Day 15 – 19.5 miles to Saive

Day started badly with a half deflated mattress and rain. My previous mattress repair looked slightly ropey, so stuck some more sealant over it. However, why would it suddenly start leaking again after a week?

Possibly another puncture? Not happy. Since it only half deflated over 8 hours I thought this is going to be really hard to find.

The walk today was good. Boot tightening seems to have worked. Foot now just aches rather than hurts. Scenery was mostly rolling hills and villages. It threatened rain all day, but after starting the walk I only needed the coat for half an hour mid day and an hour at the end. Uniformly grey sky all day and temperature in the low teens. All good for hiking.

Along the way went through the town of Vise. It is a bit hampered by having a motorway and huge train junction on its outskirts, but I thought it did pretty well with the hand it was dealt. Has the Albert Canal (again) and the River Maas, and today they were having a fun run through town as I went through.

What Vise also has is a municipal swimming pool. Well they can only say no I thought – so I explained my plight. Yet again the Belgians were really helpful (a bit too helpful here?), so yes they let me dip my mattress in the swimming pool! After 20 mins no leak found, so either it was my previous repair, or its so slow I’m never going to find it!

Tonight I finally camped “legally”. Found a real farm, and got permission and everything.

It’s now 9.00pm. Also known as “hiker midnight”. Time for bed. Let’s see what the mattress does overnight.