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,
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.
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.
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.
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.
After a marathon journey of 30 ish hours, I made it to Brussels. I assembled the bike at the airport in a random spot as I couldn’t locate the bike station nor many staff to ask for assistance.
It’s always a relief to see the bike arrive, albeit with the box a little worse for wear. Everything went together well except for attaching the handlebar bracket which I really struggled with. I managed to get it attached but it’s definitely not right and something I need to address today, along with a few other things, but nothing major.
I rode into the city centre on some separated bike ways and road cycle routes. The route between tram tracks was too much for my tired brain to navigate the heavy bike safely, so I walked those sections. The hostel is in the city centre and I have a private room. Apparently I’m too old to stay in a dorm, not that I’d want to anyway. I’ve already managed to find a GF bakery, GF chips and GF beer.
I’ll try to do a bit more on the bike today before heading out for some sightseeing. The weather is showery and cool but I’m on holidays so am not complaining,
