Strava Link
Distance : 75.66 kms
Moving time 4:46:41
Average Speed : 15.8 km/h
Elevation: 168m (a consistent rise)Average Speed : 15.8 km/h
Temperature : 22C overcast.
This was the most challenging day of all for a few reasons... read on ...
This was a pretty straight road and really boring. We had to ride alongside the road for most of the way (we are in Belgium now) with cars, trucks and tractors racing past us. This road went for about 20kms until we got to the bike shop. I just kept pedalling while Wayne tried to draft slower moving vehicles to keep himself entertained.
Finally we got to the bike shop in a town that most people would drive through without stopping. After a bit of wait, the bike was repaired by the bike mechanic and we were on our way again, still heading south toward Maastricht.
We had a few issues with navigation, the signage is not as good in Belgium as in the Netherlands and neither Google maps or Wayne's Garmin GPS was very helpful (actually Belgium was not even on the GPS maps and we were riding through a hatched section according to his maps) I had inadvertently turned off Google maps to preserve battery, so we were really rambling cyclists heading toward Maastricht.
We stopped to figure out the way from the cached Google map (without directions), and a Belgium cyclist stopped to help us and to have chat. He was surprised we were from Australia, and also warned us about the mountains looming as we approached Maastricht.
We found the right way, and part of the ride went through a forest, which had a really cool cycle / pathway through the water (see below top left).
The scenery was pretty much industrial kulture with a few breaks with nice scenery. And Wayne's bike broke again ... he determined that the bracket fix in the morning at the bike shop was done with a child size bracket. He proceeded with the rest of the day with no brakes ... not great for the hilly bits we were to encounter.
As we got closer to Maastricht we had to ride along the major river leading into the city, Google maps showed there were unbroken bike paths along both sides of the river. We chose one side and rode through some sand and rock storage areas (it was Saturday so there was no work going on), but we found there were fences set up in different places and detours indicated. We got a bit lost at one point, but in a timely fashion a cycling group came out onto the road from a cycling path where we needed to be.
These blockages and dead ends happened often, then when we thought we were on the home stretch, Wayne's Garmin came back online and it took us in a bizarre way - directing us to climb a steep hill to cross the river from a very flat and direct path to Maastricht - but we followed Garmin ... it then took us up another hill to a high path (we could see the flat path we had left), and then to cross the same river again in another place ... ugh ...
Anyway ... we had a choice to ride through a busy town or keep following the river - I chose to follow the river, which was a bad decision as it was much longer and had another quite steep hill - did I mention I was carrying the panniers???
Finally we found the sign to Maastricht and just needed to cross one more bridge to get into the city ...
The city of Maastricht was setting up for a fun run the next day, but gave us a photo opportunity to finish the days ride. We rode through the city centre, then headed toward our hotel just outside the city. This hotel was on a number of acres and thankfully, it was the nicest place we stayed. We needed it after the day we had had.
Once we had checked in Wayne had to race off to another bike shop in the city to have the brakes fixed as it was Sunday the next day when everything shuts down, and they would not open until late on Monday.
I stayed in the room and stayed horizontal for a few hours. We had a lovely dinner in the hotel, with a walk around the grounds afterward. We totally enjoyed the late, late sunset.
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