September 19th
After breakfast we tried to dry the tent a bit more but, only succeeded in making it muddier. Then we were off cycling. After yesterday’s afternoon exuberance, flying down smooth hills we were pretty far from EuroVelo 5. But we wanted to skip Brussels anyway. So from our start point this morning near Bierghes, we were heading towards Wavre, south east of Brussels, to rejoin route 5 and head south.
First we came to Halle, and then towards Waterloo. Funnily enough always thought the battle of Waterloo was in England not Belgium. Every day is a school day. There wasn’t too much headwind and the hills were manageable but, the cycle path we picked up wasn’t ideal. Many curbs and cambers which we have to take real slow. Nonetheless we didn’t do too bad and were soon in Overijse. We passed through plenty of really nice towns and houses, and the sun was again out in force. After going through the lovely centre of Overijse we had a long drag hill out of it towards Wavre where we had our lunch stop. In a Colruyt supermarket carpark. Some local kids stopped to ask about the trike and took some photos while we ate and charged stuff with the surprisingly good solar panel.
From Wavre we found EuroVelo 5 and headed south. The path was initially all uphill and narrow. Enough space for us and no one else, but we didn’t see a single other cyclist or walker. The rolling hills continued as we passed through some fancy suburb towns and then farmers fields. The sun was beaming and it was sweaty going. A fair amount more climbing than we’d done already and any hill on the trike takes effort.
We bang it into low gear and just spin our way up.
At one point we turned away from the route to follow a smooth and empty road that seemed more logical for where we were headed. As Louis said “I can’t see why we wouldn’t go down there”.
After 500m we saw. The road turned into an old cobble-stone hill through a forest. We don’t like to turn back, so we very slowly and gingerly made our way up it. It was at least a chance to cool down and a change of scenery.
Back in the fields the hills continued and we got the drone out for the first time. Turns out it’s harder to video a moving tricycle while also moving on it yourself but, I’m sure we’ll get better.
After another sapping hill, we were coasting along and saw a woman in her front garden who we asked if we could fill up a water bottle. She came back with the water and some fridge-cold fruit, which was beyond delightful. After we realised we actually already had a fair amount of water, but with 6 or so different bottles stashed around the trike in various places, it’s had to remember.
We had done about 52 miles and saw the next / last 10km was all downhill to Namur. So we thought we’d coast down and then finish our day. Louis had asked just before if Namur was a big place, but I said nah, it doesn’t seem that big. A small town probably. The downhill was lovely, barely pedalling and holding a steady 16 km/h but not speeding and having to shred our brakes.
We arrived in Namur and how very wrong I was. It turns out it’s actually a pretty large city. We had a good laugh and had no choice but to cycle through and find somewhere to camp on the other side. We got stuck in some tight city corners of an underpass. We ended up in the pedestrianised city centre after leaving the canal due to cobblestones. But after a while we were making our way out of the city.
By now we’d done about 90km and with the sun and mainly the hills, we were ready to stop. However, Belgium had other ideas. We had definitely left Namur but, the canal we were following was built up with houses and roads continuously. The other bank of the canal seemed to be more green but there were no bridges. We did another 5km and it was the same story. We stopped for a mars bar each and were debating asking some homeowners for their garden, but this is hard to do from their back gates.
As it seemed the buildings weren’t coming to an end, we googled campsite and for once there was actually one nearby in Profondeville.
We were making our way there, just turning off the canal EuroVelo route, fully ready for it to be closed for the season or closed cus it’s after 18:00. What we didn’t expect, was it to sit at the top of a steep hill. We were absolutely blowing as we reached it, but it was open! By now we’d clocked over 100km for the day.
We spoke to the owner, a lovely old French woman, in our non existent French and got a pitch. There are only 2 other tents here so there is plenty of space. A dinner of pasta & sauce was wolfed down before long old showers. 2 showers in 3 days now, we are basically on a spa retreat type holiday. We are also taking the opportunity to wash a load of our stuff in the sinks.
We chatted to one of the other tent campers, who is a German bloke also on a cycle tour. He asked if we went twice as fast as there’s two of us, but we really sadly don’t.
An unplanned bigger day in the book but, the weather was fantastic as well as the towns and scenery. Top notch.
Daily stats:
103 km, 1,038 m elevation gain. 6 hr 25 moving time.
Cumulative trip stats:
427 km. 3,123 m elevation gain. 24 hr, 53 min moving time.
