| Day # | 27 | State of Legs | :-) |
| Distance (miles) | Distance (km) | Ascent (feet) | Ascent (metres) | Punctures | |
| Today | 45.5 miles | km | 1890 feet | metres | 0 |
| Trip Totals | 1007.8 miles | km | 35569 feet | metres | 0 |
| Today's Route |
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| Route So Far |
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Travelogue
It's the end of our fourth week of cycling (tomorrow's a rest day) and by some miracle, we've cycled over a thousand miles, putting us 200 miles ahead of the schedule which had assumed we'd cover about 200 miles per week. This is great, because it means we can extend our route. And in fact, we'd recognised that we were ahead of schedule a week ago when we stayed in Saarbrücken for a couple of days and have already plotted a detour which takes us to the coast of Normandy, just North of Dieppe. We'll cycle up the coast, using Eurovelo route EV4 to take us to Calais. All good.
As for today, we cycled from Chimay in Belgium, once again crossing the border, this time back into France. We're now in the medieval town of Le Quesnoy, which looks like an interesting place, with city walls and a curious festival called Bimberlot, about to start!
The day started nice and dry, though the sky always had that look of a sky that could dump a whole load of water on your head at any moment. Soon enough, we were heading through the countryside on a mixture of cycle paths and quiet roads.
We'd examined the profile for today's ride yesterday and were reassured by the obvious downhill trend. What our brains had deliberately filtered and not allowed our conscience minds to acknowledge was that a trend is just a trend! There was plenty of uphill cycling today, as you can see from the day's ascent figure. "Oh look, another delightful downhill trend to cycle up" became the recurring joke of the day!
About 10 miles into the ride, near to Momignies in Belgium, we encountered what Crazy Golf Professionals like to call a "water hazard".
M1 was alarmed. Last year, he'd encountered a similar hazard in England. A simple ford which didn't look too deep and which in his foolhardiness he'd decided to cycle through. And got very wet in the process. So, having suffered but survived the ordeal, he was anxious that Team M1 and M2 not make the same mistake that had caused M1 to have very wet feet. Yes, it was that bad.
"Can't we just cross by that little bridge on the left" said M2, all sensible and calm.
"Oh yes, well I guess we could be conventional in our thinking if you like" said M1, not having noticed the bridge in his alarm!
So, we wheeled our bikes over, without incident. And our feet were already wet anyway, from several days of riding in the rain, so there wasn't really much risk in the first place. Quite the dramatic story, no?
Shortly after, we crossed a railway line. We could have been squished by a train. But we weren't. Yes, that's two dramatic incidents in one day!
Spotting wildlife while we ride is always exciting. We liked this little creature.
Somewhere along the way, we crossed the border into France. There was nothing to tell us this had happened except that cars now had French number plates.
We cycled an unpaved country lane for a while, which was at times grassy, occasionally muddy and at other times stony. We made it through unscathed and enjoyed the change of surface and surroundings in the process. As always though, we were happy to get back on tarmac when that finally happened!
We were surprised to find ourselves on Eurovelo route EV3, "the Pilgrims Route", briefly. We'd cycled a short section of it from Namur, west to our campsite earlier in the trip. M1 had also cycled some of it in Spain on his trip last year.
We arrived in the town of Avesnes-sur-Helpe, wanting coffee. It looked like the right size of town to offer coffee, perhaps more. But we found our route into the centre blocked. The centre of the town was cordoned off by railings because there was a fun fair in town! And when I say "in town", that's precisely what I mean. Because the rides weren't set up in some muddy field on the edge of town but right in the streets at the centre of the town itself!
Anyway, coffee was had and M1 ate a banana to refuel his legs.
We walked our bikes through the railings on the far side of the square, following the map on M1's phone, aiming to rejoin our plotted route. The way looked simple enough, but after descending a steep hill, we found ourselves facing the need to somehow descend a series of stone steps. The choice therefore was to either cycle back up the hill (no thanks!) or carefully wheel the bikes down, controlling the bikes' speed with the brakes and trying to make sure the rear wheels didn't get subjected to a major thumping at each step, with all the weight they are carrying. We decided to head down the steps and the operation went without a hitch. Except that at the bottom of the steps, we found that the bottom of the steps was not the bottom of all of the steps! What had looked like the bottom from above was just a flat section from which another even steeper section of big steps continued in the same direction. There was also a series of somewhat less steep steps which peeled off to the left. We opted for the safer bet and went left, still carefully controlling the rate at which our bikes rolled down each step. We were glad when we got to the bottom with bikes intact.
After that, we cycled on without any further dramatic incidents to report. We stopped and photographed this statue in Berlaimont.
Eventually, we reached the town of Le Quesnoy, which really does have city walls.
We went straight to the AirBnB apartment we've booked and coincidentally, met the host who lives in the property next door. He's was really friendly and welcoming and immediately told us we could store our bikes in his garage. I told him I wanted to wash and lubricate the bikes tomorrow and was about to ask if it would be OK to do this in the street and he took me through to his back garden to show me where I could do this work and even brought out a brush I could use to tackle the harder to reach filth that the bikes have accrued. It's great to meet such nice people on trips like this.
We were pretty hungry, so before we'd even gone into the apartment, we cycled around the corner, found a bistro and had some hot food.
We're now safe and sound in the apartment. We've each had a hot bath which I have to tell you, after days of rain and being perpetually wet and a tad chilly, was awesome.
Tomorrow's a rest day. And M2 is strangely excited by the prospect of seeing the giant puppet of the Bimberlot parade. M1, thinks the whole thing will give him nightmares! Perhaps there will be photos tomorrow. Not of the predicted nightmares. Of the parade! :-)
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