Day Three The rain in Belgium falls mainly in my glove…
After getting off the ferry , it was a short hop and only two U-turns to get to the Campanile for the night. Being Sunday we ate there then went for a post prandial stroll around a nearby nature reserve. Then after fruitless search for a bar , as we were right on the edge of nothing, we did however result in us finding a rather marvellous working canal, with some fantastic old girder bridges that must have been replaced “as was” after the retreat from the beaches;we went to bed.
Next day saw us bright an early checking over the bikes. Amazingly nothing had vibrated loose in the mad dash to the ferry the day before. The radios really proved their worth when we got split up in a section of slow traffic. Unfortunately after a slight detour into Lille where in the spitting rain I engaged in a conversation with a french version of my mate Martin, complete with mullet and too tight t-shirt!
We managed to get onto the rain soaked road towards Charleroi despite the signs in France not even acknowledging anything over the border. Then it happened, after being stopped by two Australian women in an Aire on the outskirts of Charleroi to be asked the where about of the airport, I decided to change gloves. By this time the mid season gloves that usually dealt with most spring and autumn rain in the UK where sodden. So I decided to go for the all-weather winter gloves I had packed in case of this eventuality. But putting on gloves when the rain is falling like stair rods is a wee bit impossible even with dry hands… linings where getting pulled out and twisted, my hands where so uncomfortable that combined with the remains of the adrenaline from slipping on the road markings leaving Lille and nearly coming off , and the frustration of navigating with, (as I discovered when I found I had a GPS with no maps!) road signs that flip flopped between French and Flemish… I had a wee meltdown. Much to the amusement of several truckers taking a rest in their cabs.
We slipped and slid along the road as it followed the Meuse towards Liege, alternating between industrial edgelands and what would be fairly pretty countryside and villages. We stopped in Liege and grabbed a bite before calling Ardenne & Eifel Aventures a B&B run by an expat couple near the back of the Spa-Franchorchamops circuit. They gave us instructions that tooks south out of Liege along the E25 which crosses a valley via viaduct with fantastic views of a chateau and its grounds below you.
By this time the rain had stopped but even so it was great to sit down to a hot meal and have the gear dried overnight. Even more so that the free cold beer you get as soon as the garage door was opened… and what a garage.
