Esch-sur-Sure to Colas

Thursday October 11, 2018, 39 miles (63 km) - Total so far: 6,766 miles

(10,889 km)

Such a lovely day of riding! Even more climbing than yesterday, but it didn’t seem like it. The first climb is classic, on a quiet road with some nice hairpins and lovely views back into the valley. We paused in Wiltz to do our shopping - a bigger town but in another spectacular gorge location - which meant we felt like we didn’t make much progress for the morning!

After Wiltz, we joined an idyllic cycle path along an old railway line. We gained a fair bit of height on this section, but it was so gradual we barely noticed. We then hopped across a few bumps (and across the border into Belgium!) to another old railway, on which we descended 10km into Houffalize. Stunning riding on a beautiful autumn day.

It was then up up up once again on a less fun main road - it wasn’t tooooo busy but it wasn’t the sort of idyllic backroad that we really enjoy. The climb wasn’t particularly difficult, but our legs were getting pretty tired! We were glad to turn off and meander along quiet roads to the tiny settlement of Colas.

We are camping for free, legally(!), at a ‘Bivakzone’. These are areas set up by various organisations in areas of natural beauty, only for use by cyclists, hikers and horse-riders. Zero facilities (unless you count logs for sitting on and a fire pit!) but there’s water in a stream a short walk away. It’s a lovely spot. We did have it to ourselves but some hikers just turned up…..they seem to be setting up camp suitably far away from us though!