Friday 19th September 2014 - Woke up. Room stinks. Everything still wet.
Go to get breakfast. Eat lots.
It's this hostel that stinks. Some weird smell, like a mixture of cheap cleaning products and wee.
Okay, my room kinda stinks as well with all the damp, cow poo slashed clothes. But, it still smells better than the hostel smell.
Lady on reception a bit offish last night and this morning. Therefore, not staying another night. Two things I detest are rudeness and smellyness.
Spoke to a nice Dutch couple from Gouda who were packing up their bikes in the courtyard. They were going to Rome.
Nasty woman said you MUST be out of your room by 10.30am. So just carted all my gear out into the courtyard. Hoped the sun would dry off some stuff while I packed up.
Everything was damp and dirty. The clothes I put on were still damp too, yuck.
Nothing was drying so packed up and went on. Found another cash machine on way out of town, it gave me some money.
Headed out the N4. Bored of cycling with so much traffic. Hills started to appear. Lots of dead animals on the road too.
Time to cut onto the country roads.
Far better. Scenery getting better, less cars, quieter. Nice. On the busy roads I also felt I had to push on as the cars were going to fast beside me. Now I can cycle tour again, leisurely. Things are all good again.
Lots of cows around this part. Lots of cow poo on the roads.
Hot humid again. Gears stopped changing in the front. Stuck in big ring. Have to stop, get off, find a twig (don't want oil/dirt on my hands or gloves) and manually change it down to a lower chainring for the hills.
One stage saw a hairy white caterpillar, with a red pointy up tail, crossing the road in front of me. Stopped, took a picture, decided not to interfere with nature and help it across the road, and cycled on.
Seconds later a car came past. Not sure if it survived.
Saw a field of peas, I think, in between the corn fields! Also a long row of mesh satellite dishes in another field too, odd!
Stopped at a lidl again. Got some nice floury white baps and some cheese slices. Made a couple and saved a couple for later. Some cereal bars too.
Hills were becoming frequent again, but the countryside was lovely. Nearly like home. I was cycling through the Ardennes.
Anyway, 7pm came around. I was tired, hot and knew it'd be getting dark through the trees to Champlon where there was a hostel I was planning to stay at.
Campsite a few km away in next village, Nassogne, so aimed for there. Barrier was down. No sign of life. Sign in French (the language they speak in this part of Belgium) said it was open until November 2014.
Pressed the buzzer on the barrier, which had a prerecorded message in French. All I got from it was hello!
An elderly man walked past and a man in a car stopped as well. I said I didn't understand the message. He pressed the buzzer. This time the owner answered. So once he'd finished, he told me to go on in and the owner will come in 10 minutes.
Deserted site. Bit sad looking, all the poor wee caravans left on their own. There was actually a couple staying in one of the caravans.
Sat and waited for the owner. Ate a cheese bap from earlier. Really lovely site, great views, only the sound of the country. Watched the sun setting while I waited.
So the owner and his wife turn up. Speaks no English, but basically shows me where to put the tent up for the best view of the sun rise in the morning. He was kind of a mix of Del Boy and Jimmy Saville (white hair part). He only wanted €5 though which was good.
Listened to the dogs and people in the forest on the opposite side of the valley to me, presumably hunting.
Someone was also randomly playing the trumpet somewhere too, which was slightly surreal.
Then later and through the night the owls and the stags mooing? Definitely not cows anyway.
Day 21 - 19.09.14
Namur to Nassogne, Belgium
12pm to 7pm
5hrs 10min cycling
66.4km
2554calories
1675 metres asc
No comments:
Post a Comment