In the last couple of years, we’ve been doing some short trips exploring the border of Belgium. We started doing these trips by car but last year we decided that bicycles are a much better way to stay as close to the border as possible. We took up bikepacking and we rode from Vaals to Achel. This summer we picked the same finish point for a new trip, but started our tour from the other side and cycled from Antwerp to Achel, hugging the border.

In case you’d like to take a look at the route or, better yet, decide to hop on the bike yourself, you can find all the routes in this Komoot collection.

We started our trip with a little prelude. We rode to my parents’ house and stayed the night there before riding to the station and hopping on the train to Antwerp, where we had the official start of our trip.

Day 1: Antwerp - Achtmaal (64km)

Riding through the busy center of Antwerp isn’t our kind of cycling, but we soon exchanged the busy roads for small quiet roads that led us through fields, small towns, forests and much more. It didn’t take long before we reached the border with Holland and from there on we started following that artificial line again. We stayed the night at Camping De Ossewei, a small, calm and cosy campground.

Day 2: Achtmaal - Wortel-Kolonie (67km)

It took a couple of kilometers to warm up our legs and loosen up our backs again, but we soon found ourselves enjoying some amazing views and deserted cycling paths. We also came by the “wire of death” again. This huge electric fence was built by te Germans during WW1 to separate Belgium from Holland. Our 2020 route was loosely based upon the wire of death and we often came by remains of it during this years’ trip as well.

The cycling path along the river Mark was also a highlight. For a number of kilometers it twists along the river which makes for some fun and dynamic cycling.

At the end of the day, we bought some food and headed for the campsite Bivakzone Wortel-Kolonie. We used to love these campsites: free, basic, small and in nature. Unfortunately these days they are often used as party locations for local youth (and not so young people as well). After a long day in the saddle, the last thing I need is a bunch of loud drunk people next to my tent. I’m still behind the idea of the “bivakzones” and I do think that young people need places to party, but I hope that these can be separated.

Perfect camping spot right? But only until a bunch of drunks wanted to have a party there.

Day 3: Wortel-Kolonie - Bergeijk (79km)

Rest is important during trips like these but we didn’t get much of it. First there were the party-people and we also developed a very enyoing rash. It started out as a bit of itching here and there but soon our whole bodies were covered in hundreds of red spots. Some research told us this was the work of the infamous Oak processionary caterpillar. While riding we didn’t have too much problems but during the nights we scratched more than we slept. I can only say: if you see a sign to warn for these caterpillars, watch out! There’s not much you can do about once you came to close, we scratched for days after our trip.

But like I said, once on the bike we were fine. Our first stop was the rather odd town of Baarle-Hertog. It’s basically a Belgian village just over the Dutch border. You basically keep crossing the border when you go around this 2 towns-in one.

There was also plenty of beautiful nature to ride through but our legs started to feel pushing the pedals for 4 consecutive days. On top of that we had to do a 10km detour to find a shop that was open. But we enjoyed a nice last evening at Camping Het Ven right next to the border. The weather gods gave us just enough time to pitch our tent before the first rain of the trip came down. The nice owners of the farm/camping kindly let us use a communal space to cook and eat our dinner.

Day 4: Bergeijk - Achel (33km)

We scheduled just a short ride for our last days since we also had to catch some trains to get back home. We followed the canal for a while and also got some nice kilometers through the woods. We also got lucky and found a great ice cream place, which was also a fish farm. The things you find on a bike ;-)

At our end point, we said goodbye to the border for now and headed to the nearest train station. In theory the combination of trains and bicycles is ideal, in Belgian practice it’s more of a nightmare. Carrying Kim’s fully loaded, electric bike up and down stairs and in and out trains is quite a workout. Two hours later we arrived at our hometown station, which luckily has good cycling infrastructure and a good place for Belgian fries nearby.

Apart from some minor inconveniences we truly enjoyed this adventure. It proves yet again that you don’t have to travel to the other end of the world to explore, discover and really travel. I’m already planning our next bikepacking the border adventure.

All pictures shot with the Fujifilm X-Pro3 and a prototype of the XF33mm F1.4