Days 5-7
Day 5 and Janny was still with me. We walked across the moorlands with heather and grasses, Scottish highland cattle grazing, cool and overcast. There have been fires here, I think last summer, so much clearing of burnt trees has gone on & the trail has changed somewhat. It is another day of opening & closing gates. There are many small birds flittering and tweeting, robins, finches and what looks like a tree creeper. The Douglas Fir trees have bright green tips. The mosses in the forest are deep, thick and spongey. Tonight I stay at Pension Boerenkamp, near Someren Heide, where Janny and I have dinner before she goes home with her sister Venna. A lovely 3 days of walking together. The farm I am staying at won the award for most productive dairy farm in the EU for 2014. Around 125 cows, living in a barn, milked 3 times a day and everything automated. Amazing
Day 6 Someren - Weert 23km+ 3.5
The cooing doves wake me for a breakfast of omelette and fresh strawberries, bread, cheese & coffee.  The path is quiet today, muddy sandy paths but warm sunshine. The frogs are really kicking up a chorus as I walk thru marshland and beside waterways. I see a buzzard fly out of the forest ahead of me. Lots of little birds & the silence of the forest is broken only by their song. I see a deer ahead of me on the path but do not get close before it bounds away into the long grass in the forest. Entering Weert I cross Sluis 16, before taking the 3.5km detour to my accommodation with the Bridgettine Sisters in the town centre. I am the only pilgrim and only 1 other guest.
Day 7 Weert - Ophoven 3.5 + 33.5km
It is a long and arduous day, mostly on paved roads but also shady which is great compensation. Saturday in the Netherlands and there are many groups of runners, cyclists, walkers all going fast. The Nordic walking group has the poles click clacking as they pass by. At one stage a Rottweiler gets too friendly and knocks my sunglasses off. He is not on a leash & his owner can't control him. I pass through several small villages but nothing is open. In the town of Thorn everything is open. A small village with white painted buildings. Between Thorn & the next village of Kessenich I cross the border into Belgium but by days end I am back in Holland where I stay at the Sail Centre in Ophoven. The marina on one side and the Maas river on the other.