Not a day goes by for Dirk Dolfing without a hike to the top of the VAM mountain in Wijster. He has been climbing the 48 meter high waste mountain for 10 years. Dolfing keeps track of it: “I have ticked off three thousand climbs on the calendar. But you can add another five hundred to that.”
Every morning he drives from Beilen to the mountain by car. You can count on one hand the times he doesn’t go. “I don’t miss a day. I’m stubborn. If I can’t make it once, I’ll make up for it by walking in the evening or going up the mountain twice the next day.”
The trunk opens in the parking lot. Dolfing rummages in a large cardboard box. “Look, here I collect hats, scarves and caps for all weather types.” He chooses a woolen gray hat.
The walk begins. With hands behind his back, Dolfing walks to the mountain. “The mountain is my salvation. You can safely say that,” he says. “I had muscular rheumatism. I always had to get up twice at night because of the pain. Then I walked around the table until the pain subsided. A six-month course of Prednisone helped nothing. Then I started walking, walking , walk.” First through the village. Until he got tired of it. He looked for another place and ended up at the VAM mountain.
“I wasn’t walking up the mountain then.” That only came after the owner of the former coffee shop Het Blinkerdje on the VAM site encouraged him. “‘Dirk, you should go up the mountain with me’, he said during coffee. I tried that then.” Dolfing surfaced without help. “They wanted to help me. But I’m a stubborn person. I made it.”
The next morning, Dolfing felt a change in his body. “I hadn’t gotten out of bed that night. The pain was gone. I said to my wife, ‘I’m going back up the mountain.’ And I’m still going up the mountain. I can’t live without it.”
The 84-year-old Dolfing walks smoothly upstairs. Even the steepest part with a gradient of 10 percent is no problem. Same route every day. Stopping every now and then to check out the view. “Look, we’re at eye level with the horizon. That’s the beauty of a mountain.”
At the top, Dolfing takes a prod in the information center. Even after 3500 times it does not bore him. “No! I’ve got plenty of time. I’m just going.” Every day he walks around the building to clean up the rubbish. “There are mainly banana peels.” In the information center he cleans the coffee machine with a cloth he brings from home. “The security guards gave me a hat with ‘Drenthe’ on it. If I wear it, I can also walk through during events.”
“The mountain is the only thing that helps against the rheumatism. It’s better than medicine. Walking in the woods or anywhere else doesn’t help me,” says Dolfing. As long as possible he keeps going up the mountain. “I don’t know what it is. But I’ve never had pain again. And never is long. I can still do everything. I’m getting older, and you can see that in me. But I’m still satisfied with it.”