Day 8 – Wednesday 6 August

Bethune to Guines

Campsite

Camping de la Bien-Assise (http://www.camping-la-bien-assise.com/)

Notes

In the morning it was raining (again) and after a good breakfast in the plastic hotel I set off along the main road through Béthune as far as Chocques where thankfully I took to bye-roads. The only sizable place I went through later in the day was St Omer that was quite a bit more attractive than Douai and Lens. There is a line of canals just to the north of my route that has been used as the basis of a bicycle route that would have been interesting had I discovered it before I went.

As it was I cycled in the rain until about three o’clock. I found coffee in Isbergues and lunch in another kebab shop in St Omer. Just before St Omer I came through Arques where the Fontinettes boat lift used to tranship canal barges from the River Aa to the Neufossé Canal. Previously it had required barges to pass through five locks. The lift was modeled on the Anderton Boat Lift on the Trent and Mersey Canal. I had visited the Fontinettes lift two years previously on a cycling tour with friends from Birmingham.

After lunch I cut across country over the deceptively hilly Forêt de Toutheheim to Licques and then down to Guines where I arrived in sunshine at about five o’clock. The smaller roads I was using were pretty straight and I hadn’t needed the satnav, but were used by heavy vehicles that detracted from the enjoyment of cycling through open country. The campsite was echoing with the sound of English being spoken everywhere and I was shown to my pitch by a lady on an electric buggy. It had lush grass and was next door to a small facilities block, just then being cleaned. There were small facilities blocks dotted all over the place and so much more convenient than going on a route march to one large block. My tent had been rolled up wet for two days and smelt dreadful when I put it up, but was dry and sweet again by the time the cleaner came round to tell me the block was open. I cleaned myself up, left my washing strung out in the sun and went off to find something to eat.

There were lots of people waiting for the cafeteria to open and we chatted about our experiences. I reflected on long distance cycling. On flat roads I maintain a steady 20 kilometers per hour (about 12 – 13 miles per hour) with a cadence (peddle strokes) of about 100 – 120 per minute. To maintain effort without exhaustion I try not to alter the cadence, changing gear to accommodate gradient, allowing the bicycle to slow down or speed up as it might. Like rain, hills don’t last for ever even though they are both uncomfortable for the moment; you get there in the end and sometimes are surprised just how far you’ve travelled. Like the ex-catholic priest I met in Italy said: you go at your own pace and take things as they come; there’s no point in fretting if sometimes things take longer, just enjoy the speed and the sun while you’ve got them.