Blonde Bird On A Bike

There is nothing not to like about cycling in Belgium – certainly not on my route so far – the good weather helped too – but if you enjoy cycling, wether its pootling about on an electric bike or hammering up the cobbles on a racer, there is someting for everyone.

Tiny little pretty villages with largely red bricked and red tiled houses linked together with nice quiet roads. Belgium is definitely more lumpy than the area of France I’ve just been in, and the roads more twisty and turny too but this makes it more interesting and there was only the top of one steep uphill that I didn’t successfully cycle to the top of.

I did one section of super straight, super flat, super smooth new tarmac – it was fantastic but would be incredibly boring if it was all like that.

In France and Belgium I’ve enjoyed seeing the murals –

In Belgium I’ve seen a couple of interesting woven structures at picnic areas –

Lille in France has to be the nicest city I have ever cycled in or out of – good network of cycle paths or lanes took me almost to my destination and the route took me through the lovely Parc de Citadel.

I can’t remember if I was in France or Belgium but I was grumped at by one old lycra clad cyclist – it was still early in the day; I’d stopped at the edge of the tow path to check my route; plenty of room on the path on my left hand side for anyone to get past me; grumpy cyclist, going in same direction as me takes it upon himself to cycle past me on my right hand side on the thin strip of grass between me and the canal and grumbles something at me on the way past – I’ve no idea how he didn’t land in the canal and kind of wish he had.

Road signs and a duck road block –

I’ve not met a lot of other tourers so far – Luke the retired Italian teacher from Belgium who was returning home after a fortnights touring in England on his electric bike – we parted company when he had to find a more direct route to Lille to find a cafe so he could get his bike charged up – he was impressed that I didn’t have an electric bike and based on struggling to gets things charged up at times I’m glad I didn’t have an electric bike – having to charge up a bike as well sounds like just an extra thing I don’t want to do – he did have lots of interesting stories about treking some of the Via Francigena with a donkey and also having to track down a donkey who escaped during the night because he didn’t like hills and headed back the way he had come.

I stopped and blethered to another lady cycled tourist who was just doing a “short” tour from her home in the Netherlands. We met again at the same campsite that evening and I’m glad she told me which of the 2 showers gave hot water and which one didn’t!

The campsite was a lovely basic one on a farm and cost me only £11.60 for the night, including a wee bottle of wine from the farm shop.

A wee bit chiller the next morning and I’ve got my jacket on – still wearing my sandals though and got ridiculous suntan marks to prove it.

Came to a slightly bigger town in Belgium, Geraardsbergen, with a good pull up to the town square but we make it – the next up from the square and out of the town is where I fail to get to the top – being over taken by serious racers and old buddies on electric bikes while I’m pushing Phil up the last wee bit – I def need to work on my hill fitness.

Later on I manage to cycle a longish uphill cobbled section – fairly flat cobbles I would have to admit but cobbles all the same – I do it in 3 stages – before doing the last section I wait for 3 proper cyclists to go past – 2 keep going and sail past – the shorter stalkier one is finding it harder work and stops just in front of me – I wait for him to head off again – I’m crap at hill starts and even worse with a loaded bike and an audience – I finally set off puffing and panting like nothing on earth but determined to get to the top without stopping again and miraculously manage to overtake the other cyclist – to say I was a happy bunny was an understatement – we all chatted for a bit and it turned out that they were over from England ticking off as much of the Tour of Flanders as they could.

There was another dog leg on the EV5 route into Brussels which I chose to ignore and followed the more direct green cycle signs that knocked off about 10 miles.

Spent the last day and a half sightseeing in Brussels – walked everywhere and that’s been harder work than the cycling and I’ve now got achy right calf. I could have used the trams to get to The Atomium but then I wouldn’t have seen the big Sunday Market and the ducks and the fabby lighthouse mural various other things on my way.

Wee visit it to Dover Castle (and the Roman Lighthouse) and South Foreland Lighthouse the day before I got ferry to Calais.

Arrived in Calais and made wee detour to Lighthouse – unfortunately couldn’t go in as it was closed for lunch.

Already much easier cycling and route marked so relaxed and enjoyed the scenery UNTIL an older French cyclist stopped and thought it was ok to flash his tackle at me!

Saw black fluffy baby moorhens and other birds – much nicer viewing.

Took a while and a bit of a detour before I got to a campsite that takes tents – 4th time lucky but got a nice wee spot.

I’m following the Eurovelo 5 Via Francigena (EV5 VF) which will hopefully take me to Italy – at the moment it is a completely different route from the traditional walking plilgramage route but at the Swiss / Italian border the walking and cycling routes will overlap at times and run much more closely together. The EV5 is an ongoing project with gaps where you have to plan the route yourself to join the sections up – the day before yesterday was a lot of make it up as I went along but the last section was nice and came right past a campsite so decided to have a nice early finish.

According to EV5 online map for yesterday I was to head south and then take a dog leg back north to Lille – according to the sign posts I can cut a chunk out and keep going straight along the canal – I took the easier quicker option.

Lots of bird life and got lucky when a kingfisher briefly perched on the fence post next to wear I was sitting. Found a hostel in Lille for the night and abandoned Phil while I went for a wander around the city and treated myself to a fabby huge icecream.

Some of the hostel dormitory doors.

Packed and heading off in the direction of Belgium – unlikely but aiming for Brussels tonight.

Hi folks, I’d hoped to keep my blog going like last time but unfortunately I’m really struggling to keep phoned charged – couldn’t even take photos this afternoon. Im spending more time (and money) in cafes than I would like just trying to keep it charged up so going back to paper notes which may get put into blog at some point. If anyone wants to know where I am the tracker (hopefully) is still running.

For anyone that’s not heard of the cycling “Warm Showers”, it’s an organisation where people offer cycle tourists a place to sleep for free – it might be somewhere to pitch your tent in their garden, or a spot on the floor or sofa to sleep or they may even have a spare bed for you. It’s a bit hit or miss whether they can accommodate you or not as they may be cycle touring themselves or have other commitments on. But I got lucky last night and stayed with Alix and her partner Jean. They made me a fantastic vegi meal with produce from their garden and I got a bed for the night. We spent ages talking about cycling in general and the trips we have done. Alix and Jean have done lots of cycle tours in England and Wales but none in Scotland yet but hopefully they will make it my way sometime. Alix sent me on my way with tips for that days route and it was another beautiful day.

On one long section of cycle path that ran beside the road – not very exciting in terms of views but good for getting some miles under the belt – I could see someone ahead of me going super fast but definitely not on a bicycle. I thought they might be on inlinr roller skates but when I finally caught up with her (only because she had stopped) it turned out she was on roller skis and was part of Manchester cross country ski team and was out training.

I got a wee bit lost finding the cycle path that had been recommended from Poynton (a bit south of Stockport) and accidentally found the Brookside Garden Centre and their minature railway, and of course I had to give it a shot.

I then found the Middlewood Way cycle path that had been recommended, that took me from from Poynton to Macclesfield along what would once upon-a-time have been railway line – a beautiful stretch but with it being a Sunday busy at times with other cyclists, walkers and horse riders but would definitely recommend this route.

In Macclesfield I managed to make a rendezvous with Karen who was driving north from Dover in the campervan. And in the handy but not pretty setting of the Aldi carpark she made me a ham sandwich and I got rid of someone of my stuff from my overly full panniers for Karen to take North.

On to the final stretch to Waterhouses, which has another nice off road sections past Rudyard Lake and another minature (but significantly bigger than the last one) railway line. No time for playing on the trains this time but did stop for juice and an ice lolly – when she asked what I wanted and being toasty hot again, she understood what I meant when I asked for the iciest ice lolly.

Finally arriving at Emma’s I made good use of her washing machine and had another lovely meal including cauliflour & cheese with cauliflour grown in her allotment. I also drank the wee bottle of prosecco that my work colleagues had given me and I’d carried all the way from home.

Not sure how much sleep I got last night. I’d pitched the tent between a campervan and a car, hoping I’d get some protection from the wind – not a chance in hell – I’d already used more pegs than usual when I pitched the tent – maybe I should have used the guys ropes as well but not convinced they would have made a lot of difference. Despite wind and lack of sleep I’d definitely like to come back to this campsite and I got lucky – a family of 4 had been there for the week including the arrival of Storm Floris – they had a number of broken tent poles due to the storm – the following day they reduced there large family sized tent from 3 sections to 2 sections, taking out the broken poles and putting the intact poles in the usable section of the tent – the following night the rain came in and they woke up in a pool of water – rescued by the campsite owner they were given duvets to use while their sleeping bags dried and they were still there to tell the tale and having fun, while most would have packed it in.

View from campsite in the morning – threatening clouds but no rain came

Back on the road again – beautiful swooping downs and hellishly hard ups and then came to a road block – a jack knifed lorry completely blocking the road!

I asked the driver if I could get past – he didn’t speak English – pointing to indicate going round, he just gave me a shake of his head. I’d just come down a hill and was definitely not keen to go back up it and then “Heathcliff” arrived – “He is dark-skinned gipsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman: that is, as much a gentleman as many a country squire: rather slovenly, perhaps, yet not looking amiss with his negligence, because he has an erect and handsome figure; and rather morose.” – dark skin and black eyes and handsome but definitely not morose, despite having to help sort out a jack knifed lorry on the way to his farm and now having to help me get past too. He confirms that I can’t get past due to a large drainage ditch but he heads uphill to get some wood to form a bridge so that he can carry the bike over for me – he returns, not long after, carry a large piece of sleeper. However I have had an alternative idea – would it be easier to go under the lorry? “Heathcliff” goes backwards supporting the front of the bike, I’ve got the back of the bike,we are both crouched as low as we can and I’m glad I’ve got my helmet on – we have to tip the bike slightly to one side but we all make it through – don’t think we ticked any of the health and safety boxes at all but I’m on my way again after saying thank you to a still smiling “Heathcliff”.

Route under the lorry.

The last time I cycled in Yorkshire I swore I would never do it again and now I’m repeating these thoughts. I want to come back but with hiking boots next time.

Today I’ve got to be in Manchester before 4.15pm as I have a ticket for The Lowry exhibition, I’ve also been offered a bed through the cycling “Warm Showers” website that night but I’m going hell of a slow and make the decision to cycle to Kendal and take the train from there to Manchester. Getting a ticket for me is easy but it’s too late notice to book Phil on but we are in luck as there are no other bikes on board and also the entrance of the train is level with the platform which makes it really easy to push Phil on (take note Scotrail). 90 minutes later I’m in Manchester and cycling along the canal tow path, listening to the tunes from the “party” canal boats, on my way to The Lowry Gallery and special 360° exhibition – very pleased that I’ve been able to see this and it was the right decision to take the train today.

Now cycling back along the tow bath and onto Manchester city centre – it’s only 6.30 but it’s already busy with folks going out for the night and I’m glad to make it the few miles south of the city to Alix’s who has kindly offered to put me up for the night.