Adventure in... Vacation...
There are no pictures or videos of the vacation part. I brought along 3 cameras and I got out 1 video that is really unwatchable.
And so it was that I started preparing for vacation.
Of course the whole month of May was very warm and really sunny, with temperature reaching up to 27 C, and as soon as we got towards June and my vacations, the weather turned around and we got cold and rain on a daily basis.
Undaunted, I kept soldiering on looking for a departure around the 10 of June, just after Pinksteren (that I have no idea how to tranlsate).
On the sunday I did some cleaning, and since I emptied the fridge for the vacation, I even managed to clean the whole fridge in the inside.
In the afternoon, since it had stopped raining, I managed to clean the bike and clean and oil the chain.
Then I went to pick up all the 'vacation' gera (tent, sleeping bad, matrass... the lot) and started to put together the luggage.
On monday, I had everything ready, with the exception of my slipper (I had them on my feet), my pants and the laptop (that I am using right now).
The weather forecast kept giving good weather with very hot temperature for the rest of the week... we'll see.
So, Tuesday morning... was still raining of course. Also, there is a strike in the train service and the traffic exploded everywhere... so... I decided to avoid a repetition of last year and leave on the Wednesday. That's the good part of not having any reservation or a fixed plan. You can improvise. So I spent the day relaxing.
On Wednesdaym morning, the sky was a bit grey, but not terrible, so I tossed all the stuff on the bike, said bye to the cats and the neighbours and then I left towards Belgium.
Traffic was intense but not critical, around Eindhoven I left the motorway for normal road, made a quick stop at a McDonald for a sandwich and around 2 PM I reached a campsite around Dinant, in Belgium, that I reached via a quite funny road along the hilltops.
Put down my tent and then go hunt for dinner.
This is the same campsite I stopped by a couple of years ago, and at that time I suffered for the cold during the night. So much that I dismissed my old sleeping bag for another one with an higher rating. Well, I got again too cold during the night. That make me think that maybe the problem isn't the sleeping bag or me, but is the site that is particularly cold at night.
Anyhow, the next day, Thursday, the weather forecast is very hot with temperature above 27C. I got up early, packed my stuff and left. First stop: local tank station with associated cafe' for a cappuccino and a couple of briosche for me and petrol for the bike, then we can really start the day.
My GPS got an update that enable the "Adventure Riding", basically it will look for a route that avoid motorway and prefer twisty and 'scenic' road, my guess is that it base the choices with a combination of geography and "human recommendation". This is the first time I try it and so far is doing its job. The road it picked is a nice combination of hills, forests, ups and downs. Quite fun.
The temperature begin to rise, from 16~18 in the morning we reach 23 by mid-morning and the it goes over. Around 11AM I stop in a bistro' for a sandwich and some water and the termometer say 29. Quite hot.
Luckily, I opted to remove the rainproofing layer from my pants and jacket, so it is hot but not that much.
Around 2PM the termometer say 32C ! I got to a camping site around Troyes, put down my tent in a corner and then I jump into a shower to cool down a bit, after that, I can finish set up the tent and then go looking for some dinner for the evening.
The temperature remains high for the rest of the day, so no cold that night. Not even a bit.
On the other hand, I decided to add a small tool to my kit last year: a fan. Never had a better idea.
Friday morning I depart again still directed south, towards the valley of the Somne.
My first stop would have been a tank station with associated cafe', but the one pointed to me by Google resulted to be closed. So I went on and kept an eye open for other places.
The temperature is raising quickly now, at 10.30 we are already around 30C. Around 11 I stop ad at supermarkt with associated bar where I can get a volcanic cappuccino, in the sense that it was so hot as to be almost undrinkable, but it's caffeine at least.
Around noon I stop along the road for a salade and lots of water. And around 1 PM I decided that is time to get a campsite. Possibly near some water, so I stop at Villegusien near its water reservoir. Unfortunately the reception of the campsite is closed until 2pm, so I fetch my folding chair from the bag, park in the shade and proceed to take a little siesta. At 2.30 pm an oldish-looking woman show up, and says hallo. So I get in the reception and 10 minutes later I've placed my tent and jump into the pool to cool down.
After that, I watch a literal train of SUVs, each one with a trailer attached and all of them with Dutch license plate arriving one after another.
Around 4pm a group of "motards" also arrive, well, kinda motards since one of them is driving a Trike. All of them are dressed in black leather... boy I pity them. Anyway, they stop and rent a bungalow.
In the evening I walk to the near village and get a pizza. Then we'll see how things are going the next day.
The motards decided to start moving at 5 in the morning, all of them apparently had wodden shoes and start walking up and down the bungalow, that also has wodden floor, it sounded like a bunch of horses stomping around. At 6.30 they finally leave so I can keep dozing for another hour or so.
Well, the weather is showing sign of cracking, I get alerts for "intense tunderstorms" basically everywhere now, with more warnings for "high temperature". And going around twisty road under severe weather isn't fun.
After some pondering, I decided that if I can't go south, I'll go north. The plan at the moment is: heading kinda back. I'll go to Nancy and see how things are going, if things aren't improving I can spend a couple more days in Belgium. If things are going shitty, I can always set sail for home.
Another "fun" route from the GPS, up and down hills, in and out forests and little villages. Arrive at Nancy around noon and this time I'm going for an Hotel. Got one not too expensive, park the bike in a road marked "absolutely no parking" and I count at least 11 cars and 5 bikes already parked so... In the evening I go to a local brasserie.
... And the rain came!
Don't know at what time it started, but at 6am it was raining. A lot! I cursed a bit but also gave myself a pat on the back because I remembered to put the raincover on the tank bag, so at least that one was dry.
At this point I go get my breakfast and the look a bit on what to do. Since everywhere the forecast is "heavy rain", I decide that is better to leave while I'm winning. Is time to head home.
I leave Nancy under the rain. This time no fun route, just take me to Liege and avoid the motorway. I got to Liege around noon, and then I keep going north. Via Maastricht towards Amsterdam.
I reach home aroung 15.30, with the neighboor a bit surprised but my cats very happy.
But "back home" doesn't mean that the vacation are over. It only means that the second phase of the vacation starts early. I wanted to do some renovation on what is supposed to be my "back garden", that is not really a garden but more of a yard. And that means mostly get rid of the garbage and add some actual flowers and plants.
Adventure in Gardening
Aftere a good night sleep I got up early (basically when my cats decided they wanted breakfast) and then got to the local Diy-gardening store and there I got 120Lt of "general purpose dirt", a bunch of plants and flowers "resistant to the sun" and some other stuff.
The next step was to start removing the "plants" that were already there, that are now mostly weeds. Those things are strong, they don't die but also look like crap. One of the 'vase' (a cube of concrete about 40x40x40) was basically chocked full of roots. Not much leafs or dirt but lots of roots. My cat had decided that it was a wonderful bed, he was always sleeping in it. But to me it looks ugly, so after some struggle I managed to get all the roots out and toss them into the recycling bin.
After an entire day spent messing around, I managed to use all the dirt I got and even some more that I already had. I still have an half-dozen new plants and I also want to recycle a couple of pallets I got from the office (free wood) to build a couple of "planters" for the new plants.
So, the next day is rinse and repeat, another 120 Lt of dirt and other stuff. I also got a few 'hooks' so I can hang the stepladder on the wall, so it isn't in the middle all the time. Then I started dismantling the pallets, i managed to take 1 and an half a part before noon and the temperature gets a bit too hot to work. At that point I toke a break, got a sandwich, cleaned up the place and make a bit of a plan.
In the afternoon, when the sun isn't bearing down so hard, I finished to dismantling the pallers and then applied some impregnant to the wood. That way tomorrow I can start building the stuff I want to build. And I also managed to kill another pair of gloves.
New day, I start transplanting some of the plant I already had, this time I use the new dirt and also add some clay ball to allow for some retention of water. The I started the build of the planters. Since I don't need it to look perfect, I used the "build by the seat of the pants" technique, that is a lot of fun and not too much of stress. The result isn't perfect but is also quite functional.
Unfortunately, I realized that I had already used most of the dirt (already), so back to the shop for some more.
In the afternoon I cleaned up a bit the place and then went to do some cooking.
Last day of the wok! Put together the remaining wood and built another planter, since the first one came out good, why not to repeat? The I cleaned up everything (again), collected all the small pices of wood and brought all the scraps to the recycling center.
Now, for this year the project is done. Now we'll see if it lasts and the plants surives until next spring
Davide Bianchi
20/06/2025 03:59
