Day 2: Monday 13th June - Belgium

Having ridden down the A1 the previous day in near pouring rain for 6 hours to Tunbridge Wells, and despite a walk into the old spa town for a drink with extremely warm and welcoming couch-surfing hosts, getting into still wet boots on an overcast day that promised more rain was a less rock-and-roll start to the journey into Europe than I'd imagined.

Steve & Jo, Tunbrige Wells

A direct ride to the Channel Tunnel that got damper as time went bye saw me late for the 10.50 'departure'. In my mind I was preparing excuses to avoid paying for another ticket, but the automatic machines just allocate you to the next train, so a panic over nothing. I'd used the Channel Tunnel last time and despite the long ride down there, had to use it again. The environment is completely alien, more video game / City 17 than England with sturdy grey concrete barriers directing traffic in formal slowly moving lines lines and transporter trains that look like nothing you'll see anywhere else. I love the strangeness of it all and going back a second time it's just as good. A chat with two still-smiling-after-a-wet-weekend-camping-in-England Dutch bikers meant I could give out my first 'Muxlow Enduro' business card designed and printed by my friend Pete just the day before setting off.

A speedy motorway ride through northern France into congested Belgium flew by with just a stop at a motorway service station, not for petrol, but the finest snack food known to man; waffles...

I've been waiting a long time for you my friend...

Ghent was the destination, staying aboard the Ecohostel Andromeda, a barge converted into a hostel, tremendously uber-cool and a great place to stay, but I should have noticed one of the windows in our room next to the riverbank didnt have a fly screen over, the midge bites are just dying down 5 days later... Ghent was a real surprise, beautiful old buildings in the city centre betrayed an ordinary ride through the suburbs. A meal with a friend Lien who I'd met in Croatia last year, and was studying in town was perfect before an early night was on the cards to try and dry out as the day had been constantly drizzling.

Ghent centre

Ghent centre

Lien's favourite place in town - Titanic point

Ecohostel Andromeda