Sombreffe and Nowhere to Stay

30/05/15 Profondeville to Fleurus 58kms

After a snugglie night with two layers of clothes (very romantic, I know), we woke early, and the rain had stopped. It was still freezing, so it was very difficult to get moving. Hearing movement from the Belgium boys got us up, as they were up much later than us. 

Will was onto the coffee, and me on the rolling up. Everyone was trying to dry their tents, and the breeze helped nicely. Will and I had nothing for breakfast, but Klaus offered us some Belgium chocolate, and strawberries, his mum had sent with Michael and Joseph. We gave them coffee. Nice international exchange.

Klaus broke his wire for his bike computer, so the boys attempted to fix it.

All sorts of tape was used, and it worked......for a little while.

We all look like we know what we're doing, don't we?

Everyone procrastinated, but eventually we were all packed up and rolled off together. Klaus was heading south on the RV6, and us North. He is aiming for Nepal. I really hope he gets there and has an awesome adventure. The Belgium boys were really nice guys.

Our first stop was an Epicerie (grocery store), but it was closed. Bugger! Next stop the Boulangerie, for some pastries and buns. Hopefully we'll find another little shop for more food. We only have two tins of sardines, one all the way from Spain.

Lots of loose pavers, causing a bit of caution.

Straight back to the river, and off we went. It was cool, but pleasant enough. The cliffs on the other side of the river were interesting, and kept our attention. On one, we spotted a heap of crazy people rock climbing and abseiling. While we paused to check it out and take photos, we noticed a billion balloons had been released into the air, each with a note or something attached. Things you would miss in a car.

Have a close look at that rock face, there are crazier people than us in the world.

Did you spot them all?

A nice ride along the river for the first part of our day.

The path varied greatly, and was a bit slow going in parts. But we got to Namur in good time. We stopped to eat our second pastries, before deciding to have a look in the town. While there, we tried to get some Wifi, so we could see where we could stay tonight, and to use an ATM. We had no luck with either, no Wifi, and the ATM was empty. Ugh! So we had lunch instead.

Love the old bridges. We are almost at Namur. 

In Namur, it was morning tea time. Pastries! The ones with fruit in, they're healthy.

Having a little look in Namur, might as well have lunch.

From here, the weather started to change a bit, along with our attitudes. The wind picked up and we were heading pretty much into it, and I started to feel quite unwell. I mentioned to Will that I was in need of a toilet, pretty soon, so he would keep an eye out, but it became quite "Urgent", very suddenly. I wasn't sure what end or both, and we were between villages on the river. Oh dear, this is difficult. I yelled at Will that I needed to stop Now, and he needed to get the toilet roll out pronto! The spot we stopped was not totally ideal, with a big ditch to get across, then a big tree with long grass to hide in. Will says " Just jump over the ditch, and you'll be right." Huh, if I did that, I may have to discard my good long pants. "I can't just yet!" Was all I could say. Concentrating hard, and with a hand from Will, I made the leap successfully, and just got to cover in time, as a quad bike came out of nowhere, screaming past. Crisis averted! That was a close one. 

Yet another lock, and from here the weather got bad, along with our attitudes.

The rest of the afternoon was a struggle for both of us. The scenery was not pretty, very industrial, and we just seemed to be going really slowly. We made it to Sombreffe, our destination, and searched everywhere for a camp ground, hotel, hostel, park, anything, and found nothing. It was not a small place, with lots of car dealerships, one tavern, and not much else. Shit! Finally we found the nearest hotel, it was 10kms away in Fleurus. Not really the right direction, but what ever.

So we pushed on, in the ever increasing wind, and took the direct route along the main road to Hotel Ibis. Expensive, but warm and available. No restaurant, and the nearest one was a few kms down the road. They did,however, have snacks, so we both had Spaghetti Bog and a couple of drinks at the bar. What a day, and yet another toilet incident. You have to laugh!

Profonderville and The Belgium Boys

29/05/15 Rochefort to Profonderville 56kms

We woke about 7am to the sounds of pitter patter on the tent. Bugger! I got on the phone and checked the weather, and it said no rain today, so what is this then? It's definitely rain! So we just laid in bed until it stopped, then a bit more. Finally we got up and ate the rest of the chocolate muesli, had a coffee and went about drying and packing the stuff. 

Finally getting out of there around 11am, this is getting silly, we got straight onto a RAVel (Belgium cycle path), which lasted for about 20kms and followed the La Lesse river. We think it must of been an old rail line. It was great, easy and pretty. We found an old concrete bench to have a snack, then carried on.

Glory riding, on the RAVel 2.

Cute little farmhouse along our trail. So nice without any hills.

Even had cool tunnels to ride through. We needed our lights on though.

So far, so good, no hills and no wind. A bit cool, but manageable. The river came to a village, and there was a little snack shop next to the train station, so we decided to have a burger before carrying on and check our route. Davo GPS wanted us to leave the river path, and follow the road (this would be hills), but we decided to carry on the RAVel. It turned to dirt, then got a bit rocky, but was faster than the long slow hills, and it was really nice forest.

Bush track along the La Lesse river. Very nice.

When we came to a junction, we found some signs, and the trail we were following was actually a walk trail, and there was no way we could get our bikes through. There was a very steep goat track, that looked on the map like it went to a better quality path, so I walked up it to see if it was possible. Hell no it wasn't, I nearly died walking up it myself. And to top this off, on the way down, my arm brushed the shrubs on the side of the track and started stinging! Aaarrgghh, stinging nettles! I carried on down to give Will the news, and we discussed our options. Go back about 5kms, or follow the other road that was supposed to meet up with a secondary proper road.

Spot the Straya Animal in the Belgium bush. No chance for the bikes up this one.

Heading to the mud hole, please don't let me fall off in that.

As there was a shire vehicle (White van....?) parked, with a weird guy just sitting in it (see, work dodgers all over the world) we decided it had come in that way, so off we went. It was still dirt, mud and rocks, going up hill, but the forest was amazing, and it did come out as expected, phew! But, we had only dodged half the hill, and it was a long one. Trudgie, trudge up we go in third gear for a few kms with cars whizzing buy. 

Ah, so peaceful and beautiful.

7% down the other side, yay, should be a nice reward.

Down a few hills, up a few hills, and we came to a cool Chateau. Tourist attraction, but closed, not that we would have gone in, but it looked better without all the cars and stuff around it.  

Chateau De Veves! How cool does that look?

We had two more long hills to get up, and then, according to Davo, a very steep downhill. Oooo goodie! What he didn't tell us, was that it was a tiny little walk trail winding down someone's backyard. He he he, only 300mtrs, then we popped out to the most amazing view of Dinant. Roof tops, green hills, rocky cliffs, church steeples and an old castle at the top. Wow, awesome.

Oh, WOW! Dinant. It has everything.

Heading over the bridge to our path. Still wowing!

Zipping down into the town, we made our way to Le Meuse river, and the view was still awesome. Lots of people, old buildings, and a bridge full of saxophone sculptures? We discovered that Adolf Sax, the inventor of the saxophone, did it right here in Dinant, and they are very proud.

We thought they were just cool sculptures for a festival. Ha ha ha!

What an awesome cathedral. So gothic. They were busy doing repair work on the side.

From here we were back on easy street, along the river all the way to Profondeville. A nice ride, and the camp ground was easy to locate, but had the steepest hill of the day, to climb to get there. What a bummer, cause there is no way I'm doing that again today. Looks like emergency food for dinner, and let's hope the campground owner has a cold beer.

Lovely easy riding along the river.

One of the massive locks on this huge river.

As luck would have it, she did, for 1€ each, so we got a few, and drank them at room temperature, bloody cold! After getting our little home organised, we showered, and cooked our Uncle Bens and Salmon and made a coffee. Just about to retire to our tent, when another tourer came in. A young guy from Belgium on his second day, he'd ridden 140kms! Holy crap! Talk about fit. 

So we made Klaus a coffee and chatted for a bit, then as it was just getting a little dark (about 9pm), a car pulled in and two more young Belgium guys got out. It was obvious they were all friends, as they started hugging and talking to each other in some other language. Michael and Joseph had driven an hour and a half to come camp with Klaus and they'd bought beer and food and a care package from Klaus' mum. They were going to BBQ, but the camp lady wasn't having it, too late! So instead they just cooked their sausages on a little gas stove like we use. They had candles, beer, sausages, and chocolate. What more could you need?

Michael, Joseph and Klaus. Great Belgium Boys. Notice the shorts, it is bloody freezing.

By the time all the tents were up, and showers had, it was well after 10pm, and I was freezing, so headed off to bed to get warm. Will stayed up for a couple of beers and a chat, but after about an hour, I was still freezing, so put on another layer of clothes and got Will. We put our sleeping bags together (we don't usually, it's a bit of mucking around) and snuggled up in our layers. Finally we got warm and slept pretty well. It rained all night! Ugh!

3044 Kilometres So Far, Seriously?

28/05/15 Bastogne to Rochefort, Belgium 54km

Those hills must of taken it out of us, we both slept like babies, waking up at 9am. Oh dear, this is late, even for us. We have lots of work to do, dry washing, shopping, ride up some hills. We got moving. Will went on shopping duty, I got onto the washing, and packing up the sleeping gear. By the time we'd done everything and eaten some healthy muesli (with chocolate flakes, it is hard to get cereal without chocolate here) and had a coffee, it was after 11am.

Our little lonely camp. It was very comfortable.

We are following a Belgium cycle route, RV6, and luckily Davo GPS, found it too, so it made navigating pretty good today. The route is marked with Blue and Yellow lines, on poles, houses, signs, what ever, and you really have to look, so if we missed one, Davo would keep us onto it.

These are the marks we need to look for. Sometimes just paint on light poles.

We did three kilometres before the first 2nd gear hill, and from there it was much the same as yesterday, as far as the hills go. Up for long slow hills, but the downs were much more satisfying. We had two fantastic runs down, one was 5.5kms, and man was that fun. The road surface was new, there was not a single car, and the road wound gently through the forest, coming out into farmland and then up into a village. Woo hoo hoo! 

Decided to stop at this grand old church for morning tea.

Today we reached a milestone of 3000kms, which is amazing! We can't believe we've actually ridden all that way. We stopped for a snacko after 11kms and then realised we'd done it. So we celebrated with delicious pastries and a rest.

Then realised we'd clocked over the 3K mark. Super!

Lovely memorial to civilians and military killed in both World Wars. Sad.

Only half way up this long hill....not too steep, but bloody slow going.

See, still going up! Better be good going down!

Creepy old house, pretty cool!

Trying to get some speed up to help me up the other side was tough into the wind.

Another big event today, was the amount of wild life we saw today. Lots of Fat bottom cows, some brown fury sheep, something Will is calling a hedgehog, but I think was more squirrel/glider like, three little baby wild pigs, and the biggest surprise to us of all, a field of Black footed Wallabies. What? The poor buggers must be freezing, I asked Will if we could break them out, but he said no.

This is the last little piggy, the others buggered off and left him for dead. 

Wallabies in Belgium? It looked like a zoo, they had peacocks and other birds too.

Will speeding down this hill that went for over 5kms. Awesome!

This was our last big hill to climb. Thank goodness.

We rode through Nassogne, which is the highest point of our route, at 550mtrs, so from this point on, there will still be lots of ups, but more down, down, down. Yay! We had to veer a couple of kays off our route to find a camping ground, but it was a good flat run to Rochefort. 

Nice looking town, very clean and pretty street frontage.

Our home for tonight, right across from the toilets.

After we got our tent sorted, Will took all our devices and hid in the toilets for an hour or so getting them charged. He said he felt like a junkie, he is, a power junkie. He also had a shower, and I just tried to dry the rest of our washing, in the breeze.

It's bloody cold, and looking like rain. The weather gurus say no rain till Tuesday, but if you ask my left knee, it is going to rain. Ugh!

Gym Junky Fat Bottom Cows

27/05/15 Arlon to Bastogne, 58kms

After an evening of walking around Arlon, a couple of beers in The English Pub, and dinner at Hotel Trulli, which was fantastic, we crashed out in our room. We didn't rush out of bed, probably because we knew today was up hill all the way.

Another very nice church. Every big town has one, or more.

Breakfast was included, so we ate that. Ham, cheese, bread, coffee and juice! So gonna ride over what ever hills I need to, to get to an English breakfast. But it was ok. We both put our cold weather gear on, as although the temp was due to reach 18C with high humidity, it doesn't usually get there until around 4pm. And we did the right thing. It was cold.

Davo GPS was set for Bastogne, as we plan to follow the EV5 route to Namur, and it follows the RV6 Belgium cycle route from Bastogne to Namur. All I know is it is full of rolling, big sucker, hills. Ugh! But, we are doing it in reverse and it looks better this way. Still, hills means slower harder days. 

Getting out of Arlon was not hard, and it wasn't long before we were into the villages and farmland again. We had a nice downhill run through some forest, straight up, and came across a soccer pitch, in the middle of nowhere. We decided it was perfect for a stop to dry our tent. It was still wet from our rainy riding day.

Couple of refugees drying their stuff. Should of washed the clothes too.

We hung it over the fence, and chilled out watching it. Exciting stuff. A couple of middle aged leasure cyclists (on electric bikes) rode past and asked us for directions to Arlon. Yeah, I know right? How silly are they? But it was only 5.5kms away, and up a massive 12% gradient hill we'd just rolled down. At least they had help.

Loving the blue sky and the top of the hill.

Rolling hills, farmland, yarda yarda yarda! It was cold in the shade and going downhill, warm when the sun came out and going uphill, and we got some great 360 degree views. We keep seeing these unusual cows. I am calling them gym junky fat bottom cows. They are super buff, with the biggest "rumps" I have ever seen. Just plain strange, they seem to be milkers too.

Check out those butts! And their muscle definition, how do they do it?

They all had their bums facing me, until I took out the camera...cute.

We weaved from Belgium to Luxembourg and back again, and sometimes we had no idea which country we were in. The cars were a mix of rego plates, as many people live and work in either country. The houses were a little different, when you paid attention, but that is hard when you are pedalling your crap up hill after hill.

Conquered that one, with a nice view as a reward.

It was a tough hilly day, but we are both impressed with ourselves, as we managed to pedal up all of the hills, without breather breaks or walking. As you can imagine, the more hills you have to climb the harder they get. We stopped to eat about halfway, bananas, stale bread, cheese and choritzo. But it was nice, in a warm sunny spot.

Had to zig zag a bit to get up this one, but no stopping or walking. Woo hoo!

Are we in Luxembourg? I think so.

Spotted this Duce 2.5 truck in a little village, maybe in Luxembourg?

We enjoyed the downhill bits heaps, and tried to milk them for everything they're worth, as we knew we'd just have to pedal back up again. We did a total of 1340mtrs of climbing today, to get from 421mtrs to 510mtrs. Crazy!

The cycle path coming into Bastogne, downhill, will it last?

Made it to Camping Reval on the outskirts of town. Very nice and cheap!

It was a good day riding, and we are very proud of our success. We have a few more days of hills, so I don't think there will be many big kilometre days this week. Lots of swearing though, I'm sure.