Bastogne to Wiltz 22km

The weather was terrible with rain all through the night. It’s also very cold and not conducive for an Aussie cycling in summer gear, so I decided to take a short ride and then two trains to Luxembourg, where I met Valerie for a couple of days of R and R. I met Valerie and Carine on the Portuguese Camino last year and we had an immediate connection. It’s incredible the people you meet through travelling. 

Thanks to Birgit, another fellow traveller, the closest train station was sorted along with a very good cycling route to get me there. I’m still struggling to use the navigation tools but hopefully I’ll get better with time. I do still like a paper map. ;-) I’m also struggling with a foot injury and now a sore knee after a little tumble and then an incident at the train station. All good though! 

Valerie had arranged for her friend Susanna to keep my bike in Luxembourg as she lives about 45 minutes drive away. I also got to have a quick visit with Carine on the way to Valerie’s. Valerie has a beautiful home near the border between France and Luxembourg and she is taking extraordinary care of me. I will take a full day of rest and then explore Luxembourg on Sunday. 

Just a few pictures as the weather was so bad, I didn’t want to have my phone out. 

Note that some of the baggage had already been put in the car. When I was pushing to bike to Susanna’s garage, it felt as light as a feather without any panniers. :-) 

Marche en Famenne to Bastogne 55km

A tough day on the bike with so much climbing that I felt like I was pushing the bike more than riding. With around 950m in just 55km, it was challenging to say the least. I opted for a shorter route using Google maps that cut 25km distance but none of the climbing. Unfortunately it routed me through a farm with no road at all. It was so challenging but eventually I made it through after having to run the gauntlet on the highway for a period. Tomorrow is another day, 

Namur to Marche en Famenne 72km

It was a very cold start to the day at only 6 degrees, so I decided to wait until at least double digits before setting off. 

As with all cities, despite excellent advice on how to get through the city, I still managed to get myself misplaced several times. Unfortunately, being misplaced is a time waster as you can spend so much time just backtracking and retracing to see where you went wrong. 

Eventually I made it through Namur and had brilliant riverside riding, albeit with a brutal headwind at times, into Dinant. The views were picturesque with beautiful homes to gaze at on the other side of the river.

Then the rain started. I found the tourist information office as I was a bit confused where the Eurovelo 5 went in order to get me to Marche. Turns out I’d gone too far so had to backtrack and cross the river via a very sketchy metal ramp that was almost impossible to get the bike up and over, and there were two of them to navigate. The EV routes are not the shortest and the route to Marche from Dinant was 48km. On other navigation tools, it was only 28-35 kms. I asked about the other routes but was advised against them. 

It was uphill from here all the way to Marche, navigating through towns and getting misplaced again due to my own fault trying to find a shortcut and reduce the hills and kms. The rain was on and off for the remainder of the ride and the hills were challenging. Some of the road surfaces are quite bad with large potholes and lots of uneven surfaces, so you need to be constantly aware. 

I arrived at the campground and had difficulty locating the owner/manager. After some time we managed to connect by phone and I was able to pitch my tent around 6:30pm. Way too late for me and not something I want to repeat. Luckily I had enough food on board and didn’t need a supermarket. There was a massive storm that I managed to take shelter from but the rain continued into the night. It’s been freezing cold all day and I have all my layers on to stay warm. Looks like I’ll be packing a wet tent tomorrow. 

Rest day in Namur

I took an additional rest day today and was fortunate to be able to visit Waterloo including the 224 steps up to the monument, and I also took in some of the sights of Namur from the Citadel.

Brussels to Namur 68km

Thank goodness for Benedikt’s brilliant navigation skills, we made it out of Brussels. It was extremely busy and quite confusing with dedicated bike paths, shared paths, park shortcuts and disappearing bike infrastructure at crucial times on busy roads. The focus was to get to Wavre as step one and then focus on Namur as step two. Benedikt took responsibility for step one and me for step two. 

The ride was lovely although it was much hillier than expected and for day one on the loaded bike, it was a little challenging as I’m still getting used to the balance and the weight. Benedikt was so patient as I navigated my way with the bike and we had a fabulous day. 

Benedikt is travelling light! 

Finally found an EV5 sign! 

We arrived at a friend’s house around 3:30pm after almost 70km and 700m of elevation, with tired legs and hungry bellies. It wasn’t long before we were showered and in search of a supermarket for some much needed calories. We had a lovely evening chatting and sharing stories.

I’ve decided to take a rest day as I still have quite a bit of lingering fatigue and low grade headaches from the viral meningitis, combined with a big first day on the bike weighing roughly 35-40kg, I need some extra time to recover. 

Sightseeing in Brussels

 Some pictures of my adventures through Brussels.