Day 12 – 20.5 miles to east of Bokrijk

And an extra mile detour. As promised the temperature was cooler today. However overnight the rain came. Started at 2.30am, so not much sleep after that.

However, rain was very kind. It stopped briefly about 6.00am, just long enough for me open the door and boil some water for coffee.

Then I packed up everything inside the tent and at 7.00am it stopped again so I could take the tent down. No more rain all day.
Early morning heron (although the camera is struggling – high zoom and low light).

Intended to go to Decathlon which added a mile to the day – need some new pants(!), a replacement shirt and I want to try some other socks as the tarmac is making my feet really ache. Found out afterwards that today is a national holiday. Unlike UK where this means all the shops open, in Belgium everything closes – including Decathlon. Was fuming… and grumpy for the rest of the day.

Even the signposts are conspiring against me – where is my red and white bar?

No food shops open and I couldn’t find anywhere to camp – hence a monster 21.5 mile day. Eventually found a farm and asked the farmer. He was fine, although ground is a bit rough. I fear for my mattress again. However, struck lucky – as I went so far there was a bistro a quarter mile down the road, and it was open. About the only one that is! I was expecting dinner to be a pouch of tuna and a pasta mug-shot, as no open food shops, so got a result.

Overall the day wasn’t that bad, but I’m still having a grump.