Day 3 - Luttre to Tihange

Day 3, and this ended up being one of the longest days of the trip. The previous campsite was in Luttre yesterday, about 20km north of Charleroi and the next campsite is in Huy, another 20km further than Andenne. Plus, to make matters worse, I missed the turnoff to follow the cycle path around the northern suburbs of Charleroi and followed the towpath until it dead-ended in some industrial shipping port with practically no way out.

This meant working my way through villages, massive inclines and a four-lane entry road to make it into the centre of town. There it was still too early to have a coffee - I must have left the campsite in Luttre at 6.30 or some ungodly hour like that, I hadn't turned my phone on since I left the house - so it was hard to find anybody to ask directions from. Finally, I managed to find my way out, in fact the system is pretty easy; follow the river, always head east. But since most of the days are relatively uneventful, the slightest incident becomes major drama.

That was one of the interesting conclusions from the trip; that I created an environment where there was very little stimulation from things like people, electronics, public transport, news, etc... and emotions were created from the internal dialogue I maintained. Eventually even that stopped and I became zen, just dealing with things as they came up and not commenting on them either way, or classifying them as hitches to my plans or bis where my plan succeeded. They just were, and all that kicked in at about this time.

Here's the map:


View Day 3 - Saint-Ghislain to Andenne in a larger map

The campsite was called "Camping Mosan", rue de la Paix 3, 4500 Huy, Belgium and the telephone is +32 85 23 10 51. It was a bit difficult to get hold of them as nobody answered the phone and e-mails went without a reply. But eventually I managed to get through and reserve a place for the night. Finding the campsite was a bit confusing as there is also a sporting complex called Mosan in the town and it is way up on a mountain, nowhere near the campsite, so should you decide to go there (it is quiet, clean and small, you need to know that it is located in a suburb called Tihange and is right near the nuclear power plant. You can't miss it.

See.