guest.



I stopped for a chat with a cow. A philosopher of few words. None, to be precise. If, at a certain stage in her life, she may have had an identity crisis, this should be over by now as someone made sure that she would have an identity. Her name is 8074, and is proudly displayed on a tag fixed to her ear.


It's fascinating how different the landscape looks in different seasons. In winter, we passed next to a frozen field, completely devoid of any vegetation. I had likened this to a martian landscape...


More or less the same field, in late summer, looks so different...


I decided to call this, now, "Life on Mars", but Gianluca was far from impressed by my wit!