Day 3 – Thursday 13th June 2013

I awoke this morning after a goods nights sleep that was only punctuated by the occasional waking to the sound of torrential rain and a howling wind.  Needless to say I was wondering what sort of day I was in for.

I left the hotel at 9am (breakfast was not available until 08:30) and whilst the weather was dull it was not raining.  I did battle with the wind for one and a half hours and am now on the return “fast ferry”.  My route back to Vlissingen was different to the outgoing (shorter) but I still managed to get lost in Middelburg.  It will be interesting to see the GPS tracks on http://www.endomondo.com later (nick1956).
Next stage is to head into Belgium and board the tram.  Somewhat choppy out here now and proving difficult to write, whats more, I am feeling whoozy!!!
The ride West from Breskens where the ferry docks was an interesting ride.  I say interesting but if the wind had been calm it would have been delightful.  The route took me West, sometimes up on the dykes and sometimes behind them, either way there was no escaping the wind.  It was the only time this trip that I wished I had the SLR camera with me (a pair of aero bars would have been useful too).

Arrival in Knokke-Heist came at 13:00 and I proceeded to waste a bit of time trying to guess where the tramway might start from.  Well eventually aboard, destination De Panne in the Western corner of Belgium.  It isn’t a smooth ride but good value it is, 2 Euros for me and 2 Euros for the bike for an 80km ride taking 2.5 hours.

I have reserved a room in Dunkerque centre for this evening.  By taking the tram I am effectively splitting the balance of the ride from De Panne into two parts.  The final part from Dunkerque centre to the port left for tomorrow morning.

Whilst the grey skies persisted all morning it has not rained ….. yet!  The forecast wind was 35kph (21mph).  At times I was crawling along at a mere 8mph.

The tram ride became particularly interesting as we arrived at Oostende central station.  An announcement was made and everybody rose and started to get off.  I unlashed my bike and started to follow.  Everyone piled into the tram in front bearing the destination board “De Panne”.  It was already busy but as I was last to board it was akin to getting into a rush hour London tube train – now imagine doing that but pushing a bicycle in with you and you have the scene I was creating!
As we moved into the suburbs the passengers thinned out and was able to lash my bike into the wheelchair area previously full of pushchairs and prams – I thought they folded?
We eventually arrived in De Panne under very grey skies with a veritable gale blowing.  I managed to locate the correct way to exit De Panne and was soon on a long, VERY LONG, straight road straight into the wind.  It is no exaggeration when I say that I have never cycled in anything worse.  In fact, at home, I just wouldn’t bother going out.
The road led to Bray-Dunes where I spent my first night.  At about 5km from the town I caught a young lad pushing his bike.  I thought he may have a puncture or need assistance, but no, he had simply given up fighting the wind.
I made, yet again, a few navigational errors in Bray-Dunes but was soon powering on towards Dunkerque.  Sometimes there was a little shelter and the speedometer limped into double figures.  Never was anyone as happy as I was when I passed the Dunkerque entry board.  However there was still about 4km to the centre.  This bit actually turned out to be fun.  A good cycle lane occupied the right hand side of the carriageway and the only obstructions occurred when busses stopped to collect or deposit passengers. A large modern bendy bus passed me on the outskirts and like a demented schoolboy I decided I would try and race it to the centre – we played cat and mouse all the way in.  The bus won.
Close to the centre I pulled over and retrieved the hotel address from my bar bag, I continued 200 metres and asked a pedestrian where the street in particular was.  He asked where in particular I wanted.  “Hotel Ibis” I replied. “Il est là” he said pointing to the lurid red neon sign visible above the other buildings.  I backtracked and discovered the hotel to be exactly where I had stopped to open the bar bag ….. spooky.

Well, after showering, changing, putting the phone on to charge and ……….. washing my socks, I collected a local map from reception and headed out.  The sun was now out and all was well with the world.  An advertisement on the map indicated a chinese restaurant close to the centre of town.  After more of the usual navigational fun I am getting used to I found it, about a mile from the hotel.  Oh well, the sun was out, the walk pleasant and after all I had been sitting down all day.
I ate enough for two and high tailed it back to the hotel before happy hour ended at 20:00hrs.  I just made it, 50cl of beer for the price of 33cl. Bliss.

To be continued…….