Spring in the valleys of noise

Spring is alovely season we like to enjoy as often as possible, preferably in as many locations as possible. Yesterday we took a walk in the surroundings of the village of Asperen, near the river Linge. Asperen is a pretty little town, with a beautiful medieval church and stately houses. It reminds me of the town of my youth hero Swiebertje. Possibly very boring, but a nice break from my beloved but perrenially dirty and chaotic Amsterdam

Polder scene below Linge dike

Though winter was pleasant enough, it's great to be able to walk without a coat on, smell the land that has been broken open by ploughs and covered in manure. The trees are full of blossom and hum with the sound of the many bees seeing to it that we'll have cherries and apples in a couple of months.

Blossom and bees, root of all live

How well folks live in these parts, plenty of space and fresh air, contact with nature and it's quiet. Many people like us go there to flee the masses in the city for a couple of hours. They go there for walking, fishing, hiking, rowing or cycling. You can watch birds or simply picknick and nap and forget about the daily ratrace a bit.

The river Linge is contained by pretty meandering dikes

One hears the sounds of many birds, some nice and beautiful, others less so. Especially geese seem to be in a constant state of hysterical agitation in this season of mating and breeding. After a while one becomes aware of a droning sound coming near. This sound is not organic but mechanical and with a pang of dissapointent one is reminded that motor riders seem to enjoy riding along river dikes as much as all other natural environments. Yesterday we mostly saw pairs, but they are scouts, reconnoitring the territory. Soon they will be back in throngs like wild rats.

Heralds of a noisy summer

Since a couple of decades, motor riding has seen a staggering rise in popularity. Marketing techniques have succesfullly appealed to a broad class of people. Not only guys in midlife crises saw a way out of the drag of their lives of an office clerk or a sales rep in the persona of the lone, leather clad, individualist biker. People from all age groups and both sexes enjoy biking, which wouldn't be a problem at all, if they would have stick to the individualist part of the image. But most people prefer to flock in herds and that's why it's not unusual to encounter many groups of up to 100 motorcycles celebrating their individualism en masse, waving a banner of engine sound as long as kilomtres through the landscape.

The animals who inspired the motorized herds

Though I like the sound of -an individual- Harley Davidson pan head every now and then, I think many will agree that stumbling across large groups of bikers in the last beautiful and relatively empty and quiet spots of our small country, is just wrong. Of all the ways of enjoying leisure time in a natural environment, theirs is spoiling it for all others because of their horrible noise. Which doens't mean the Baskadiyarlar team approves of jet ski's.

That's why I think there should be laws banning motor groups bigger than 2 from the last spots in our country where people seek some peace and quiet. Maybe there could a exception for one sunday afternoon in the month, but the present situation should definitely change. I invite all readers to think about a solution to this problem. Maybe electric bikes, om which the riders can hear the roar of a Harley on their headphones. I'm sure the Chinese can come up with such a thing in no time. They have their noise, be it privately to themselves, the others have less noise for better enjoyment. Everybody happy!

A frog swingers club in full swing

Those bikers miss out on a lot of details, spring has such funny scenes, about procreation, life and death, some pretty horny.

Frog contemplating the fruits of his tireless shagging

The Baskadiyar-team wishes to state that none of the portrayed animals were killed by motorcycles.