Meetshovenbos to Hulst, Holland

Wednesday October 17, 2018, 58 miles (94 km) - Total so far: 6,989 miles

(11,248 km)

A cold night, and a lot of dew!! We needed provisions so made a quick stop at a convenient Aldi, where we chatted to a couple of ladies in the carpark. Today turned out to be quite the day for making friends.....

A very flat day though, along lots of canals and railway lines. We arrived in one town when school must just have finished (do they do half days on Wednesdays around here??) - complete chaos with bikes everywhere but great to see. I really think the UK could take heed, I am sure Belgium has similarly uncooperative weather!!

We had our lunch by one of the canals, and took the opportunity to dry the tent out. We often do this, and find it helpful to actually put the tent up so the inner airs properly. So I guess we were sitting there, cooking pasta on our stove, next to our tent......however, I don't think we really looked like we were camping. That did not stop someone actually reporting us to the police! Yep, a nice young policewoman turned up in her police van and had a chat with us. She took zero convincing that we weren't actually camping, and departed with a smile! Random. You really would have to be quite brazen to camp in this particular spot, right next to a popular cycle path, at lunch time.

And if that wasn't enough, we spent today's water detour making friends in the park! First, we met Dirk, a seasoned cycle tourist who swapped stories with us enthusiastically. We are now blog friends :). And then we met lovely Francois, who insisted on feeding us biscuits!! Funny really - not so many people exchange greetings here, but if you stop, they can't help but chat to you.

With our hearts warmed, we still had a long way to go! We encountered some busier sections, for example around Mechelen, but our node-navigated route worked well once again. It became very straight on the approach to the Dutch border, and also very busy with cycle-commuters! Fun to see, although I expect we were in the way. We passed one bivakzone, but pressed on due to our wish to sample the Dutch version.

A quick detour to Lidl (alas the amazing bakery section has not made it to Holland!) and then headed into the woods. They are called something like 'paalkamperenterreinen' here (apologies if that is spelt horribly!). It translates as 'pole camping' - a pole marks the spot, and you can camp within a 10m radius. This one had just a pole, a pump and a bench.....and some other guests! A young dutch guy, who had hiked there for one night from his front door, and another guy with his young (10??) daughter. The latter were bivvying under a tarp, and cooked their dinner using a wood-stove made in a large tin. Cool Dad, cool kid!!

It was a chilly evening and we arrived late after all our adventures, so we didn't sit out for long, brrr.

Our route today: https://www.strava.com/activities/1910737853