From the Nijmeegse Waalbrug you have a view of the Valkhofpark, where five friends lie on the hill. With the green-orange flag of the Four Days Marches, they yell at passing walkers early on Tuesday morning. “We already heard that a lot of people would still be on the road, so here we are,” says one of them. “About three hundred men have passed by in the past two hours,” says another friend. “I liked keeping up with it. These walkers are the real diehards.” He points to his friends: “I am still sober, they are not.”
Due to the extreme heat, the organization of the Four Days Marches decided last Sunday that the first day of the walking tour, Tuesday, would not take place. “Anyone who does go for a walk does so entirely at their own risk. We strongly advise against it,” said Hanny Sackers, president of the organization, during the press conference. There are no water taps, medical aid stations and no signage along the route. Because the road through the organization is not closed, there is normal traffic.
But hundreds of hikers don’t want to skip the first day. In the night from Monday to Tuesday, partygoers and walkers alternate as usual in the city center of Nijmegen.
Amazing view
The annual event in Nijmegen is the largest multi-day walking tour in the world, with 40,000 runners from about 80 countries. The participants walk forty or fifty kilometers a day. The Four Days Marches was canceled earlier because of the heat. In 2006, that happened after day one, after two walkers died and many other runners became unwell. It was then 32 degrees. Temperatures will rise to 39 degrees on Tuesday. For that reason, it was decided in consultation with the weather advisory team to cancel the first day of the Four Days Marches: the route via Elst.
For some, this route is just a reason to go on the road. For childhood friends Bas Derksen and Rein Hulsman, for example. “Today we walk through Bemmel, where we both grew up. The route passes all kinds of places from the past, such as the primary school and playgrounds. We couldn’t skip the best day,” says Hulsman with a broad smile. “And today is the only day that you can cross the Waalbrug with that great view over Nijmegen,” says Derksen.
For students and roommates Guusje Roelofs and Nicole van Deelen it is the first time that they start the tour armed with bottles of water and sturdy walking shoes. Via the Wedren, the start of the walk, they walk towards the Waal. “We had been looking forward to it so much,” says Roelofs. “After hard training, it was an anti-climax that the first day was canceled. That’s why we wanted to walk today.” Van Deelen: “Three days is not a Four Days Marches. We do walk an alternative route of 20 kilometers. Then we’ll be home at 9 o’clock. Just in time for breakfast.”
When the sun rises, many walkers stop for a moment on the Waalbrug to take a picture. Jean-David Pletscher is also there to enjoy the view. He came from Switzerland for the Four Days Marches. Since 1985, it has been his wish to take the walking tour, he says. “In that year I met a Swiss soldier who wore a badge with the logo of the Four Days Marches. I was immediately intrigued.” Still, it took more than thirty-five years before the hiker took the plunge. “Every year something came up. Last year I turned sixty. I thought, if I don’t go now, I never go. That’s why I want to walk fifty kilometers today, I’m finally here.”
Yelling at walkers
Two men run into many other hikers and are almost at the finish. “We left at noon for the best hiking temperatures,” says Ronald Put. He is accompanied by Theo van Mullekom. Both are seasoned Four Days Marches walkers. Mullekom is running for the twenty-third time, Put for the fourteenth time. The two know each other from the annual walking tour. “Ten years ago we ran at the same time. We ran into each other constantly, because we were walking at the same pace. We’ve been walking together ever since,” says Put. The two only see each other during the Four Days Marches. “That’s enough,” they both say at the same time. They laugh a lot for hikers who are up so early and have just covered fifty kilometers. Mullekom, who is originally from Nijmegen, heard from many other walkers that they would go today. “Then I knew I had to go. The combination of drunk people returning from the parties and hikers leaving for the trek works very well. I want to make the most of that atmosphere. The Four Days Marches is good for my image of the human being.”
Tuesday morning around 10 am the first walkers arrived. It is unknown how many people went for a walk anyway: the organization did not keep numbers.