September 20th
Somehow we woke up at the same time as usual, decided not to make breakfast, and still left nearly an hour later than usual. Not sure what happened there. We instead chose to grab some pastries at the bottom of the hill, before continuing along the canal towards Dinant.
Apart from one cobbled section, which on the trike we have to take ridiculously slow, it was smooth, easy, good riding to Dinant.
Once there we hit our first issue of the day. The official bike path crosses over the canal on a bridge with a gate on it. The gate isn’t even big enough for a normal bike, let alone the trike. After taking the luggage off and spending 10-15 minutes on a little wheelie manoeuvre, we got through.
From here we turned off the canal and into the hills. We’d be warned about the hilly Ardenne region, and I’m not sure we’re even in it yet, but it sure felt like it. We knew it was on the menu for most of the day, so just kept grinding them out. The sun was shining and the gradients gradual. Nothing horrific, just long hilly efforts to get the heart rate a little higher.
We eventually arrived into Ciney, where the path took us straight into the beautiful town square. We stopped for fruit and some really surprisingly good oat biscuits. Some local students chatted to us and couldn’t believe we had come from England. But they were also astonished it could steer, so we won’t feel too proud.
The hills carried on towards Marche-en-Famenne. We hit our top speed of the trip so far, 51 km/h and nearly lost our big bag off the back of the trike. We did drop a water bottle for about the 15th time, but still none have broken when we go and pick them up. Result. Thankfully once reaching Marche, the route flattened out towards Hotton. The sun was still beating and the afternoon solar-panel was charging too fast if anything. Even with flat start and end sections today, we’ve easily done our biggest amount of clinging of the trip so far.
We took a breather after Hatton and as it was 5pm decided we’d soon look for a place to camp. We’d done a fair distance and all the hills so we’re pretty content. That didn’t last long.
About 2 minutes after cycling again, there was some roadworks. The diversion was gravel with pot holes the size of cars. Turning a corner on this we managed to buckle the rear-right wheel. The diversion sent us up a hill so we decided to gently cycle her to the top and assess. Slow progress with the buckled wheel rubbing the brake pads on every rotation.
Once at the crest, we found a field with no gate, and it seemed like we didn’t have a choice but to stay here for the night.
Louis assessed the damaged and the verdict was 3 broken spokes, all on the wrong side. We have spare spokes with us but, not the tool to take the cassette off. That has to come off to install the spokes on one side. Which is why the broken spokes are the wrong side. (He had to explain it to me too…)
Google showed us a bike shop 5km away, we called and although they didn’t seem to fully understand, they told us to come 9am tomorrow. So we cooked dinner, a different shaped pasta this time, that transformed it into a different meal. Set up camp and enjoyed a stroopwafel at sunset.
Plan is to get to the bike shop for bang on 9am and they should have the one tool we need to get it sorted. And by that I mean, for Louis to sort it and me assist and hinder in equal measure.
Ideally we’d have chosen a camp spot a little further from a road, but there was little choice. Zero houses around to ask if we could stay. So with no one telling us otherwise while we cooked, we hope we’re good for the night.
Daily stats:
80 km, 1,116m elevation gain. 5 hr 4 mins moving time. Max speed 52.3 km/h (Not sure she’ll physically go any more)
Cumulative Trip Stats:
507 km. 4,239 elevation gain. 29 hr 57 mins moving time.
