Tuesday 16th March 2004
Ed's Biking Diary - 3
Antwerp, Belgium Total kms so far: 779

Two full days took me from the ferry port at Calais through northern France, along the Channel coast past Dunkirk and the war cemetery there where many of the British and Commonwealth troops who were killed in the area during world war II are buried.

The Route Nationale 1 takes you pretty straight and quick through this north-east corner of France and over the border to Belgium but it’s not a very scenic route, mostly taking you through ugly ribbon development round the edge of Dunkirk, with occasional views of oil refineries and chemical plants.

Cross the border at Adinkerke where 50 identical shops compete to sell cheap Belgian chocolate and tobacco to British day-trippers, booze-cruisers and fag-baggers.

At Veurne (Furnes on French signposts) I took at turn inland onto the N35 through Diksmuide, and spent the night camped in a garden at Koolskamp; the garden’s owner seemed very happy to let me stay; in the morning he told me that many years ago, when he was 20, he had cycled from Belgium to Greece and Turkey.

Ed's trip took him through Gent

The next day was a straightforward run along the wonderful Belgian cycle paths which seem to run alongside roads of all sizes here, from city streets to intercity highways, through Gent and then on the N70 to Antwerp.

The N70 takes you to the left bank of the Schelde, the “Linkeroever”; there are no bridges over the Schelde in Antwerp but the St Anna foot tunnel takes you from where the N70 stops (on the river bank) right into central Antwerp.

You can take you bike up and down the escalator, but be sure you’ve got a good grip on your brakes if you’ve got a heavily-laden bike – escalator angles are pretty steep.

Just as I got into Antwerp it started to rain heavily – the first real wet rain since leaving Exeter.

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We hope to hear from Ed again very soon.