18. Day 10. Saturday 31st August

Start Point: Sedan 560'
Highest Point during the day: 925'
End Point: Verdun 785'
Total Climbing 1185'
Climbing difficulty factor 40
Distance: 59 miles
Cumulative distance: 457 miles

Just had the best shower of the journey! In an F1 Hotel (anyone remember?)

Following my day off on Friday, I was ready for an early start today. Despite a sunny and warm forecast, it was quite chilly as I brought my bike out into the open at 8:15, and there was a little bit of rain in the air. I stuck with the shorts, but added a lightweight waterproof jacket.

With time on my hands the previous night, I had experimented with different options on the bike route website. The biggest issue was a lot of ups and downs on the elevation profile for today, but a pretty flat option if I followed the river (River Meuse), which would mean more miles but less climbing. The problem was that the cycle route normally indicated with a red line, was a dotted red line following the river. I couldn't find any description of what dotted meant but decided it was worth a try. I made myself a new route for the day and loaded up 'plan b' onto the gps. All went well till about 10am. The path in front of me was getting narrower and narrower, and I was gathering vegetation as I tried to keep going. Eventually, at the point indicated in the photo, I gave up and started walking with the bike:

  
The idea of turning round was out of the question as I had been on this path for a few miles with nothing on the left and only the river on my right. The sat nav indicated that there were country lanes about 3/4 mile ahead towards the left.

It's amazing how quickly you can get into a mess, because soon I was struggling to get the bike through deep undergrowth and scrambling under branches. When I got into the open, it was very long grass which was still wet with dew, and soon my shoes, socks and feet were wet.

The worse was yet to come, as I reached barbed wire and/or electric cattle fences. The bike is quite heavy with the pannier bags but I lifted it over about three obstacles. The field became better underfoot but at the opposite end was a large herd of cows (or were they bulls I wondered?). Anyway, they stared at me but didn't come over for a closer look.

Then came the highest obstacle. A fence/gate made out barbed wire and chains about chest high. There was no way I could lift the bike over as it stood, so I took the bags off and then managed to get the bike onto the other side. Unfortunately, I had to let it fall away from me as the barbed wire was snagging my jacket. I then got the bags over and finally myself. Phew! No injuries, but the bracket which hold the drinks bottle had broken.

At the other side of this fence was a farm track heading to the road showing on my sat nav screen. Three farm workers were about 200 yards away and were looking at me. Maybe a French confrontation was about to unfold. I practiced the words "lost" "sorry" and "sat nav" in my head. Thankfully, I didn't need them, and a minute later, I was on a proper road made out of tarmac. In total, nearly an hour had been spent getting out of my mess!

The rest of the morning was quiet. Most of the villages seemed closed. I thought, being a weekend, there might be more people around. I didn't see many shops, and the only bakery I passed was closed - on a Saturday lunchtime! What's all that about?

Lunch was a couple of crepes left over from yesterday and a muesli bar. Over the next two hours in the Meuse valley, I passed several war cemeteries. They were all WW1 and French except for one which was WW1 German. This is one of the French ones:

My 60 mile journey was planned to end in a large town called Verdun. I had checked hotels the night before but not booked anything as it seemed to be a big place with lots of choices. I had decided to see how far I got, how tired I felt, and what hotels were around. By about 4pm I had reached Verdun and was ready to stop, but decided it would be nice to get a hotel on the south side of town so that I was ready on Sunday to continue without having to go through the town.

Everything worked out well, because about half a mile after the town centre, I saw a sign for a Formula 1 hotel 2km ahead. It must be 20 years since I have stayed in one, but it was exactly the same. No receptionist, just a credit card in the wall (£25) and you are given a code to access the front door and the bedroom door. Showers and toilets are down the corridor. They were very clean and the shower was really hot and powerful.

The only thing I had forgotten was how small the rooms are. There is literally just enough room for me, a bed, and of course, my bike:

Finally, here is the map. Blue spot me, red spot Wengen about 340 miles away.

17. Day 9. Friday 30th August

Sometimes I think it's all psychological. You know the feeling, you have something planned and you think, I couldn't have lasted another day or another mile. I had planned to do three days cycling then have a rest day. Today, the fourth day, I could not have got on my bike for anything, and I slept all afternoon! I wonder if from the outset, I had planned to do 4 days cycling and then a day of rest, would I have managed it, and would I be writing this blog on the fifth day?

So, nothing big to report today. I got a bug bite yesterday on my finger on the knuckle just in front of my wedding ring. During the night it was itching and swollen, so I decided to remove my wedding ring. Impossible. In fact, it made things worse, so for 15 minutes at about 3am, I sat with my left hand in a bowl of cold water. Today, the ring is still stuck there, but the swelling has gone down. I think due to the heat, my fingers are bigger than usual, so it won't come off, but I am not worried as much as I was in the middle of the night! Here is a picture: (no, only kidding!)

I haven't really got many pictures today, but I did walk into town this morning and realised how stunning this building is. I am in a hotel which is called The Hotel of the Chateau Fort. The Chateau Fort being the medieval castle that is built on high ground in Sedan, France.

I have mainly stayed in B and B's on the way, usually spending about £40 or 50 Euros a night. I was surprised to see this on the bookings.com website for 65 Euros. There must be a catch I thought, as it looked stunning and was competing at that price with some very basic budget chains. I still don't know how I got the price I did, and there has been no catch! The only thing I can think is they hope you will eat here and the menu is silly money! So, pizza across the road tonight at a café with table outside on the cobbles!

The first photo is off the hotel's website:

This picture is on the inside of the Fort Square. My room is second from the left and fourth from the top. At the left hand side just above the very bright light, you can see an archway which goes into a tunnel down towards the town. The next two photos show this entrance tunnel taken from the outside coming into the fort:

And finally, here is the map showing where I am (blue spot) and where Wengen is (red)

For clarification, I am at the halfway point between Alsager and Wengen (Total is about 800 miles) and I am at about 4/10ths of the way across the European bit. Not forgetting, of course, that the big climbs have yet to come. I looked ahead last night at the elevation profile, and most of the biggest ups and downs each day have been 500 or 600 feet. On one of the days towards the end of next week, there is a climb of over 3000' over a distance of only 5 miles!!

16. Day 8. Thursday 29th August

Start Point: Lompret 645'
Highest Point during the day: 1250'
End Point: Sedan 560'
Total Climbing 1515'
Climbing difficulty factor 42
Distance: 72 miles
Cumulative distance: 398 miles
The hardest day so far. As I was planning a rest day tomorrow and therefore needed a two night stay in a hotel, I decided to look on Wednesday night on the internet. I booked a nice hotel at a reasonable rate and thought it looked about the right distance for a relatively easy day ie: 50 to 60 miles.

I set off late at 9:45 and gradually realised as the day went on that this was too far. In the end it turned out to be 72 miles, one more than yesterday!

Here's my only picture of the day:

 
So, exhausted! But day off tomorrow, and at 398, I'm just about half way, so it's all downhill from here (not really).

Just a quick note about visiting Ann.
Next week (weekdays), Ann has visitors booked on Thursday only. If anybody is interested in visiting on TUESDAY AFTERNOON 3RD SEPTEMBER, please text or email me. Appointments for Tuesday are released on the previous Friday, ie: tomorrow.

15. Day 7. Wednesday 28th August

Start Point: Brugelette 165'
Highest Point during the day: 840'
End Point: Lompret 645'
Total Climbing 2096'
Climbing difficulty factor 59
Distance: 71 miles
Cumulative distance: 326 miles

I didn't think much of last night's hotel. It was a few miles off my route, which got it off on the wrong foot, and it was a bit passed its sell by date. When I realised breakfast was extra, I decided to pass, and left at 8:30 hoping to find a little Belgian Bakery round the next corner. Unfortunately, no bakery, and in fact, no corners. One length of road, with a cycle path running alongside it, was about 7 miles long with not even a bend! It's quite tough cycling in a perfectly straight line - mentally I mean.

Eventually, about 10:15, I came into a town and the first building on the left was Lidl. Not exactly a local bakery, but it provided refreshments.

Whilst sitting next to my bike eating breakfast, I noticed how my bike was starting to look like it had done over 250 miles:

My indicator lights are working again. In the photo below, you can see the best invention ever, plastic ties, which now hold it in place instead of the broken bracket.

Lunch was taken on a bench overlooking the river. Behind me was a run-down farm with goats and chickens wandering around. After 20 mins or so and a phone call from Ray (Smith), I was just about ready to get up when suddenly there was a noise behind me, and a packet of biscuits had been snatched from my bench and was now on the floor. This was the cocky thief:

Today was a climbing day, with the end point 500' higher than the start point. But if it had been just a steady climb, it would have been a lot easier than all the undulations, giving me a total of 2000' climbed. However, in the afternoon, I stopped for a minute to take a photo of my sat nav as I reached the 300 miles point:

About 5ish I reached a medium sized town. I was ready for stopping here or at the most, another town 10 miles further on. I decided if I saw a hotel or BnB, then I would stop. I didn't see one, but I did see a Tourist Office, where they recommended a hotel in between the two towns in a village called Lompret. It was another 25 minutes away, but it was worth it. Here's a picture looking down to the back of the hotel:

The owners are very friendly and trusting. Here's where they let me put my bike (next to all the beers) and even suggested I could use the fridge if I had food or drink for tomorrow.

Temperatures today were a bit uncomfortable for cycling. It was sunny and 25 degrees in the afternoon. I got a shock after my shower, when I noticed my upper body was two colours, white where the bike shirt had been and brown on my face and lower arms:

After two days covering nearly 160 miles, I think I'm going to ease off tomorrow, perhaps starting a bit later and maybe doing about 50 miles. I've been pushing myself a bit, continually setting targets, so before I burn out, I think I'll just slow down a bit!

The map below has a blue spot showing my current location, and the red marker shows Wengen,

14. DAY 6 Tuesday 27th August

Start Point: Zeebrugge Port 0'
Highest Point during the day 420'
End Point:: Brugelette 165'
Total Climbing: 1075'
Climbing Difficulty factor 25
Distance today: 87 miles
Cumulative distance: 255 miles

At 8:45 this morning, I was at the front of the queue of cars on the "Pride of Bruges" waiting for the doors to open. It was a frustrating 10 minute delay until I cycled out onto the Belgian concrete.

However, after that it was fast progress on the superb cycle routes from Zeebrugge to Bruges and halfway to Gent. Here is a typical cycle path which I was on around 10am

I made really good progress, stopping for lunch (bread/cheese bought mid-morning at Spar) with 40 miles on the clock by 1pm.

There were about a dozen women sitting at a couple of nearby picnic tables. I asked them if there was a toilet nearby, then I found out they were all school teachers on their lunch break from the primary school 50 yards beyond. I was offered a loo in the school, which was fun because it was about 70% of a normal sized loo!

In the afternoon, my pace slowed as the flat country of Belgium proved to be a bit hilly. About 3.30, I had a small accident which was really annoying. On a steep uphill, I crashed the gears and my chain went off the top cog of the rear gears. I jumped off to sort it out, but because of the weight of the pannier bags on the front wheels, the bike spun away from me, and my arm/elbow smashed into the rear light and my rear indicator light. Both fell off. Luckily, neither was broken, but both brackets were broken :-(  So at the moment I have no rear light or indicators but hopefully I can fix them in the morning with some plastic wire ties which I've brought in my tool bag.

At 75 miles (6pm) I came to Lessines and began looking for a hotel. I couldn't find one locally but one in Brugelette viewed on the internet seemed ok and looked quite close. I booked it on my phone but found it was a bit further than I'd hoped.

I eventually arrived at quarter past 7 with 87 miles on the clock. The last 10 were tough. I don't think I will try to do so far again.

On the map below, the blue spot shows where I am:

 

13. Day 5. Monday 26th August

Start Point: Beverley 50'

Highest point during the day 80'

End Point: Hull Port 0'

Total climbing 115'

Climbing difficulty factor 14

Distance 16 miles

Cumulative distance 168 miles

After breakfast, we strolled into Beverley and visited The Minster. On a previous trip, we had been on a tour of the roof which was amazing, seeing all the timber used hundreds of years ago to construct the very high roof. Today was just a ground floor visit. I called in the shop and bought a copy of Desiderata - worth reading every so often!

Later, we checked the bike route by car to find it was actually closed requiring a lengthy detour. However, by altering the initial part of the route, it was possible to go a different way (no further) and rejoin the planned route about 5 miles south of Beverley. 

So, at 2:39pm I set off on what I hope will be my shortest bike ride of the next 15 days.

I was soon at the point where I joined my sat nav's purple line on my screen and relaxed again. In just over an hour I arrived at the docks. I thought I was classed as a foot passenger and went to terminal 1 where I was redirected to terminal 2. After check in and passport I was directed down the empty lane 9 and I overheard the woman with the walkie talkie telling the boat crew that she had a bike passenger and should she send me on first. By the time she turned round to tell me, I was starting to pedal. Two things: the ramps to the upper car decks are steep when you're on a bike, and secondly, a car ferry is quite long, especially when the cars were now in a long line behind me as I cycled the full length of the car deck!

I had to tie up my bike (see photo) and then took all my gear up to my cabin which is where I am writing this so I can post it on the blog whilst I still have a UK signal. 

Tomorrow looks like being a great day for cycling. Belgium is very flat, in fact my route follows a riverside cycle path for about 30 miles, so I should make good progress. I've started to worry a bit about my daily mileage once I get near the Alps. I have to average 53 per day, but I'm starting to think a few 60-70 mile days would give me a good cushion later on, when the mountains might reduce me to 20-odd miles on some days. 

12. DAY 4 - Sunday 25th August

Had a very relaxing day today.

Ann telephoned at 10am. She is able to buy a phone card and use the phone if it is available (I think there are 2 phones and 80 people, so it is a quick call usually on the way to or back from a meal). Today she was on her way to a church service, so was able to make a short call and speak to me and Brian & Susan. When they gave the phone back to me, I could hear Ann was upset, but realised that talking to people whom you haven't spoken to since last month, is still very difficult.

Brian and I went in to Beverley to get me a new money belt as my £2.99 eBay one had torn in several places. The new £11 Millets version seems much better. I also bought a packet of 30 fabric plasters - enough for 15 days!

In the afternoon, we went to Beverley Races and had a really nice day in the sunshine. The day was made even better by my picking the winner in 4 out of the 7 races. Apart from the first one, which I chose based on form, the others were all because of family connections:

Jelly Fish won at 5/2 - I chose this because Jennee's initials are JEL and she has often been call Jel or Jelly or something similar

Chloe's Dream won at 7/2 - I chose this because of Chloe

Woodstock won at 7/2 - I chose this because James, Chloe and Jen are at a music festival this weekend and Woodstock was a famous music festival.

This photo is Chloe's Dream coming up to the winning line:

And this photo is me collecting my winnings after Woodstock won the last race:

Tonight, we went to check out a country lane nearby that is part of tomorrow's route, as Brian thought it might be closed as they are building a new bypass nearby. It was closed, so luckily, I can adjust my route before setting off.

My thighs are telling me I've cycled 150 miles in the last three days, but generally, I'm feeling ready to get back in the saddle again. Monday is only 15 miles to the ferry which is overnight, then the fun will begin on Tuesday morning in Zeebrugge with 630 miles ahead