Day 10 – Back in the swing of things: Reims to Stenay

Day 10 – Back in the swing of things: Reims to Stenay

Wednesday January 14, 2015, 101 km (63 miles) – Total so far: 859 km (534 miles)

I had checked the weather forecast the night before and knew I was in for another day of rain so rather than worry about it I just got up early and got out in it. In fact when I had checked the weather forecast I had also come across a weather warning for Reims and the surrounding region of a storm that was incoming with 80 km/h winds. Upon checking the weather forecast for just across the border in Belgium there was no warning there so I knew I had to get as far away from Reims as I could before the storm hit!

The journey through Reims city centre was pretty painless and soon enough I was descending into the villages surrounding Reims where the rain surprisingly stopped.

There was a fairly straightforward road to Luxembourg from here so I didn’t have to worry too much about picking a route today. The morning was just spent putting the head down and cycling from each empty small village to the next one following the signs to Luxembourg.

As the morning drew on the clouds grew more and more ominous. A storm was brewing and if I wanted to wild camp I had to do my best to be as far away as possible when it hit. The huge tailwind I had behind me was helping me massively with this!

The countryside I was going through now was some of the nicest I had seen since I arrived in France. The landscape consisted of vast open fields and rolling hills, all of which were bathed in bright sunlight. Huge storm clouds were brewing on the horizon in the distance with made the landscape look even more dramatic.

The roads were quiet so I took out my MP3 player for the first time on the trip. The Lord of the Rings soundtrack seemed quite apt given the scene around me. This was my background music to my race across the countryside. Between the dramatic landscape, the quiet road, the pleasant weather and the good music, for the first time in a while I could say I was properly enjoying the journey.

Midway through the day I reached the town of Vouziers where I stocked up on water and headed out into the countryside again. Checking the map I could see that there were patches of woodland all the way to the town of Stenay not too far from the Belgian border so I aimed for these. I was really getting into this now so I put on some slightly faster music (Feeder) on the MP3 player and started pedaling towards Stenay letting the tailwind do most of the work.

As the day drew on I passed well out of reach of the storm. I soon reached the Ardennes region where I started cutting through the forests dotting the region. The sun was slowly starting to set at this stage giving off the brilliant golden light that it does on a good clear day. I switched to some Miike Snow on the MP3 player which was the perfect accompaniment for the slow sunset which was causing the landscape around me to glow. I continued on across the rolling countryside with the sun shining brilliantly behind me. This was perfection.

Finally as the day was drawing to a close I arrived at the patch of woods I had aimed for bang on target. On the last climb of the day to get to these woods I passed a dead boar by the side of the road so I knew I wouldn’t be alone in these woods. Once I stayed off the well worn paths through the woods though I knew it should be grand.

As usual I waited for a gap in traffic before diving out of sight into the trees. There was a small bit of snow/sleet on the ground up here but it wasn’t too cold. I found a good hidden patch and set up the tent before it got dark.

Today was the kind of day I had left home for. Great cycling through a dramatic landscape without a care in the world. I was having a tough time through Europe so far and I know there will be many more tough days to come. The more adventurous portion of the trip won’t start until I leave Istanbul and subsequently cross the border into Iran (visa pending!) I always knew it would always be a struggle to cross Europe in the Winter but if I had a few more days like this it would be enough to keep me recharged and keep me going until I reached that point where things would get easier.