© Ger van Diepen, Eric Kooistra, Alex Benjamins
4th Telescooploop, the ASTRON event to run or walk from one telescope to
another. Maybe it should be renamed to Telescooptocht because in this
edition cyclists could also take part.
After an exceptional Dutch summer it was another exceptional day with
outstanding weather, ideal for walking, running or cycling. Various
routes through the beautiful fields, heath and forests of Drenthe had been
prepared touching all 3 ASTRON telescopes: LOFAR, WSRT and
Dwingeloo. GPS tracks and paper maps were made available of all
routes which ranged from 56 to 112 km cycling and 8 to 48 km walking or running.
In total 33 people took part in the event:
- 4 cyclists did the 112 km tour Dwingeloo-LOFAR-WSRT-Dwingeloo.
- 6 cyclists did the 56 km LOFAR-WSRT-Dwingeloo route.
- 3 walkers did the 48 km LOFAR-WSRT-Dwingeloo route.
- The 24.3 km WSRT-Dwingeloo route was done by 3 runners and 4 walkers.
- A shorter part of the last route (8 or 15 km) was run or walked by
20 people.
Taxis had been organised to bring the people (and their bikes) to the
starting point of a route. The first taxi (with the 48 km walkers)
left Dwingeloo already at 6am. At the end drinks and snacks were
available in the Dwingeloo canteen where people could share their
experiences. The participants have enjoyed it a lot and many of them
asked if it could be turned into an annual instead of bi-annual event.
The Personeelsvereniging would like to thank the volunteers Alex Benjamins
and Pieter Jager who supplied the participants with food and drinks
along the route.