Bikepacking the Border
Bikepacking … it’s a bit of a hipster word and there are many different definitions for it. For me it simply means “travelling for at least two days by bike”. And that’s exactly what we did. If you follow me on Instagram, you may know that last summer we’ve started a project to follow the border of Belgium and photograph it. This time we combined bikepacking with the border project on another imperfect adventure.
Day 1
We started this short trip where Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands meet and we planned a good chunk of a World War I inspired cycling route along the border.
Posing our bike at border marker number 1, the starting point of our adventure. An electric city bike and an “analog” gravelbike may make for a bit of a strange couple but who cares? It’s what we have and what allows us to do such a trip.
We started of with a spectacular descent through the forest that felt like we were somewhere far from our own country.
What goes down, must go back up! The terrain was much more hilly than the online maps suggested and we had some pretty steep climbs in the first part of our route. I’ve been getting in a bit of a cycling shape but climbing is still a challenge for a large huge human being, particularly with a loaded bike. On top of that, we had a heatwave and we struggled to keep hydrated and fuelled.
After a while the route levelled out and we started to follow the river Maas, which forms the border (or stays near it) for a big chunk of the route. We went over the river a couple of times, going between Holland and Belgium.
For the readers from other parts of the world: crossing borders within the EU is usually easy. There are no checkpoints, paperwork or officials. It did get a bit absurd in these Corona-times with different rules on both sides. Face masks and contact tracing on the Belgian side everywhere but across the river we could walk in stores and restaurants without any concern. We couldn’t help but think that COVID-19 has some strong allies within international politics.
Borders usually carry a lot of history with them. I really love that combination of travel, nature, exercise, culture and history. We rode by the fortress of Eben-Emaal, one of the biggest fortresses of Europe just before WW2. The spectacular attack of an elite group of German paratroopers can be seen as the start of the war for Western Europe. Unfortunately we didn’t have a reservation to visit the fortress (COVID again) but one day we’ll be back.
Our route for day one was almost 70 kilometers and the heat made it even harder for us untrained cyclists. By the end of the day we just took every occasion to cool down a bit. We passed a café where the owner hung up garden sprinklers. That earned him us as clients (and many more). And when all else fails, there’s always a rest stop Calippo.
After a last little detour to get some supplies we finally arrived at our camp ground. We even managed to put up our tent in a shaded area. A long shower and some fries were our reward for the pretty spicy day in the saddle.
Day 2
Thanks to that shaded camp spot, we managed to start a little later than we expected. For much of the day we followed the river again. A lot of people apparently found a slower yet less hot way to do the same.
During World War I, the border between Belgium and the Netherlands was sealed off by means of an electric fence. Over 1.000 people died there, and the fence became know as “the wire of death”. Along the route we came across many memorials of this cruel time in history.
Even though our route for day 2 was a bit less challenging, the heatwave made it pretty hard on our bodies. We had to be constantly aware to refuel and rehydrate to finish the 60km route we set out for.
One of the biggest advantages of travelling on a bicycle is that your going fast enough to zip through less interesting parts and slow enough to actually take a good look around. As a photographer I really appreciate the flexibility that the bike offers.
Street light graveyard
It keeps amazing me how many different kinds of landscapes you see during a day on the bike, the scenery is always changing.
Almost at our destination for the day.
By 4pm we reached our end point for the day and we met up with my parents who joined us for the next two days of this adventure.