Day 2 - Bernissart to Luttre

For the second day of the trip, we head deeper into Belgium to finish up in Luttre (when I kind of wanted to go a bit further to Saint-Ghislain), which is just on the northern outskirts of Charleroi. The blue pin is where the campsite was, the red pin is where I would have liked to have ended up.


View Day 2 - Grandglise to Saint-Ghislain in a larger map

This day was a bit of a surprise as I arrived at the next campsite by noon. Since I didn't have my phone on, I didn't really know what time it ever was. So I guess that I must have left Bernissart very early. My destination was: "Le Camping Trieu du Bois" , in Luttre, Belgium. More about that one later, there was still a whole day, well five hours, of cycling to do.

Like I said, I wanted to see just how light I could travel and I ended up with just 7.5kg of gear. This included my tent, groundcloth, sleeping bag, cotton insert, sleeping mat,a change of clothes, a very minimal toilet kit, a tool kit and a bit of First Aid supplies. I also had some flip-flops. I carried a camera on my belt, and various stuff in the pockets of my vest. The bike started out looking like this:

Things change and I will let you know when they do.

The day was amazing, mostly because it seemed to go a lot faster than the first day, the weather was cooler and in fact the distance I covered was a bit shorter because the campsite was north of Charleroi, so I didn't really have a full 70km to do, probably about 55km. Not only that, but I came across the most amazing thing I have ever seen on a canal - it is the Strep-Thieu barge elevator that is found at Strep-Thieu (funnily enough) on the Belgium Canal du Centre. Have a look at the website here Ascenseur Strepy-Thieu, it is in French, but still incredible. t is a massive elevator that lifts and descends the huge barges that use the Canal du Centre. Here's my picture of it:

You come rolling in along the path you see at the bottom, in the middle, then have to ride uphill until you are level with the black structure in the picture. The canal is at my back and heads off to the east, the cycle path is a dream.

The campsite was simple and clean, though a bit steep at 10.00 Euros a day, plus another Euro for the Tourist Tax, for what it actually offered. This was a shower, a loo and nothing else. Luckily there was a Carrefour Market close by and the campsite was just off the cycle path and canal, so there wasn't any added hassle. It all looks idyllic when you see the photos, so maybe it was and I am just being a bit cheap in hindsight.




This is the street side entrance to the campsite, there is another one at the back that goes straight to the cycle path. This is it below.

My tent was at the back end and you can see the path and the canal in the background.

And here is the office: