T+21: Denderhoutem to Gent

This was a fairly short day's cycle all told, but complicated by the usual impairments to our progress.

When we woke up it was raining. It fortunately stopped long enough to leave around midday. Also we'd finally washed all of our clothes.

We then joined the main road North up to Aalst, before turning West towards Gent. This brought on the strong winds, and slowed us down no end. It rained on and off, which is standard fare. Other than the wind, the second most difficult thing about cycling in Belgium is the cycle paths. You're supposed to use them when they're available (which is most of the time). This would seem to be a good idea, but often the cycle paths are poorly maintained, covered in the debris sprayed from the road, or constructed of poorly-aligned rectangles of concrete. In towns, the cycle route is often coterminous with the pavement, made of cobbles or brick-paving, or both. This makes for a generally bumpy and uncomfortable ride. Also, when you regularly travel along at around 20mph (although instances in Belgium are much-reduced by the wind), travelling down the pavement seems absurd and rather dangerous. At junctions, a variety of things happen, most of which involve cyclist occupying the theoretical space between being a car and being a pedestrian. To my mind, this doesn't work, and makes everyone unsure of eveything. Just let me ride on the road, it'd be safer for everyone involved.

Overall, the trip to Gent was fairly uneventful, despite the wind and rain, but cemented the fact that, despite being outwardly cycle-friendly, riding in Belgium was proving to be a bit of a chore. When we got to Gent it was raining, but we navigated the city sufficiently well to find a huge campsite in some sort of sporting district. The area was hosting the Special Olympics, and lots of rowing, so was surprisingly busy. Also, it had a shop and a snack bar, so even food was available. Excellent.

T+21 - Denderhoutem to Gent - 26.35 miles