We survived because the fire<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside us burned brighter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Than the fire around me<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua Graham<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  This morning I woke up at\n5:30 am, not by the sound of the alarm clock but by the singing of birds\noutside. It\u2019s the first morning of this year that they wake me up with their\nbeautiful songs, and I know spring is definitely on its way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  If I get woken up like\nthis there is not a lot that can hold me back from starting the day with a\nhappy feeling and a big smile upon my face. I like to turn over for a little\nwhile and let the day slowly take over the night. I think about what the day\nhas in store for me and again a smile appears upon my face. It\u2019s another Dutch\nPeakers Walking day.\n\nI know for certain that at this time, at least one\nother Peaker is awake. Not only awake but probably also done with her workout\nfor today. I can\u2019t think of any other Dutch Peaker that is more dedicated to\nthe program than our Miranda\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Miranda had a hip\nreplacement surgery in 2017. To make a long story short, the surgeon who did\nthe replacement messed up and she had to consult another surgeon. After that\ncame another surgery, in another hospital. She suffers from severe\nosteoarthritis in her knees, hips and back and now she\u2019s seeing a\nrheumatologist. And this lady is doing the program every single day. I applaud\nher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today this\nawesome lady is our host on our next walk. For the second time we are going to\nwalk in the region of Noord-Holland, the region where we had our first walk of\nthis year. This time Miranda takes us with her to IJmuiden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      IJmuiden actually has four harbours and can be\ncalled one of the largest sea harbours of the Netherlands. Only Rotterdam and\nAmsterdam have bigger harbours. For those of you who go to Scotland by boat,\nthe ferry to New Castle leaves from the harbour of IJmuiden. Additionally,\nIJmuiden is the biggest fishing harbour in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      When I nearly\napproached the place we would meet today I had to pass a very large industrial\narea and I wondered where on earth our walk was going to be. Not much later I was\nstanding in the middle of the dunes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Standing in the dunes we couldn\u2019t see the ferry in the harbour, but we\ndid see another large (well you can call it huge) cruise ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      Miranda told us that today\u2019s walk was aproximetly 15km (9.5 miles).\nShe didn\u2019t get the chance to walk it by herself, so we don\u2019t blame her (not at\nall) that 15km turned out to actually be 19km (11miles)! I hear some of you\nthink, how is that possible? Well, I can come up with a lot of excuses but I\nwon\u2019t. We simply had to walk back and forth a few times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I refuse to start the\ndiscussion whether women are worse roadmap readers then men, for the simple\nreason that sometimes roads on maps are not what they look like in real life.\nAnd second, I do know a man, and I won\u2019t call any names (starts with an S and\nends on AM), who can\u2019t read maps either, and eventually end up on an American\nAir Force Base without any ID. At least we ended up with some nice firemen!\n(More on that in a bit.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Anyway we did\na little back and forth on our walk, but who cares? The sun was shining, the\ncompany great and the surroundings were beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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        Or as our\nfresh Peaker Marit looked at the situation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \u201cI now understand how you get people to break grounds. You just let\nthem walk back and forth. They have to come along with you, they have no\nchoice, and in the end you tell them they break their grounds\u201d. That\u2019s what she\nsaid with a big smile on her face, and she had every right to. She really was\nbreaking her own grounds by walking 19km. Her longest walk previously was about\n11km (6 miles). Marrit, we are so proud of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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         Today I also talked and walked with Marjolein.\nMarjolein works for a very large insurance company as an account executive for\ncorporations. I talked to her about occupational hazard.\nFor example, as a teacher, I always got distracted by schools, schoolbuildings,\nchildren playing, etc. I think everybody who loves his or her job does that,\naware or unaware. Marjolein tells me that whenever she\u2019s abroad she\nlooks at large buildings, considering at what rate they could be insured. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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          Jeanette is a hairdresser and as we pass by some hairdressers she\nhad to look into the shop window to look what products they sell. You see,\neverybody has occupational hazards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

           There is a Dutch saying; het venijn zit in de staart (the devil is in the detail). As we saw the end of the walk approaching we had a little discussion whether to walk back through the dunes to get to the cars or just follow the road. It was hot, and because of the back and forth walking some of us were done with walking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          As we were deciding what to do we saw smoke coming out of the dunes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            Talking about\noccupational hazards, Marjolein and Jeanette immediately walked over to where\nthe fire was, working to put out the fire with some water they had, and\nstomping on it with their feet. In the meantime, the fire brigade was called\nand although we told them the fire was over, they came anyway to check if the\nfire was definitely out. Never a dull moment walking with Dutch Peakers! These\nare the moments you will never forget. It\u2019s the fire inside us that kept us\ngoing today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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              Met dank aan Ellen Overman, Marjolein Kuijvenhoven en Miranda van Dam voor de foto’s<\/em><\/p>\n

              <\/p>

              <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              We survived because the fire Inside us burned brighter Than the fire around me Joshua Graham This morning I woke up at 5:30 am, not by the sound of the alarm clock but by the singing of birds outside. It\u2019s the first morning of this year that they wake me up with their beautiful songs, and I know spring is definitely on its way. If I get woken up like this there is not a lot that can hold me…<\/p>\n

              Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n