This is the last and final part of my little solo adventure through Belgium. If you haven’t already read the first and second part in this series, head over there first (it’s worth it, I promise 😂).
Oats and croissants 🥐
I wake up after the second night of my little camping trip in the garden of the really nice couple I met the evening before. This time, it wasn’t as cold as the previous night and I did sleep even better in my little tent. The peace and quiet of this lovely little town in Wallonia are simply astounding. Around 7h30 in the morning, I wake up, prepare the last package of oats and milk powder that I brought and started to eat them slowly in my tent. About 15 minutes later, I hear my hosts for the first time this morning as they are making their way to the outside sitting area to have some breakfast. I greet them, and then slowly start to pack up all of my things to continue the big hike. By 8h15, I’m all packed, and ready to say goodbye. The lovely couple ask me if I want some coffee or tea to drink. At first I refuse because I don’t want to bother them too much, but after a few seconds it becomes clear to me that they are longing for a chat and want to get to know their overnight guest a little more.
I decide to stay and chat with them for a little while. They tell me that, on average, they host at least one guest per week. Last week, they had a young family with a little child over who were doing a multi-day bike tour through Belgium. After a nice cup of tea, I’m off for real now and I start my journey onwards to Ath (or so I thought). After about 30 minutes of walking, I got a call from my dad and my brother telling me that they want to join me for the day. During the chat with my hosts this morning, they told me that there was a procession of giants taking place in Ath today and that were going to be a lot of people there. Since my dad and brother where coming over by car, this was an issue for them (they thought it was going to be really hard to find free parking spots in the city center) and I changed my plans. If you take a look at the route that I followed today in the Strava activity, you can clearly see that I turned around at one point 😅, right after the phone call. We decided that on meeting in Lessines, from where we can take the car to the city of Ronse for a nice meal.
Big reunion in Lessines
The route onwards to Lessines is really beautiful. After crossing some little towns and villages, I end up on quiet sandy roads in the middle of meadows and corn fields. The sun is shining, but it’s not too hot (the temperature is actually perfect right now). I’m slowly starting to get hungry and I mostly ran out of food by this point, so I decide to go looking for some things that are provided to us by nature, free-of-charge. On the side of the road, I find some blackberries that are perfectly ripe and decide to eat them. It’s the perfect time of the year to find berries, apples and other types of fruit all over the place in Belgium, but be careful no too pick those that are close to the ground. The closer to the ground, the higher the chance of them being contaminated with animal feaces or other sources of bacteria.
At around 11h, I am approaching Lessines and get another call from the home front. My dad and my brother are already very close to me and propose to come and get me. I share my live location on Google Maps and we meet at the end of a small cycling road from where we continue to Ronse by car. After walking around the city for a little bit, we find a restaurant with a very nice garden where we can grab something to eat. There’s not a single cloud in the sky, but there is a lot of wind that cools us down.
The final kilometers
After lunch, we walk back to the car and drive to the starting point of the hike that my dad and my brother planned to do. Apparently we have to go back to Horebeke (where this adventure first started) and we start to walk parts of the route that I already did a few days ago 😂. I recognise most trails, but I don’t mind. It’s a very beautiful location and I’m glad to be able to enjoy it once more. The hike itself is a little longer than I expected. After 6km, we still have to go more than 3km and I already did another 14km this morning 🤣. My legs are really starting to fatigue, but I push through and rest for the remainder of the ride back home. I did around 25km today, adding up to a total of 70km over the course of the weekend.
That’s it, my adventure is over now. This was the very first time of me doing something like this, completely on my own. I really enjoyed it and I got to know myself a little bit better. I will definitely do this again in the future if the opportunity presents itself. I don’t think I would be able to do this on my own for a whole week, but a few days off and alone into nature is very much something that I can truly recommend. Finally, I would really like to thank the platform “Welcome to my garden” for allowing everyone to do something so unique! If you ever plan to do something similar, head over to their website and start planning your trip 🙂.