Day 37 – 26 Km walked today – 773 Km walked in total - Wye

I'm really proud of us today. Despite being on the way home, we were at a low relatively low ebb yesterday evening. In part, this was because we lost our rythtmn but perhaps more because we had come so far but some old physical concerns made us doubt whether we could finish it off.

But today was a new day and we walked 26Km up hill, down hill, up hill...and so on. It felt more like 30Km and was certainly more strenuous than that distance in the flatness of Belgium. And the scenery was wonderful.

We started out, as we ended yesterday, on the South Downs Way and what a contrast to Belgium. I will not day that we didn't notice the hills but we certainly didn't mind them, given the rewards. But after lunch, a minor wrong turn found us on the Pilgrim's Way. These days, the South Downs Way is better for walkers, as the a lot of the Pilgrim's Way is tarmac. But on a sunny Sunday afternoon, the tarmac was quiet and it was a special feeling to walk where so many feet had walked before.

To escape the tarmac for a while, we took a footpath that runs parallel to the road. It ran through a number of fields and it became clear, after the second, field, that the owner was not very keen on having people follow this ancient right of way. Signs went missing or were overgrown and styles were precarious. This came to its nadir in the final field which increasingly became nothing more than a field of thigh high stinging nettles. I was wearing shorts but we, now militant ramblers, were determined to get to the end. Four hours later, my legs are still tingling like mad.

Shortly after, we sat on a bench, dialed 118 118, which worked pretty well yesterday, to find some comfortable accommodation in Wye. It was a nasty shock to be told that there wasn't any and that we would have to go to Ashford. And then along came the lovely lady below, who happened to be passing by.

Not only did she tell us that there were indeed places in Wye, she walked with us into Wye, and showed us to the very the door of the place we are now staying. But she also waited outside, to ensure that we had a room, so that she could show us to somewhere else if they were full. I gave her the thumbs up and took the picture above. But her generosity didn't end there. When we came back to the dining room, we found that she had returned and left us an envelope containing a generous donation to our charity. What can we say but thank you.

So finally, to our musical choice. Having spent this afternoon on the Pilgrim's Way, I was going to choose the old hymn, “To be a Pilgrim”, with words by John Bunyan, which I have been singing on and off for weeks.

But I have also been looking for an excuse to include something by the late and very great Robert Nesta Marley. So in recognition of our assertion of our right to ramble, it is the great man and “Get Up, Stand Up (Stand Up For Your Rights)”.

Day 36 – 14 Km walked today – 747 Km walked in total (need to check) – Folkestone

This was an odd sort of day. We started it in the beautiful city of Bruges and ended it in a bottom of the range Bed and Breakfast in Folkestone, sitting in our tiny room, eating takeaway Chinese food from a carton with a plastic fork.

In between we had very mixed emotions. Forced to take more public transport than we would have liked, we were keen to walk. But somehow, the day of rest plus the non-walking transport, got us out of our rhythm. Nonetheless, we were determined and started walking pretty late in the day by recent standards – 3pm.

And the walk was a real, welcome back to England wake-up call, after the flatness of Belgium. We climbed and climbed until we reached the top of the famous white cliffs. After that, we enjoyed a glorious, but hilly, walk along the coast to Folkestone, when our stamina ran out around 7pm and we started to hurt badly in old and new places.

So it was any port in a storm...but preferably Folkestone.

But it was good to be back in England and on our way home, so today's musical choice is Paul Simon and “Homeward Bound”.

Adjustment

There are a number of reasons why we chose the slightly longer route via Ostend, rather than drop down to Calais. Two of those reasons were Leuven and Bruges. A decision that seemed to be completely vindicated by our thoroughly enjoyable stays in each place. Tomorrow, went our perfect plan, we would walk our last 20 Kilometres in Belgium, take the ferry from Ostend and begin our walk up the North Downs Way from Dover.

Unfortunately, however, it turns out that the fast ferry from Ostend to Dover is no more. Actually, we knew this yesterday but were unfazed because there is a ferry to Ramsgate. Our only decision then, was whether to walk from Ramsgate, probably via Canterbury, or whether to get a train to Dover and stick to the original route. But when we looked at booking today, it turns out that although the Ferry takes car and motorbike passengers, it does not take foot passengers.

At first, I thought this was quite funny but as the evening progressed, I became more and more pissed off at myself for not having sorted it out in advance. But then that had not been the spirit of the journey which was, essentially, not to plan more than a day ahead – although it could well be argued that this was somewhat different.

Well, there is always Zeebrugge, I thought, which is even closer to Bruges than Ostend. But nowadays, it turns out, ferries from Zeebruge, only go to Hull! It seems that the intense ferry competition had already closed down our options but did we know it. Even services from Dunkirk look pretty limited these days.

So what to do? A tempting option was and is to get on a train back to Brussels and use my mountain of Eurostar points to travel all of the way home in Business Class – we have walked over 700 Km, we deserve to finish with a little luxury, goes this argument. Another option is to walk to Calais, adding something like another 5 days to our journey, despite our various and many aches and pains. But to be frank we are physically and mentally tired, prepared now only for a last push from Dover to home.

We have, therefore, gone for a compromise. We will make an “adjustment”. Tomorrow we will get a train and make the short trip down the coast to Calais and get a Ferry to Dover. We will imagine that we have stepped back, briefly, in time, to when the Hoverspeed used to glide serenely out of Ostend harbour before powering its way to Dover. It will be as if the the “adjustment” had never happened. It will be a little secret, just between me and Doris.

It is tempting to pick David Bowie and “Changes” for today's musical choice but in the spirit of todays' adjustment, and pretending that we are still going from Ostend, today's choice is Marvin Gaye and “Sexual Healing”. A delicious, goose-pimple inducing song, from the album Midnight Love, recorded while Marvin was living, improbable as that sounds, in Ostend – strange but true.

Before I go, Doris says that I should mention that, I am posting this while seated on the toilet – wait don't run away, thinking that noxious odours can be transmitted through cyberspace – it is not what it seems. It is just that it is the only place in our hotel room that we can get a decent wi-fi signal. I am seating comfortably (everything is relative) on a cushion. But hang on, now that I am here....better sign off.

Day 35 Day of Rest - Bruges

An early investigation shows that Bruges is littered with Belgian chocolate shops.........................

Day 34 – 20 km walked – Total of 733 km walked – Bruges

The last hour of yesterday's walk was one of two very brief times on this trip when I truly did not enjoy our journey. We had to walk on a narrow but busy road - drivers seemed to have little regard for us and cut it very fine, leaving dangerously little room when passing. Also a very strong wind had come up and we had to walk under some fragile looking trees - and my foot was hurting. When we eventually got to the only hotel in the area, we had to make such an inconvenient detour for, it was not exactly the Ritz.

This morning everything looked different again, with a blue sky and the sun was shining (we have been incredibly lucky with the weather – for the last week it has only rained just after we reached our hotel for the day or at night). We quickly found a very pleasant off road cycling way that would take us back to the Ghent – Bruges canal. In fact today was the most pleasant walk we have completed since we entered Belgium. The canal was lined by mature trees and fields, for a while there was even a proper non tarmacked walk way for us walkers only. *bliss*

On the way we met to lovely Australian ladies who were cycling across the Netherlands and now Belgium. They were going to Maastricht, the same way we have come west, they are going east. So I dug deep in my rucksack and got out the Chinese Menu style cycle maps we had used, explained the secret of how it works and let them have our maps. Hope they come in useful!

We arrived in Bruges in good time and fell in love immediately. We had to cross the 'Grote Markt' on our way to our hotel. It was as impressive as we have seen in so many other Belgian towns.

But here they have equally beautifully restored buildings away from the main square and canals to boot. Tres romantic, Paris and Venice eat your heart out!

Gary has already decided that we are going to do the full tourist programme tomorrow (he might have to take the canal boat trip in those bright orange buckets on his own though). I am looking forward to taking the camera out and getting some arty pictures.

Today's song choice is dedicated to Gary's mother Lily who today was admitted to hospital to receive a blood transfusion. She has been wonderfully supportive and encouraging throughout our walk and we had to promise hand on heart that we were not coming home early because of her. Honest Lily it is for purely selfish reasons that we chose shorter routes. Our feet and aching bones can be quite persuading.

Gary mentioned this Abba song once before but it was not chosen. Lily you ARE a Super Trooper.

Scientific research continues

I have some good news and some bad news.

My research confirms that Chimay trappist beer is truly one of the world's primier beers.

Unfortunately, however, I have unable to determine whether "red label" at 7% or "blue label" at 9% is the best manifestation of this wonderful brew.

Rest assured, I will continue to pursue my investigation with renewed vigour, knowing we have but a few days left in....er....this country....and gawd bless all who sail in her...hic

Day 33 – 23 km walked –total walked of 713 km – Aalter

I ended yesterday's entry with the words “it is now just two relatively short walks to get to Bruges”.I hadn't measured it out myself and probably should have written: Doris tells me it is now just two relatively short walks to Bruges. The key word here, as Doris pointed out when I asked her, is “relatively”.Less than 30Km each she now informs me. As you can see, today was over 20Km and tomorrow's walking into Bruges is at leat 25Km.

Actually, today's walk would have been slightly shorter, had we not had to take a long detour away from our route to get to our hotel. The hotel is, by the way, is pleasantly situated within hearing distance of a busy ring-road and has air conditioning that periodically leaps into action with all the subtlety of a Concorde taking off. It could be an interesting night and I might have to foresake my intended sobriety for some of that special Belgian sleeping potion.

The walk itself was a pleasant one along the banks of the canal that runs from Ghent to Oostende via Bruges. When I say canal, however, the British amongst us have to forget notions of narrow-boats – it is w---i---d----e.

Getting out of Ghent was a trial in itself – it just seemed to go on forever. Somewhat disorientated, we asked a man, who was emerging from his house with his young son, for directions. We were really only asking for a general direction to get us back on track but he insisted on delaying his journey and study his own map, to help us. Having sorted it out in his own mind, he then insisted on driving us to the point on the canal that we were trying to get to.

So instead of going out with his son, this lovely man, packed me, Doris and his son, into his car to drive us to somewhere that we could usefully restart our journey. Not very far away, as it turned out but we were and are very grateful.

Later on, we were passed by and amazing looking vehicle that seemed to be some combination of a low-lying bicycle and a go-kart. It zipped past so quickly, that I didn't get time to snap a picture. Later, however, we came across it's driver, studying a map on a bridge that we were crossing. Not only could I now get a picture but he was a studying a cycling route map that we had previously been told didn't exist for this area.

“Yes, I'm English,” he responded to by standard opening of “excuse me but do you speak English”.

As an aside, most Belgians seem to speak almost flawless English. They usually respond to my question by telling me, modestly, that they speak a little, before conversing faultlessly.

Anyway, “G”, the Englishman, told me that he was testing the vehicle, which I think he said was called a “velomobile”, as he was thinking of buying one. Despite the slightly worn exterior of this particular model, he proceeded to tell me the technical details which seemed impressive, even though most of it went over my head.

“It goes like the clappers,” G informed me and this I well understood.

He then helpfully read out, what I now know as node numbers, from the cycle route map, charting our journey from where we were to our destination. I thanked him for his kindness and he returned to tinkering with his vehicle.

Later, as we walked along the canal, the velemobile passed us at speed - a cheery disembodied hand waved from the cockpit and it disappeared into the distance, going like the clappers.

I never did add a musical choice for yesterday, so for the second time am going to have a single choice for yesterday and today.

I am not supposed to tell you but Doris has had a problem with her foot that has been troubling her at least a couple of weeks. She has some sort of strain that eases with walking in the morning but stiffens up and becomes painful in the afternoon. But day after day, she laces her foot tightly into her boot and carries on as if nothing were wrong. At the end of today, I think it was particularly painful.

I am not supposed to tell you because, I think, she thinks it might make her sound like and attention seeking, drama queen, wimp. Nothing could be further from the truth. She is nothing short of courageous although I know she will not like me saying it - so please keep it just between just you and me.

So the choice for both yesterday and today is dedicated to Doris and Elton John's “I'm still standing.”