Firstly, a bit of business: some people have complained they can't leave comments - I've hopefully fixed that and if you'd like to leave a comment, please do!
I finally have a chance to upload some pictures from the first part of the trip! Firstly I must mention that I’ve mainly been filming footage of the trip so I can edit together a movie (premieres 2012), and not concentrating on taking any pictures, so these are all from Sam’s camera.
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| On the ferry! |
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| Our bikes (mine is on the right) |
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| We made it to Belgium! |
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| Me, Charles and Sam in Brussels. |
After my last blog post we continued to discover the nice part of Belgium! We had another dream day of weather: 23°C at the hottest part! So the cycling shorts were dug out of the bag and off we went. One thing should be mentioned about the ‘nice part’ of Belgium is the steep climbs and drops we endured for the best part of the day. As much as I enjoyed the challenge of pushing body and mind to the limit, there were times when it just seemed ridiculous. We would be climbing for about an hour, and then a one minute descent would take us back to square one! It was a tough day and at about 2.30pm we found a quaint little campsite to save our legs.
The following day was not as pleasant, both in terms of the nice weather and the gentle climbs we did the day before. We had purposely stopped a few km north of Bastogne so we could spend some time there the next day. However, the weather had other ideas. It was FREEZING, it maybe peaked at 2°C. We were just too cold to give Bastogne a respectful visit and just wanted to get back on the bikes to warm up again. Bastogne sits on the border with Luxembourg and by late morning we had crossed into our third country of the trip!
Our first impressions of Luxembourg were very positive; the first things we obviously notice are the road conditions and the environment around us. The roads were beautifully smooth after the bumpy and ragged roads in Belgium. Something that is seemingly a minor factor in a countries repertoire can have such a good impression on a cyclist. We instantly fell in love with Luxembourg. The landscape felt a lot like England in the first few miles – a lot of open grassland, broad valleys and wooded areas.
Once we turned off the main highway onto the B roads we were thrown straight into the deep end. The River Sûre had cut deep gorges through the earth creating the steepest of valley sides that we had to climb. We spent about 4 hours going back and forth following this river, only to make about 10km in overall distance south. It was stunning to cycle through, just very challenging and it took a lot to keep going.
However, my favourite part of the trip occurred around mid afternoon: We had been sweating and cursing up a hill for over an hour, and then in the distance we saw a sign that warned us of a steep descent, over 10% in gradient. We hammered it towards this epic downhill section and I absolutely caned it on the way down, my eyeballs felt like they were about to pop out, at one point I looked down at the speedometer and it stated: 43.9Mph - the fastest I’ve ever been on a bike. If you know anything about cycling you’d realise that these kinds of speeds are hard to reach on the best of road bikes out there, but on a chunky touring bike carrying 30kg of kit and 75kg of muscle, this is impressive.
My achievements were short-lived with the anti climax of another steep uphill section around the corner. By 4pm we were still about 20km away from the campsite we had aimed to reach. We decided to just carry on and see how far we could get until the night drew in. Luckily, we stumbled onto a main road that took us directly to the town it was close too, and most importantly without any soul destroying hill climbs. We finally made it to the campsite at about 6pm and had to celebrate with a beer at their local. We had done 60 miles in total, but that only tells half the story.
My achievements were short-lived with the anti climax of another steep uphill section around the corner. By 4pm we were still about 20km away from the campsite we had aimed to reach. We decided to just carry on and see how far we could get until the night drew in. Luckily, we stumbled onto a main road that took us directly to the town it was close too, and most importantly without any soul destroying hill climbs. We finally made it to the campsite at about 6pm and had to celebrate with a beer at their local. We had done 60 miles in total, but that only tells half the story.
Feeling refreshed and well rested we set off for Luxembourg city this morning at 10am. Last night we had reached a town called Septfontaines and this was only about 20km from the capital. We arrived into Luxembourg city at midday and I demolished a meat feast pizza in pizza hut. We’re stopping here for 2 nights at a hostel to have a well earned rest and to explore this historic city.
Next on the agenda – head through France into Switzerland and tackle the Alps!
Next on the agenda – head through France into Switzerland and tackle the Alps!
