| Day # |
6 |
State of Legs |
:-) |
|
Distance (miles) |
Distance (km) |
Ascent (feet) |
Ascent (metres) |
Punctures |
| Today |
55.9 miles |
km |
1722 feet |
metres |
0 |
| Trip Totals |
308.5 miles |
km |
10174 feet |
metres |
0 |
Travelogue
After breakfasting on bananas, we hit the road once again, this fine Saturday, with Brussels, an apartment and a well-earned day of rest in our sights!
The cycling was once again, very pleasant. Most of the route was flat and much of it followed canals and rivers. This is becoming a theme!
 |
| The start of the ride was through some lovely, shady forest |
 |
| Weeeeeeeeeeee! |
By about 10:00, the Banana Effect was wearing off and we were becoming a little peckish, so we stopped in the town of Geraardsbergen and paid a visit to the local bakery. Working behind the counter were a Dad and Daughter team. They helped us select food, most suited to the needs of the cyclist. M2 had a pain au chocolat, the perfect cycling food which somehow the Belgians have improved..... By adding more chocolate, and Belgian chocolate at that! M2 was (easily) persuaded to try a Flemish speciality, which might be called a Rijstaart. It's a tart, made with rice and cream and this particular variant had raisins mixed into it. It was very tasty.
We ate our pastries by the canal, a stone's throw from the bakery.
And by the way, while we were in the bakery, we had a really interesting conversation with Dad and Daughter (both of whom spoke amazing English). Amongst the things we learned was that apparently, it's a legal requirement for all wages (both public and private sector) to rise in line with inflation every year. As such, people in Belgium don't worry about the impact of inflation in the way we do in the UK. Food for thought, wouldn't you say?
On we went, staying by the canal for a good few miles. We started to see larger birds, like the Grey Heron and some kind of Egret, which was very cool. Herons in flight look amazing, large but graceful, kind of like an old-fashioned sea plane.
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| A Grey Heron |
We eventually left the canals and proceeded to cycle through farmland. Hilly farmland! The flat section was over (for now) and our legs had to come to terms with the concept of non-zero gradients once again. Most of the hills were not too bad but one or two short sections were brutally steep, requiring bottom gear and some strategic zig-zagging. Neither M1 nor first time bikepacker M2, have yet to push their (heavy!) bikes up a hill yet on this trip. But there's plenty of time left for that!
We encountered a rather strange artefact. We're not really sure what it was, but let's say it was a sculpture of some sort.
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| Name that thing. Answers on a postcard, please! |
The farmland we cycled through mainly featured potato crops or wheat, but we did find one field that seemed to be growing Big White Shiny Balls. We also have no idea what these were, especially given they were protected by high fences with barbed wire and (according to signs), guard dogs. For all we know, there may even have been a turret with a guard, equipped with machine gun and search light!
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| Big White Shiny Balls |
The surface we rode on was variable, with lots of lovely tarmac and some fairly nice gravel, too. After cycling a stretch of gravel, we stopped to eat and take a rest after all the hills.
But it wasn't all tarmac and gravel. There were also cobblestones! Belgium is famous for its cobbles and M1 and M2 had the great pleasure of riding on some of them today. Except that it wasn't a pleasure! Who knew, cobblestones could be so bone-shakingly bumpy?! Apparently, everyone but us :-)
Soon though, we were once again riding beside a canal. But not just any canal. This was the Brussels-Charleroi Canal and it runs right into Brussels. We followed the canal on an excellent path for about eight miles, fairly whizzing along as our legs recovered after all the hills and cobbles.
We left the canal as we neared the centre of the city and navigated our way through various neighbourhoods to our AirBnB apartment where we'll be staying for two nights.
After unloading the bikes, M1 cycled off in search of a supermarket to buy food from. This is way harder than you'd think. Where are all the supermarkets in Brussels?! Large stores of the LIDL or even (shudder) Aldi type were hard to find. Maybe they're on the outskirts of the city. Fortunately, a little Proxy store was located just over half a mile away and most of what we needed was to be found there. Hoorah! Cooked food for dinner! With some cheese, of course!
Before cooking dinner, M1 went through one of the rest period rituals and washed. No, silly. Washed the bikes. M1 washes fairly regularly, for your information. But the bikes had not been cleaned since leaving home, six days ago, and especially with the gravel trails we'd ridden, had become quite caked in dust. So, they were each washed and their chains were scrubbed clean to remove the abrasive mix of lubricant and dust they were now covered in. They'll be lubricated again tomorrow after being allowed to dry thoroughly.
That's it! Tomorrow's a rest day.
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