| Day # | 9 | State of Legs | :-) |
| Distance (miles) | Distance (km) | Ascent (feet) | Ascent (metres) | Punctures | |
| Today | 48.3 miles | km | 2221 feet | metres | 0 |
| Trip Totals | 387.3 miles | km | 13862 feet | metres | 0 |
| Today's Route |
 |
 |
| Route So Far |
 |
Travelogue
The weather has been lovely today and we've cycled almost 50 miles, heading more or less south in Belgium, ending near the town of Namur.
On getting up, we found that there had either been a heavy dew or perhaps rain in the night. The tent was very wet. Putting away a wet tent is not on anyone's list of favourite things to do, as far as I know. But it had to be done, so we did it :-)
Our first sight of the day, was a rather picturesque lake, not far from Overijse where we camped last night.
We rode on a mixture of road and gravel trail, enjoying the countryside and occasional, small town.
At about 10:00, in a town whose name we've already forgotten, but which had a place to buy pain au chocolat and coffee, so let's call it Pain au Chocolate et Cafe Ville, we stopped. You'll never guess what we did. OK, well done. Yes, we had pain au chocolat and coffee and it was very, very good.
On we cycled. There were cobblestones. But not too many and those that there were, were not excessively bumpy.
 |
| Turkeys! |
There were all sorts of poultry, actually and they all seemed to be getting on very well. I guess they all had one thing in common: they were destined to be someone's dinner. Something like that is bound to bring a group together, don't you think?
 |
| The chairs in the church were of a brilliant design |
Having cycled far, screeched to a halt several times, and over-thought the question of what a church should look like, we were ready for an ice cream and at that exact moment, a place that sold ice creams materialised by the road. We screeched to a halt and bought ice creams, eating them at a table in front of the store.
We crossed yet more farmland by narrow, concrete roads, enjoying the scenery and the blue sky with its fluffy white clouds.
Finally, we arrived in the fairly large town of Namur and hit Proxy, one of the supermarket chains in these parts. M1 headed on in and did his supermarket hunter gatherer thing to perfection. The only controversy of the day to report is that M2 uttered the words "I don't want any cheese". HERESY!!!! M1 is still struggling to come to terms with this anti-cheese stance. You think you know a person! Anyway.... M1 bought cheese for M1. What it is, I cannot say. Maybe there will be a photo later.
Three Eurovelo routes meet in Namur. We've been following EV5, known as Via Romea (Francigena) all the way from Calais but tommorow we will switch to EV19, the Meuse Cycle Route. But EV3, Pilgrims Route also passes through Namur and we cycled along some of it for about 6 miles to get to today's campsite which is to the west of Namur.
Most of those final six miles involved crossing the River Sambre and then cycling along its south bank, west. There were some curious birds, which my trusty bird identification app, Merlin refused to identify but which I have on good authority were Cormorants.
 |
The last half mile involved a steep climb with a gradient estimated at 10%, all the way up to the campsite. Both M1 and M2, not to mention The Mule and TBWNN made it to the top without getting off and pushing, or even swearing (way too out of breath for that!).
The campsite is really nice and easily our favourite so far. Quiet, green and with good showers and WiFi. There's even a nice place to sit and enjoy a cold Coke.
Wonderful!
No comments:
Post a Comment