A Journey by Bicycle through Europe, Siberia, Mongolia & China

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Saturday, 6^th March 2004
Okehampton
Total kms so far: 37

Well, I've started at last.... in the wrong direction, but it's a start.

Set off yesterday evening and rode 25 miles to Okehampton, to stay with Emily's aunt, uncle, little cousins and Bertie the dog.

Look at the map and you'll see that Okehampton is more or less due west of Exeter, so I've gone minus 25 miles on my way to Shanghai.

The bike was so heavy yesterday it was barely rideable, so I've ditched about 2.5 kgs of books here. I'll miss War and Peace though, but with the bike at yesterday's weight I doubt I would ever have made it to Dover.

Got to get properly on my way now....

Wednesday, 10^th March 2004
Dover
Total kms so far: c. 540

Just checking in from Dover, the nice people at the Dover Express newspaper have let me use their computers to update the site, in exchange for a cheesy photo of me standing outside their office.

The ride to Dover took much longer than I expected, mainly thanks to the hills of Devon and Dorset, and a biting easterly wind which blew right up my nose almost all the way. That and the fact that it is much further from Exeter to Dover than I thought it was.

It has been cold, cold, cold: last night I slept in my tent and sleeping bag wearing my down jacket and balaclava. I looked like an Antarctic explorer, a little ridiculous for an orchard in East Sussex just outside Uckfield. But it was still cold...

Going to catch the early morning ferry to Calais in the morning, hopefully will be in Antwerp in a couple of days.

Tuesday, 16^th March 2004
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.

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.

I’m staying a few days here in Antwerp with my grandmother; by chance she showed me an old photo album containing pictures taken by my great-grandfather in 1911. I found an amazing photo of Gent which is uncannily similar to the one I had taken a few hours earlier. You can see the two pictures, one from September 1911 and one from March 2004, on this month’s photo page.

See photos for this month