2025 Tour Day 32 - From Farm to School

Our past two nights we have been camping at a farm, and enjoying the warm welcome and thoughtful considerations of Phoebe. She is managing this whole place on her own, the cows and crops and camping. The farm has been in her family for 4 generations and neither of her brothers wanted to stay here. So she, (and her two dogs and a cat), is giving it a go! 

Camping op den berg

We had the use of a lovely new kitchen, frig and stove and cutlery (a vegetable peeler!! huge excitement for us). 

And we sat at the lovely farm table out of the wind, out of the sun, out of the weather... Sometimes it is just nice to have walls.  

We said goodbye to our friends who had pitched a serious teepee the day we arrived and had also spent two nights. They live only 30 minutes drive away but had come to do a test camp for an upcoming family reunion. 

The hardest planning for these final days of cycling is to find camping. It is much harder in Belgium, especially near Brussels.  So today we only cycled for 30km, sort of hopping from one available campground to the next. Tomorrow will have to ride at least twice as far. 

It was a hot hilly day. Some of the potato fields are in full bloom and others are just starting.

We were back on the Blue route again for some climbs, and even found ourselves on some of the Yellow route. Basically in Flanders you are riding some hills. Celebrating Belgian cyclists along the way. 

 

The town of Ronse was our bakery and lunch pick up. Clearly it is a university town, everyone looked 20-something. 

As we went back into the hills and fields, we saw one farmer "making hay while the sun shines".

But turning the next corner we could see very dark clouds ahead. 

We stopped for lunch and some shelter as the rolling thunder got closer and closer. 

It was a pretty view but the thunder was ominous. 

Would you believe it went by us? We didn't get a drop! 

And the little picnic area in the woods had these great climbers made of logs. 

Escaping the rain was great, and we had an early arrival at our next camp site. On the property of an old school. La Divine Providence. 

This school was built in 1900, and survived both wars. It was run by French Nuns who apparently came here to teach young women as the Nuns were not allowed to teach in France. For more than 50 years it was run as a girls school, teaching "home economics" but in the late 50's, when feminism became popular, the school became less popular. The Nuns then returned to France, and the school closed. 

The current owners bought it in 2000 and have turned it into a vacation rental, a bed & breakfast and a brasserie. As well as a campground. 

We are pitched behind the school house, under a cherry tree. We are the only ones here tonight. 

(You can just see the school house behind.)

We actually get to go in and use the washrooms and showers. Wow. Original. 

And this room - looks like "sick bay" to me! 

They have a lovely old dog who wanted to play fetch even if it is 30+ degrees - but he really only wanted to fetch twice. 😍

This is the back of the school building, where the camping is. 

Several hours of sitting in the shade have done us good today. Our phones are recharged, our lights are recharged and so are we. 

The route for tomorrow has been planned. 

Today's washed clothes have already dried in this heat. 

Today's hills and Strava stats below. 

Thanks for reading along on our adventures. We love when we get comments too!