Day 10 Profondville to Neufchateau

Monday June 19th

not a breath of wind

I set off early without a 2 euro shower. It wasn"t available until 9am. My loose plan was to follow the river Meuse as far as possible and then ...

I was aware that from here to Luxembourg was "lumpy" so I was putting it off as long as possible.

Dinant

I made Dinant in really good time so fortified by a coffee I took the bull by the horns and set off up up up towards Rochefort. Mistake. Big mistake. Huge. The road had no bike path - minor inconvenience and either went up - nearly all the time or down. There was not a single metre of level ground.

By now it was 35 degrees and not a breath of wind (apart from mine rasping) By 1.30 I had struggled my way to Rochefort and I was  almost out of water. Lidl was never so welcome a sight. It was deliciously cool inside and I was able to stock up on water and apple juice.

Belgian Rochefort

I met a man as I was leaving who wanted to hear all about my trip. He told me I was "courageux" or was I just mad? He had worked for the ministry of finance and I joked that he must have stashed away a fair bit of money. He laughed and said that he had three houses. I refrained from the obvious answer.

The afternoon is a blur of up and down up and down. Drinking water  like it was going out of fashion I really can't say I enjoyed it.

Eventually about 8pm I limped into the campsite at  Neufchateau.

It is accessed by a very steep hill which I will definitely have to walk up tomorrow.

A shower some food and bed beckon. I hope tomorrow will be flatter.

But I don't think it will be.