Cycling Holiday Summer 2007 Nîmes-Uden // Part 4

Day 17:

Verdun - Beatrix

116 kms

After a rainy night we woke up in a strange atmosphere, the sun was shining a bit and it was still a bit clammy. Probably because of this we were slow. The Dutch family, who were also leaving this morning, was much faster. They wanted to set a new record time. Around a quarter to nine we left the camping site. In one hour we took over the Dutch family and we cycled together the rest of the day.

Halfway this day we entered Belgium and this was a milestone.

We also entered the Ardennes. On our second day of our holiday a Dutch couple told us that the Ardennes would be the heaviest mountains of the route. At that moment we were laughing about this statement, but the Ardennes were a hell of a job. The climbs were shorter, but more precipitous. I sweat very much.

About two o’clock we were waiting for Johan and Sonja’s parents’ tandem near a railroad. A dog, from a house near this railroad, started to bark when we arrived. But he didn’t stop like normal dogs after some minutes. No, it barked and barked. When you came too close to the house, he completely lost of his mind.

The hills in the Ardennes are precipitous, so we rode much faster (between 70 and 80 kms/h) on our descents. A lot of fun. Certainly the times that we rode same speed as the cars. I guess that this was funny to see. You see some cars drive by and between them you see some bikers who ride at the same speed. Maybe your eyes pop out of your head at such a moment.

In the evening we arrived in Beatrix. The camping site was funny, with many Dutch people. We swam a bit and after dinner we went to the camping pub for a drink. In this pub some karaoke match was going on and the music was ofa very very low level. Many Dutch (drunken) people were singing and thought that they were some famous artist. Which was a little bit a humiliation.

We played some cards and all the games I lost L… I’m not a very good card player.