View Day 4 - Andenne to Lanaye in a larger map
The day started out very well and I left my little snug area beside the nuclear power plant and moved on towards Holland. It was all getting very exciting as I was about to get to a point where I could say that I had completely crossed a whole country on my bike. The country was Belgium, but still it was almost 280km and it still counts as a country.
Leaving Tihange was fine, but part of the path is on a busy four-lane highway, but you soon leave it for the calmer towpaths along the river. I also dead-ended into a stone quarry and had to manoeuvre through the delivery part of the factory. The worst part though, was the entire cycle route ending in Seraing, just outside of Liege and a crappy sign system that leaves you hanging. Getting into Liege was fraught with highways and major road systems and I think in the future I will scout out train stations around that area just to avoid the whole frightening scenario. Once in Liege though things were fine and the path out was beautiful.
And had interesting bits along the edges.
It didn't take long out of Liege to get to the border with The Netherlands and getting into the country was over a bridge that was actually an hydraulic dam that generated electricity. This is it.
I arrived at Camping Oosterdriessen at 11.30 in the morning! So I figure that I must have left Tihange at some ungodly hour, especially taking into account all the hassle I had getting into and out of Liege. But let's not dwell on that.
Once there I got everything out and while it was drying a French guy started up a conversation with me. This really threw me because I hadn't really spoken with anybody since I left the house on the previous Friday. Nothing more than , "A coffee, please" or "How much?". So actually responding to questions like, "Where have you come from?" and "Would you like a cigarette?" stretched my imagination. The young man, because he was only 26, was named Antoine Duvernoy and he was on his way from Amsterdam all the way to Lyon, in France - 1200km away. He had left on the 21st July and on the day I met him he had been out 17 days. He had 85kg of stuff in a trailer that he was pulling behind his bike, and tried to average 60km per day while pedaling more than 10 hours per day. I couldn't believe it, since it was just about noon, so was wondering if he was taking a day off. Which was the case as he had gotten up that morning, cycled 4km and was so fed up that he decided to stop again.
Antoine, with all my gear drying in the back.
We spent the day at the beach on the lake.
He fished while I slept.
And then he made a pasta and tuna dish with tomato sauce.
You see, Antoine is a chef/bartender in Lyon and he had all kinds of kitchen stuff with him, like frying pans and pots, which explained why his load was so heavy. Afterwards we drank beer and watched the sun go down. I had news from him when I got back, his bike broke down in the east of France and he decided to take the train back to Lyon and next time he thinks he will travel lighter.
No comments:
Post a Comment