Walking through the Netherlands for a few months, Jan Zeggelaar (35) has been dreaming of it for a while. Especially after corona. When his stepbrother Leandro (18) falls into a coma as a result of a serious car accident, his plan accelerates. He starts with his walking tour through the Netherlands, driven by a good cause: “I want to give something back to the people who take care of my brother with so much love, attention and care.”
It’s December 2021, the darkest night of the year and the roads are slippery. Jan’s stepbrother Leandro lives in Erp and his car goes off the road. He ends up against a tree and is taken to the TweeSteden Hospital in Tilburg in critical condition.
“He immediately fell into a coma,” says Jan. “In recent months, he has shown himself strongly and made progress, partly thanks to a unique treatment program at Libra Rehabilitation and Audiology in Tilburg. I admire the people who take care of him, that’s why I’m raising money for Libra,” says Jan.
“If you really want something, you have to be willing to give something up.”
On April 8, Jan left Amsterdam for his 888 kilometer walk. He walked up the Dutch coast to the Wadden Islands and now descends to the south via the long-distance walk Het Pieterpad, with Maastricht as its end point.
He quit his job for it, left his apartment. “If you really want something, you have to be willing to give something up. I stopped working because I wanted to go into this completely freely.”
In daily life he is normally very busy with yoga and mindfulness. “But now that I walk so much, I need it much less. You live in the moment every day, this is all mindfulness.”
When we speak to him, he has just arrived in the Groningen village of Winsum. He has set up his tent in the garden of the couple Jan and Janny and he has been given a good mattress to sleep on.
“I met them on Vlieland and they invited me to spend the night here. That’s why I wanted to do this walk so much. I want to meet people, connect. This is my way of celebrating life, before you know it it’s too late.”
“Leandro has had a major relapse, now it is very exciting and uncertain again.”
During his walk he spends a lot of time with his stepbrother Leandro. Leandro is now staying at Libra for Early Intensive Neurorehabilitation (VIN), a fourteen-week program in which they work on his consciousness using his senses.
“He always takes very small steps. But last week Leandro had a major setback and now it is very exciting and uncertain again. It has turned the world upside down again.”
Leandro needed urgent surgery. “At the same time, I walked for miles on the dike, which was not the easiest walk.”
Jan expects to be on his way south for another month and a half, but he doesn’t have a very definite plan. “I want to reach those 888 kilometers in any case, what comes next is still completely open. I’ll see what this walk brings me.”
During his walk he will cross various provinces in the near future, but the province of Brabant is not yet on the map for him. “Unfortunately, the Pieterpad does not cross Brabant, but I literally and figuratively don’t know how it goes. Maybe I’ll walk from Maastricht to the place where Leandro is staying? Who knows.”
Do you want to follow or support Jan during his walk? You can do that via social media and via his website†