I got up super early this morning. There was a co-op next to the site that opened at 8, so my plan was to be there as it opened.

As it turned out, I was all packed up and trundling out of the site at half seven! A new personal best!

I wasn't going to hang around and wait for it to open, so I rode to the next town and by the time I got there everything was open.

I got some proper French croissants (hooray!) and a large baguette. All nice and fresh and warm.

After snaffling most of that, I got on my way again.

It was at this point that I suddenly found a canal with a cycle path. I had no idea it was there, so followed it as it was more or less going in the right direction.

It was really pleasant and very relaxing and I thought I'd just enjoy it a bit rather than rushing as I had plenty of time.

Things got really interesting when the path started to follow a disused section of canal. In fact it went through it for a while!

It was fascinating to see the empty canal and locks as you could see how it was built and can imagine what a task it would have been to dig it in the first place! I'm really glad I took the time to have a look at it.

After that, I made my way north as I'd been heading mostly west.

I got on a nice quiet road that wound its way through some really nice rolling countryside. I got my head down for a good stretch and eventually arrived at a campsite I'd put down as a possibility.

I decided to carry on. The next site was a fair way off, but as I'd set off so early, there was still plenty of time.

It was pretty good going to the next big town and I stopped there for a massive food up as I was starving by then.

I knew I still had about 20 miles to go, but that should be easy enough, right? Well, what I didn't know was that it was 20 miles of mostly uphill! Just to spice things up a bit, the sky was looking pretty black too.

I was getting really tired by this point and every time I thought the hill couldn't get any higher, it did!

Eventually I saw a load of wind turbines and felt confident they would be built at the top!

It seemed they were and I had a long flatish section along the top before the inevitable descent.

I still had a fair few miles to go, but I got to the campsite in the end. Although I was a bit worried it might be another misplaced site in the app I've been using as it really is in the middle of nowhere!

It is nice and peaceful and the owners are very friendly and chatty.

There is nowhere to eat within who knows how many miles, but as luck would have it, I have plenty of bread and cheese and a nice packet of biscuits, so that will have to do for tonight. I'm not actually that hungry (for once!) as I ate so much during the day.

Looking forward to an early night and hitting Luxembourg tomorrow!

Pics from yesterday are now up along with today's...