Tour 2025 Day 33 - Grimbergen

A few updates on camping from last night. 

We ended up not alone. A family rolled in, in a very cool VW van, and so yes, Marc played the song "Are you having any fun?" to celebrate their arrival. 

Are you havin' any fun?

What y'gettin' out o' livin'?

What good is what you've got

If you're not havin' any fun?

Are you havin' any laughs?

Are you gettin' any lovin'?

If other people do,

So can you, have a little fun

We tried to sleep in the heat and the stillness of the night, but it wasn't easy. Until 1 am and then WIND!! Wind, like you wouldn't believe. It sounded like a freight train. So much wind and thunder and lightning and rain.  As we scrambled to close the tent doors, we wondered if we would be safe under the very tall trees.

Suddenly something hit the tent, with quite an impact. We weren't sure if it was a pinecone at high velocity, or a branch (shout to to my sister who was hit by a high tree acorn once - ouch!) The storm passed through rather quickly, it was very dark, and the tent was still standing, so we both fell back asleep.  Only to wake up a few hours later to this! Yes a nice hole just above me. 

The view from the outside of the tent showed a few depressions and the one hole. 

This branch must have been the culprit. It lay there on our cords "innocently" this morning. There were several other branches down around us, some quite a bit bigger. 

So, yikes. Another tent repair to be done today. 

Our neighbours' youngest son was up early too. We didn't speak each other's language but he did manage to ask me where the dog was (I think he thought she was ours), when a really cute bunny appeared and we made friends and enjoyed "chase the bunny". 

We set off after breakfast & bunny chasing and cycled some fields and climbing - yep, another day in Flanders. Some lovely fields and rolling hills, and we even ran into some traffic. 😂 Saturday morning in Belgium. Yes there are a lot of cyclists!!

We found a bakery and a sandwich shop. Not in the same place. We are getting used to Belgium, it is quite different than France in this way, but I did like this sign...

We had to climb out of this little town. And what a climb it was. The sign said 10% grade and it was not cobblestone, so we managed, but boy oh boy it was a long hard climb. 

To be honest, the descent was also hard. Tough on the hands and the mental focus. Brake, brake, brake. Love the signs to warn you. 

Once we made it up and down the hill, we had a few kms on a canal. Flat and easy, safe and shaded.

 

And after the "pain" of the hill, we celebrated with another kind of "pain ... au chocolat" 

The canal was very busy too. 

It was a good safe fast part of our day. 

The little towns in Belgium that we have been cycling through all have the same school symbol. They use this purple octopus, and all the school zones and crossing areas are painted this purple and yellow. My octopus teacher?

They all also have town signs on the way in and the way out - the way out has a line through it, like the town is now cancelled, been there, done that.  

This was my favourite today. It seemed somewhat fitting for this final stage of our journey.

We arrived at our campground to find this greeting. 

It is a well organized campground with an open field for tents, lots of room, sun and shade. 

Our first priority was to rehydrate. And why not, when you can get the World's Best Zero Alcohol Beer!  Cheers. 

Also, I should mention, my new shoes have been great this trip - very useful - they have also been good for cycling 😉

My mechanic had to check on my brakes as apparently I have been using them a lot. 

Another good day in the books. We are very close to our Air Bnb so tomorrow will be a short day. We might go to the Sunday Market.

Another patch in the tent and we should be dry for one last night of camping. 

Strava stats

Good night from Grimbergen.