Mammouth cycle to Mersch, Luxembourg

Day 8

Stats... 112km, 7hrs 29min, average speed 15.15kmh and top speed of 48kmh cycle to Mersch, Luxembourg. OH MY GOD...HILLS, HILLS, HILLS and some more HILLS and did I mention HILLS?! We were just praying that they were very tall trees in the distance, but no, they were hills. However, the scenery was spectacular. We glided through tall pine trees and sweated up 3km climbs. I think we are lost and are acually mid Alps?! We crossed the border from belgium to luxembourg mid afternoon. The weather started as drissle and eventually brightened up. We were heading for a campsite marked on the map and after reaching the small village, we found that it had closed 10years previous! After Kris usual well practiced plea of trying to score a free bed in some random persons house failed, we got back on the saddle and cycled another 10 clicks of hilly surroundings and the campsite was a sight for sore eyes! Tomorrow we are in Luxembourg city and will be losing our hospitallity club virginity to a lady named Gina.

Grottes de Hans - caves

Day 7

Stats... 45km, 2hrs 30min cycle to Grottes de Hans in the Hans sur lesse valley. Sounds like a short easy day but dont be fooled it was extremely hilly. Our sole goal was to make to the Grotte de Hans which are the most impressive caves in Belgium. They are horizontal caves that drop to 105km and they were really quite impressive! The ticket included a train ride to the entrance of the caves, a guided tour through and a boat ride out. We had hundreds of annoying school kids on our tour as it is school holidays. We camped just outside the caves and found that Kris back panier had broke in exactly the same way as mine. With borrowing spare parts from our supplies, tools from Gavin our GB neighbour and the ingenious idea from Al of using beer lids as washers we fixed it. You can call us Jim from now on! Kris was very impressed with this idea as we had to go buy some beers! The showers were lovely but there were thousands of flies!!! Al got in the tent as it started to rain and moved her sleeping bag only to be swarmed with at least a million flies! We spent the next two hours fly herding and it appears that flies do not want to go outside into the rain as much as we dont.

Camping De Bocq - Day off!

Day 6

Today we took an unplanned day off. The campsite was too good to pass through. We had a lay in and spent lots of time chatting with our kind neighbours Barry and Yoco from The Netherlands. We were spoilt with tea and cake! If there were more peolpe in the world like them it would be a much nicer and better place... our thanks go to them, however please keep your shirt on next time Barry! We attempted a 8km walk through the local forrest which apparantly was easy to follow and a 6 year old could do it... needless to say we set off on completely the wrong track and came out by a quarry on private land! I blame Kris however I was using the map as a fan due to the heat! Kris continued to make his own track up to a cliff edge overlooking the campsite while I found the correct track back to the tent. Guess whos idea it was to go hiking on our day off from cycling!

Camping De Bocq - South Belgium

Day 5

Stats... 105km and 6hrs 41 mins. Total distance so far is 357km! We had an eventful day as Als panier bag broke, Kris back break stopped working and we had to climb a hill of 11 percent gradient to our campsite for the night. It was well worth the climb in the end as our tent is pitched right on the river edge in amongst a beautiful forrest. Kris had the urge to jump straight into the river which saved us buying a 1 euro shower token... tight arse! We have lovely neighbours who have helped us to fix Als bag and supply us with shower gel etc as ours was pinched from the shower block! The owner of the campsite also had the tools to fix kris break so we are back on track. The weather is still outstanding but expected to turn in the next couple of days. We did not quite reach our destination of the caves due to everything breaking but we hope to be there tomorrow.

Made it to Brussels

Day 3

Stats... 85km, 6hrs to Brussels! Again temp approx 30 degrees. First experience of hills, trying to remember what goes up must come down so we are now expecting a huge down hill very soon! We were accompanied by a couple of elderly gentlemen on the last stretch, to be specific they were 71 and 84 yrs old and we had trouble keeping up them! No joke... they were incredible. We managed to reboot the ipod and found awesome campsite and relaxed with a couple of cold beers. Treated ourselves to dinner in a local restaurant.

Day 4

Stats... First day off! And it was very welcome! Woke up leisurely to cockerals crowing again and made our way by bus/tram into Brussels city centre. Another soaringly hot day but still bank holiday so all major sites closed. Nevertheless, we visited the famous little boy pissing fountain, the grand place and the european parliment buildings. Tonight we shall treat ourselves with camp cooked pasta and tomato sauce and fruit salad out of a tin for afters. Thanks to everyone for your kind words of support and donations. We have now topped the 1,000 pounds mark which is not bad going.

Tomorrow is a big day, we are aiming to reach our first UNESCO World Heritage caves in Rochfort so fingers crossed for us. It is predicted to continue at 30 degrees for another week so we are doing a rain dance. Hope you are having fun at work!

Esquelbecq, France

Day 1

Stats... 56km, 3hrs 30min to Esquelbecq. Slight head wind and soaring temp of 28 degrees!
Found perfect campsite, they even gave us milk for tea! Ipod broke, Speedo strap broke and kris scolded his hand, but overall a successful day!

Day 2

Stats... 114km, 6hrs 50min to Ghent. Temp 30 plus. Crossed our first border into Belgium without realising! Followed lovely canal for part of the way. Campsite not so nice! We were allowed to pitch our tent in a kind of caravan graveyard! Loads of chickens running about sqwaking and cockerals letting us know it was time to get up and get cycling! Ghent is beautiful but closed and deserted as it is a bank holiday.