Peruwelz and Blaton

Friday 9 October 2015

Climbed out of bed to see an outside temperature of 4C – brrrrr, winter is moving in fast.

The sun eventually fought its way through the thick mist draped over the canal

and, dressed warmly, we boarded the bikes for Peruwelz, a small town which I had recced earlier in the morning. The place was abuzz with a huge market stretching across a couple of streets with small stalls selling, in this case, mostly clothing but with a generous smattering of fresh fruit and veg stalls, boulangeries, chacuteries, fromageries and even a space where live fowl were on sale.

Halloween must be approaching

The packaging our raw chicken pieces came in.

We spent quite some time meandering through the crowds, many of whom seemed to share the same gene pool…and eventually dropped into chairs at a café for a coffee followed by a sweet something for Lynn from the patisserie across the road and a Baguette Boudin Blanc (white sausage on a roll – delicious) from one of the stalls for me. Back on the bikes for the 6 kilometre ride to Blaton - which was completely deserted! We surmised that all its inhabitants had decamped to the Peruwelz market, so after trying vainly to find an open pub to enjoy a beer (I'm certain taht I took a photograph of Blaton's main street but maybe it was too bored to bother downloading itself), we decided that the cosy surrounds of the bar at the marina would do just fine. After a late braai

we met up with Harbourmaster Pasqual to fill our water tanks

and retired to our books. Tomorrow we start the four day trek along the Blaton-Ath Canal and Dender River with a total of 32 locks and 31 lifting/swing bridges, something we are quite looking forward to as Sian said in her blog that the Wallonnian lockkeepers were the friendliest and most efficient they had yet encountered.