September 18th
We woke up after a great nights sleep in a real bed, with no tent to put away, which was lovely. Louis said he was going to oil the chains for 5 minutes before breakfast, 30 mins later he was still missing. We then had a big decadent breakfast spread with Sabine & Johan and filled up on bread, cheese, fruit, eggs and the lot.
This all led to a slightly later start, just after 10, but luckily with no end destination, we have time to spare.
Back pedalling the distance ticked off pretty nicely. We passed some lovely houses with gardens backing onto the canals and bike path. The cycle lane was premium and actually well signposted. Actually since we crossed into Belgium, the EuroVelo 5 route has been pretty top notch. Tarmac ground and lots of signs and beautiful sights. In France it tended to be a little more gravelly and they had a habit of putting signs after the turn rather than before.
The path took us through Ronse and on towards Geraardsbergen. Crisscrossing the Flanders / Wallonië border multiple times. We flew along the cycle path which had joined a cycle motorway pretty much. Super smooth tarmac and wide lanes and only us on it. Even had its own central reservations installed. With less of a headwind today the going was good, only slightly slowed by seemingly narrower and narrower bollards on the canal path that we were only just squeezing through. Again the sun was shining and we had few complaints.
We arrived in Geraardsbergen before 1300 and were greeted by Lieselot and her parents Phillipe & Anneker! They treated us to some great cheers as we arrived and it was great to see them. As we then went to cycle to the main square of the towns we somehow had a front wheel puncture. So we had a rather unceremonious push of the tricycle to their car and where we’d have lunch.
After getting the tricycle along the cobbles we sat outside for a proper sit down lunch. There was croque monsieur’s, Vol-au-vent and frittes. A welcome change to our staple lunch of cheese stuffed into a roll or baguette and eaten on the bike. After eating and telling tales of our short trip so far, they had another surprise for us…
Geraardsbergen is home to most famous cycling hill in Belgium, de Muur (which translates to the Wall). The cobbled climb is made famous by the Tour of Flanders classic cycling race. Phillipe had brought his mountain bike with him especially and said that we both had to cycle it. As you can’t come to Geraardsbergen and not do it. So we both cycled it up to the top. Refreshing to cycle a bike that doesn’t weigh 60 plus kilos and can actually go up hills quicker than crawling. It might be tough to go back to the trike…
We then set about swapping the inner tube on the punctured from tyre. Once that was done we loaded up on snacks and other goodies that had been brought by the Heyndrickx’s for us. Also, a helmet for me as I’ve been told off many times for not starting the trip with one. We ate some snoep and cable tied some @BeyondOurDayJobs instagram signs onto the trike that Lieselot had made for us.
A few hours after we had stopped, we were off. A wonderful lunch time stop and experience and very much appreciated!
We very slowly eased ourselves down a cobbled hill and rejoined EuroVelo 5 at about 15:00. There was slightly more of a headwind as we followed a canal. For a while we sat behind two older people on electric bikes who were setting a steady 18 km/h pace. But, we lost them after stopping for a water bottle falling off the tricycle for maybe the 4th time today.
The path turned away from the canal and we had a few hills to conquer. As we steadily cycled down one narrower lane a car coming the other way didn’t want to give us much room. And as they got closer they still didn’t. We were breaking but couldn’t come to a compete stop and they still didn’t move over. We ended up steering into the grass ditch on the side of the rode. Luckily it was very soft, all grass and not super deep. We somehow got off and hauled the tricycle out. No injuries and no damages. The car was nowhere to be seen. Luckily we’d been going reduced our speed to pretty slow and it was actually quite a comical crash. We were mostly surrounded by fields but there was 1 house and a guy came out to ask if we were okay. Once he’d established we were fine we spoke about the tricycle and it turned out he was a bike mechanic by trade. He also spoke great English despite my attempts to converse in Flemish.
After a few laughs and questions he ended up giving us two sets of spare brake pads for free! So for our first crash, it actually worked out quite well.
We then carried on, and ended up flying down a long long hill. After a while we hadn’t seen any cycle path signs for a while and checked our phones. Somehow we had gone way off it. But, our unwritten motto
Is to never go back. So we just carried on in vaguely the direction where we could rejoin EuroVelo 5 later on.
As we crested a particularly long hill that really got us blowing we stopped from some stroop waffles (thanks!) and decided as it was 17:15 we’d start to head to some smaller roads and see where we could camp.
As the daily miles ticked over 50, somewhere between Enghien and Halle, we saw some potential in a field and a garden opposite a farmhouse. We stopped and intended to knock on the door and ask if we could stay. As I approached, I jumped out of my skin as a dog started barking that I hadn’t seen. And the dog was huge, part bear I’m sure. The dog kept barking which brought the farm women out. In my nicest Dutch I introduced ourselves and our trip and asked if we could camp. Barely audible over the dog barks she said that for one night, yes we could. Result. Some worry free sleeping lay ahead. Also larger result that she spoke Flemish as it turns out were actually back in the French speaking area.
We had the usual pasta + sauce dinner. Upgraded by tomatoes from Johan’s garden and dried herbs we had treated ourselves to. A MatterTaart each for desert, the local delicacy from Geraarsbergen, our treat for climbing de Muur. And then some tricycle maintainance. We even managed our first very short walk and even shorter stretch of the trip. Keep those bodies cycling.
We have set tent sides now, my head to the right of the door and Louis’ to the left. Which means with tonight’s pitch, my head will be at the bottom of a slope this time. Another fantastic day. Late start, decadent breakfast, long lunch, mechanical issue and still over 50 miles ticked off. And no rain. We shall enjoy it while it lasts.
Daily stats:
82.6 km, 4hr 42 moving, 651m elevation gain.
Cumulative trip stats:
323.8 km, 18 hr 28 moving, 2,085 m elevation gain
