1/4 Eefje in action during Kamp van Koningsbrugge (photo: AVROTROS)
Eefje Driessen (40) from Helmond is one of the participants in the new season of Kamp van Koningsbrugge. In the TV program, she and fourteen other participants follow the grueling training to become a commando. “At one point I thought: if I just pass out now, then I’m done with everything.”
Swimming in ice-cold water, making a fire and little sleep. The candidates are completely squeezed physically and mentally to see who is suitable for the commandos.
Many people would rather turn around in the hammock once more at the sight of these severe trials. But Eefje started to itch when she saw season 1 of the program. “I thought: wow, that’s cool. Could I do that too?” she wondered.
“I started training seven days a week.”
Eefje works in daily life as a pharmacist’s assistant and runs a webshop with bracelets with her husband. The contrast with the command profession is great. “My husband works in the air force, formerly in the air mobile brigade. I have heard many stories from him, but I also wanted to experience it myself. I wanted to know if I could handle it too.”
She decided to take the plunge. “I put on the boxes and started training seven days a week. Walking with a backpack, running, making a fire and I also dived into the woods at night to learn how to navigate.”
She dropped out for the second season of Kamp van Koningsbrugge, but she was selected from over a thousand applications for part three. “My dream came true,” says Eefje with a broad smile.
“I suddenly started hallucinating at night during one of the trips.”
The assignments were tough for the sporty Eefje. “We didn’t have a moment’s rest. I felt everything we did was bad. I often fell short. At those moments you really come across yourself.”
Mentally it was kind of hell for her. “I suddenly started hallucinating at night during one of the trips. I saw everything from a wolf to a wild dog. In the end it turned out to be just a branch,” she says laughing.
She also suffered a lot physically. “Giving up is not an option for me. But at one point I thought: if I just pass out now, then I’m done with everything, it’s done. I had a blemish on my shoulder, was covered in bruises and I’m two toenails lost.”
“My limit is now miles away.”
She doesn’t regret her participation, but she wouldn’t recommend it to anyone either. “No, but it was a very cool experience. Think of it as giving birth, you also look forward to it. When the time comes, you die, then it is really not fun. Now that I have fully recovered, I would want one more time.”
Participating in the program was a hard and heavy life lesson. “My limit is no longer where it used to be. It is miles away now.”
The new season of Kamp van Koningsbrugge starts on Thursday at half past eight on NPO 1. In addition to Eefje, three other people from Brabant are participating: Mahdi (28, Den Bosch), Stijn (24, Budel) and Marty (30, Sint Willebrord).