Tour de Grand Est - Stage 6 - closing in on Brussels

Good morning sunshine!

We said goodbye to Bash and to the campsite on the hill and we set off for a hilly day. 

Leaving Namur, we went through some industrial places, this canal boat being loaded was cool to watch. Note the car and the boat on the front (there were 2 bikes on the back). 

We had the last of the lovely farmer's fields today. With wheat and other grains blowing. 

There are still so many crops we don't know how to identify, I think we need a crop app, like the Merlin bird app! 

 

What the heck is under all this black plastic? 

 

And what is this with lovely lavendar coloured flowers on top. 

There was some serious crop investigation going on, but we don't travel with a shovel. 😉

It was a warm breezy day and the wind mills were working hard. 

 

There are also lovely, random stands of trees around. 

We stopped for our snack in this one (photo above from far away, photo below close up).  It was so noisy with birds, and cool with shade, what a lovely thing. 

The daily mid morning call to the campground we hope to stay at tonight.  All part of our daily touring schedule. 

Here is another random stand of trees. They give remarkably good shade and are a welcome change on a hot sunny day. 

We travelled through a few small towns. Not as many big churches where we are now, this very cute little one, no longer in use. 

Some lovely buildings here in Belgium, and also lovely gardens. 

This town also had an old railway station that is now a restaurant, or so it appears. 

We were back in some thick woods, and after a very busy intersection...

We found ourselves on a long cobblestone road, going up hill, in a forest. Very surreal. Very tiring. 

After our arms had recovered from the cobblestoned forest road, we found ourselves on another cobblestone climb BUT

This one had a paved bike path on each side. So when a car passes you it has all four tires on cobblestone, but if two cars had to pass each other, each had two tires on pavement and two on cobblestone.  Interesting. And much more comfortable than the road, for cycling. 

Yesterday we had a stretch of cobblestone on the bike path and the sign read "300 meters of good vibrations ahead" 🤣

A stop along the cobblestoned road to say hello to the cows. 

In the next little town, the guys were busy painting the bike lane yellow. You have to love Belgium, on a bike, just follow the yellow painted road!  

Look at this field! I think it was just wild flowers rather than a crop. Such gorgeous colours.  

We crossed over from the French region of Belgium in the Flemish region. 

 

Our campsite tonight is less than 25km from Brussels. We will have a short ride in tomorrow, thankfully, as they are predicting 33 degrees. 

We celebrated our hot and hilly ride today with some cold beer and great snacks. 

There are many cyclists here, and they have a special shaded grassy area for us all to pitch. This is the view from my tent door.  Quiet and friendly here, with lots of conversations about where you are going to and coming from. Bike touring is a nice way to meet like-minded people. And even when we don't all speak the same language, we get by, comparing tents and maps and gear, and then heading to bed early because we all climbed the same giant hill to get here. 🚲

This will be our 19th night in our tent on this trip.  It has been wonderful to us. Comfortable and weatherproof, easy to put up and take down, and very light to carry (especially for me, because Marc carries it 😉). 

Wishing you a peaceful night. 

Tour de Grand Est - Stage 6 - Belgium

We crossed the border into Belgium this morning to begin our 6th and final stage of the Tour 2026. 

Before that, our day started with a random act of kindness. Each campsite was given a table and one chair. Our "motorcycle man" neighbour noticed that we had taken all of our dinner food to the common area to eat at a picnic table last night. He then brought over his chair to us, so we could have our breakfast right beside our tent. So kind. Particularly because it was on and off raining this morning. 

As we left Givet we saw so many kids walking around town. It must have been a class trip of some kind. This photo was not even a quarter of them! 

One theme on the river today was geese. 

We had to slow down and encourage them off the path more than once. And we noticed the Canada Geese intermingling with the locals too. Funny to see the one white goose. 

The river got wider as we headed into Belgium. And the boats in the locks got definitely bigger. This one basically took up the entire lock 😳

We found ourselves crossing the Meuse river a few times. 

 

This was a particularly long bridge. 

The rolling hills got bigger and the forests more dense. It was a very lovely ride. 

Lots more mining, and other industry today. 

 

Most of today was bike path but for about 10 k we were on this road. The rock formations on either side were towering! Just spectacular. 

At one point we passed a castle - it had a moat around it 😀 - but I couldn't safely stop so I did my best to catch it in this selfie. 

There is a car in the distance in this shot, to give you perspective of the size of the rocks. 

The first big town we came to was Dinant.  As we approached we could see the city (on both sides of the river) and the citadel / fortification looming over. 

Some random pieces of castle along the way 🤩

A funny thing happened in Dinant. We stopped at a Boulangerie to get a sandwich for our lunch. When we walked in, it was like the bar in Cheers, the couple at the back table yelled "hello!" and waved their arms., like we were being greeted by old friends  Would you believe, it was the same couple we have seen on this trip a few times - in bakeries 🤣 They are from the Netherlands and are waiting as her bike gets fixed - broken spoke. Fun to catch up. 

Onward towards the next major town, Namur.  The bike path was lined with daisies, and so many other beautiful flowers.

At one point, across the water, we saw climbers on this rock wall. 

And some lovely homes. 

Namur had two major bridges. This old beauty 

And a newer one for pedestrians and cyclists. (Internet photo as I couldn't get a good angle) 

We really wanted to cross the cycling bridge so we made our way up the stairs....

And across the bridge to the ice cream store! 

This one had been recommended to us by the Belgian Pediatrician we met a few campsites back. It is always good to get recommendations from locals 😉

We needed it too. We have moved from cold and wet to heat warning hot. It only got up to about 28 today but the forecast for the next two days is 30+ once again. 

Our campsite is at the top of a big hill, tough climb but lovely views. We are settled in and have been chatting with Sebastian (goes by "Bash").  He is from Bristol and currently cycling around for his gap year, before starting Uni in September. 

Saying good night from the tent, and the symphony of birds. 

Belgian Daisies