Day 2: Diest-Baelen
Aiming to get 100km in today...let's see what happens.
Spoiler: I managed 100km but fell in a ditch halfway.
Setting off from Diest
Ready to feel the burn and probably get a burnt.
Setting off from the kindest Warm Showers host who fed me, have me a bed to sleep in, helped me bandage up my little boo-boo and shared many stories of her cycling adventures. Marie-Josée you are a legend.
Donk.
Kit stop
NOW I'm ready.
Decathlon always has your back. And a trolley to carry your things..
Back on (cycle) track
Long stretch of cycling alongside busy main roads so was glad to be back on a quiet path. With shade. It's hawt.
It was a close race but I let them win
This episode is sponsored by Andy. Thank you for the clippy pedals. They are helping me go fast fast even though I fall fall.
Pit stop in Bilzen
Jazz Coffee in Bilzen is a SPOT
Ice cream break
Ditch I fell in
Yael-shaped dent in this ditch.
Note to self: clipping out of just one pedal isn't going to save you.
Thank you to kind Matthew for stopping to help me fish bici out the ditch and advising me on a less steep route. Didn't appreciate your comment on how heavy my loaded bike was though that wasn't helpful.
Rainbow after the rainstorm
I was about 30 minutes from camp and it starting pissing it down and I couldn't remember which bag had my waterproof and then I found an ice cream shop to shelter in and then there was a rainbow and that was nice.
Chicken of the woods yes?
Camp at Mont Dragon
It was a day. Some big climbs but also rewarding downhills. A little fall in a ditch but kindness of strangers. A rainstorm but also a rainbow. Weaving through borders and not even realising of crossed them. Europe is so quirky like that.
Shabbat shalom