Day 4: Luttre to Namur: Belgian Nightmare

July 25, 2015

Our strategy about the rain sort of worked. It rained on and off in the night, and at 5:30 a.m. it was off. So we packed up our stuff quickly and almost had the tent down before the rain started again. Some super fast action kept the tent interior from getting too wet, but the fly and footprint got soaked. We had no separate bag for the fly, so when it all went into the rack top bag, it all got wet.

At the start of the day, twin rainbows give a misleading message about rain to come

Since it was 6:15 a.m. we did not expect to find anything open in the nearby town, so we just started pedalling along the canal again, without breakfast. The rain now continued its on and off strategy, except that some new, more drenching levels were added, and these were accompanied by high wind. We started adding clothing layers, to the extent possible. It's hard to get to and put on your stuff in the rain.

We figured that Charleroi would be our place for food, hot drinks, and a warm place to sit so we doggedly carried on. Now the canal became populated on both sides by an amazing array of ugly and smokestack industries. Power generation , cement manufacture, and especially recycling seemed to be the main activities. The recycling featured giant piles of useful lookibng materials. This included crushed glass mixed with whole bottles, and a weird amalgam that looked like gypsum mixed with rags. None of the factories had their names posted, and it was hard to guess what they might be doing. There were a few spots where there was housing, and this looked just like 19th century England - blackened brick row houses. It was all an amazing demonstration of flat out industrial mayhem.

Even as we approached very close to Charleroi, the tenor was unchanged. And Charleroi itself seemed unusually grotty.I have no photos to show for this, because in the rain the camera was hidden away. We passed through an apparent pedestrian shopping area, and it too was bereft. The rain would account for no one being there, together with the early hour - so that most or all shops were closed. I assume that our hoped for bright and warm bakery would appear as we got deeper in, but no luck. Suddenly we did come to a bakery. This was bright and warm, buit with no inside seating. I would have carried on, in the quest for the right place, but Dodie dove right in. She later said she would not have wanted to t anyway, because keeping moving was the long term way to stay warm.

As I stood freezing outside, a beggar on the adjacent front step struck up a conversation. Getting parked outside carries a 100% chance that someone will want to talk to me. This fellow was very good natured and well spoken. He asked me what I had learned of the world in five years of cycle touring. One part of my answer was about seeing the sites of the various European wars, and my hope that the European Union was now able to put all that permanently in the past. Another observation was that the North American mindset that that is the best place in the world is off base, and that in Europe the food, ecological orientation, and certainly the approach to bicycles are vastly superior. Chilled and grumpy as I was, that was all I could muster, especially in French.

Dodie came out with some chausson pommes and chausson abricots, and we ate those on the street, washed down with cold water. Like true transients, we were almost immediately back on the canal, leaving town. By contrast, the beggar was pretty settled and secure. He had his doorway by the bakery, and he told me that he had not slept there last night, but rather has a wooden shack somewhere. It sounded just then rather luxurious.

It is at Charleroi that the canal transforms into the Sambre river. It is hard to tell, because the river is canalized, and continues with heavy industry and recycling. As we have passed along the canal, and now the canal like river, I have become aware of the steep concrete walls that make up the bank. It struck me that should you fall in, there is no way to climb back out. I began to watch for ladders, which are built into the walls at intervals, or for lower banks - which by chance always were on the other side. Falling in was not much of a risk, because the tow path wide enough, and there was little or no bicycle traffic. However, it is a strange thing to be thinking when cycling by what looked like an idyllic winding river on the map back home.

Industrial landscape on the way to Charleroi

The one bakery/bright spot we found in Charleroi

About 15 km out of Charleroi, a terse sign indicated that RAvel was blocked in 3 km. Our normal approach to warnings like this is to go see. The sign could be years out of date, or more commonly, there could be a way through notwithstanding.

In less than 3 km, the path headed up a small bridge, and there was blocked. Blocked means that boulders had been stacked across the end of the bridge, to a height of about 4 feet. Beyond was a chewed up area, and seemingly beyond that, good bike path.

I was for taking off all the luggage and rock climbing the bikes over the obstruction. But Dodie was not in to it, and we backtracked until the first opportunity to leave the tow path. There we found ourselves in some sort of construction site, where new concrete roads had been pushed at random this way and that. A sign said they were building the New Belgium over the top of the old. We followed one of the roads, and it led to the N90 - a high speed four lane road. So we retreated and went another way. An old cobbled road seemed to be going our way, and the GPS indicated a network of roads in the area, that we could use. Dodie even ventured hopefully that this cobbled way might be an old road to Namur.

No such luck, the road led to a construction, or digging, or filling, or whatever, site - where everything was chewed up. I walked closer toward the river, just to see if our precious path were down there. But even on foot, I could not get close enough to see. All this time, the rain was pouring down and the wind was pushing it in my face. Standing in an industrial site, being blasted by wind and rain and having no place to go, abandoned by the non-signage of the so called RAvel, I vaguely remembered that this wa supposed to be an easy ride, so the Grampies could get back in to itn safe well marked paths.

Dodie is still looking good along the Sambre. She rather likes her new rain cape.

About 10 km frm Namur, this abbey appeared - at Floreffe. It was the first nice looking building to be seen in a long while. The abbey is previously of the Premonstratensian Order. We have no idea what that is. check it out here.

We backtracked to the N90 and put on our flashers. It could have been Florida, except you normally aren't freezing in Florida. Miraculously, though, a concrete shoulder appeared. we followed this until the next turn off opportunity. It was a good thing, because at that point the shoulder seemed to disappear. The turnoff took us down through a downtrodden community of strung out houses. Down, down - such that if we had to backtrack it would be a long trudge just to re-attain the highly dubious N90.

At the bottom of the community was a dirt or semi paved track, off of which led a grass path in the direction of the river. We decided to follow the track for a while. We had to move some fallen branches to carry on in that direction (did I mention that this was in wind and rain?) but soon we popped out at .... a barricade, blocking the RAVel But we were on the good side of it! So suddenly we were back on track and Namur (30 km distant) again seemed within easy reach.

Except for being drenched, it was in fact easy to reach Namur. But we had decided we needed a hotel, and for that we needed the Tourist Information. We spent an hour circling around the town, asking for directions. People had a lot of different ideas, including one police officer. We never did find it. But we did stumble on the Ibis hotel, one of relatively few hotels in the city. The price was 80 euros. We reluctantly took it. They also wanted 15 euros each for breakfast. These guys are jokers!

We stumbled into our simple, clean, but overpriced room and immediately spread our soaking tent parts all over.

When we had recovered sufficiently, we walked out for a look at the town. Namur is at the confluence of the Sambre and the Meuse. As is often the case along rivers, high points are occupied by castles. Namur has a large citadel on th esouth side of the Sambre. This has played a role in European conflicts over the centuries, and there are tours that tell the story. However, it's up a hill, so we stuck to the lower town.

While Namur has its share of interesting buildings, has a pedestrian area, and a super river location we just did not find it all that thrilling. The buildings are a bit higgledypiggledy, and the pedestrian areas not well attended. Instead there is a main shopping street that still somewhat has cars. The stores on this street are fairly standard. We did not find any signs of farmers' market, a really lot of bakeries or cheese shops, or even chocolate shops. For Europe, its just kind of a normal town.

On the other hand, the rain mostly stopped, so I was able to make some photos. We also visited two churches. Have a look and see what you think.

Tomorrow, we head up the Meuse! Brussels was a big thumbs up, while the canals to Namur were thumbs down. Belgium has until we reach Givet to come out with a positive rating!

p.s. Being blockaded/lost in the rain was really rough. Dodie kept on going through this, and used the GPS effectively to get us out. I am proud of her.

Bike signage looks good, but it is not consistently there. In these signs we now see Eurovelo joining in.

The dramatic columns of the St Aubin church

Second sample of Belgian fries. Still OK, but what's the fuss about?

In the St Loup church. The Jesuits that built the mission at Cataldo (see Grampies Grand Adventure) were from /Belgium

This "holy" scarab beetle art work is by contemporary artist Jan Fabre. His works are on display throughout Namur right now.

Look Avi, Stratego - so close to Waterloo.

This girl was about to married, and was interviewing passers-by on the secrets of building love.

The former stock exchange building, was at one time the home of the Walloon parliament.

"Marius" is an unusual name in Canada. We have a friend Marius, and so notice when his name pops up on a sign.

One street in Namur had a temporary arcade. This food stall specialized in donuts and waffles.

we did not try the donuts (beignets), which from the stage shown will be coated in sugar. It would have been interesting to compare to New Orleans.

Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 146 km (91 miles)

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