Less than a year after my first big tour, I am on a bicycle trip once again now. In 1999 I have reached as far south as Catalonia, Northern Spain. This time I will have a little bit more time, money and motivation to travel a little further south. In 1999 I have explored the little backroads of France, this time I have planned to focus on Spain. And this time I will be used to being alone. The first two weeks I will not be alone, however. Menno will accompany me through France. And today we cycle with five friends: Klaartje, Willem, Peter, Olaf and Marco. We are not lucky with the weather. It is raining the whole day. Ten kilometer after Vught everyone has quit the wet journey. Menno and I go on alone to quit a little further in Oisterwijk.

Day 2: Oisterwijk - Olmen (Belgium) - Sint Truiden 103 km

Another grey day. It is raining a little less than yesterday but again we have southerly winds the whole day through. I am a little depressed, my brain is repeating itself over and over with the same thoughts, the same images. The monotonous sound of the splashing raindrops on my rain coat brings me in a black trance. I am not saying too much. I realize that I am not good company to travel with. We find a shelter for the rain in a youth hostel in Sint Truiden.

Day 3: Sint Truiden - Namur - Onhaye - Givet (France) 120 km

The day begins half clouded. The first moments of sunshine welcome us. These moments do not last for long. As we reach the River Meuse, it is completely clouded again, but still dry. A line of hundred meter high rock cliffs accompanies the river. After Namur we climb out of the valley, up to the Ardennes plateau. We keep cycling on the plateau untill the evening falls. Then we descend to the Meuse valley again. We quit just across the border with France in Givet. It is good to be back in France. It seems that the worst of the weather is over. From now on, circumstances can only improve...

Day 4: Givet - Hargnies - Monthermé - Aiglemont - Sédan - Boutoncourt - Le Chesne 100 km

The rain is ticking on our tent as we get up. We pack our luggage in a hurry before everything gets wet. It is raining harder and harder. We find shelter under the bridge over the Meuse in Givet. Silently we eat our breakfast. What shall we do? Cycling another day through cold rain showers is not a pleasant option. On the other hand: we are wet already.

We leave the Meuse after twenty kilometer and climb up the highlands of the French Ardennes. It is June already but it feels more like March or April. It is ten degrees and it keeps raining cats and dogs. The pine woods have a certain poetry in this dark weather, though. The trees and the ferns have a deep odour. The rain brings me in a trance once more. We keep on going for a long time in a silent way untill suddenly we have a brilliant sight over the rivers Semois and Meuse. After a short descent we follow the Meuse again. After Sédan it has finally stopped raining. The sun breaks through carefully. We leave the Meuse and reach the hills of Champagne. We find a camping along the lake of Le Chesne.

Day 5: Le Chesne - Vouziers - Binarville - Revigny sur Ornain - Bar le Duc 146 km

Packing our bicycles in the rain is becoming a routine now. Within fifteen minutes we are on our bicycle, struggling against a southwestern storm. Cold arrows of rain hit our faces. After twenty kilometer we reach Vouziers where we find shelter in a cafe. We have to wait for better times to carry on. After two hours it is better. It is dry now at least. We take off once again after the false start this morning. This proves to be another wet affair. After ten minutes we have to flee for another rain shower. We are nearly freezing under the roof of a petrol station. As the rain is calming down, we start off for the third time.

We are riding through the lovely hill landscape of the Champagne. Sometimes it is raining, sometimes it is dry. We follow the course of the Aisne, reach the forests of Argonne. The weather is surely improving now. As the evening falls, the sun is shining carefully. We profit of this sudden change in our favour. Through the lovely Saulx Valley we ride, cross another hill ridge and end up in the nice renaissance town of Bar-Le-Duc.

Day 6: Bar le Duc - Sommancourt - Valleret - Bar sur Aube 95 km

We leave Bar-Le-Duc in clear blue skies. Through the hills of the Champagne we are riding into the sun. South we go! For the first time we have nice temperatures. As the hours pass, the air feels more and more humid. It feels like monsoon. We are not in Thailand but in Northern France however. As I look up, I see that the sky above has turned into a dark grey soup. Southwest of us, the sky is as black as ink, rolling with an immense speed over the hills of the Champagne towards us. We have reached the camping of Bar sur Aube just in time before a tremendous hail storm breaks loose.

Day 7: Bar sur Aube - Bagneux la Fosse - Beauvoir sur Arce - Channes 71 km

In a dark brown cafe in Bar sur Aube, I am sipping my last cup of coffee as the last remnants of the cold front are chasing over. It is half clouded but there is a stormy southwestern wind again. Menno has some problems with one knee. Things are not turning in our favour. We quit early in the afternoon and stay in a gîte d'étape. We deserve a little rest and hang our tent, clothes and sleeping bags to dry.

Day 8: Channes - Arthonnay - Ancy le Franc - Noyers - Epoisses 77 km

Water, water, everywhere is water. With five kilometer per hour we struggle against the gigantic storm. The rain chases horizontally through the air, taking our breath away. I cannot look forward, I can only look down. Why on Earth are we doing this? Yesterday we decided to leave early, but why as the weather is this awful? It takes nearly two hours to reach a cafe. It seems that our decision to leave had more implications. Mennos knee has deteriorated badly. Menno has not mentioned giving up but I know he is seriously thinking it over.

After two hours, the weather has improved significantly. The rain is over now. The sky is still grey but the wind has slowed down a little. It is at least possible to go on. Slowly we progress against the fierce wind, reaching the beautiful village of Noyers around noon. Menno has crossed the Rubicon. He will break off the journey. It has no use to go on, risking lasting knee problems again. Strangely, having made the difficult decision must have felt like a liberation. Menno is in a triumphant mood at once, maybe because he now has the opportunity to meet with his girlfriend Klaartje in the house of Klaartjes parents in nearby Morvan.

Day 9: Epoisses - Avallon 35 km

It is good weather finally. Today we will not profit too much because we will not go further than nearby Avallon, where Menno will meet Klaartje. Tomorrow I will try to cross the hills of the Morvan to reach Menno and Klaartje once again in the house of Klaartjes parents. We reach the nice mediaevil town of Avallon around noon and spend the afternoon well, exploring the town and doing a bit of rock climbing along the river near the camping.

Day 10: Avallon - Vézélay - Lormes - Château Chinon - Villapourçon 106 km

So now I will try to reach the house of Klaartjes parents in Villapourçon today. Despite the heavy rain, Menno wants to cycle the first ten kilometers to the mediaevil village of Vézélay. Vézélay is one of the starting points of the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela. We cycle slowly over the cobbled street up to the cathedral. There is nobody to be seen on the streets. The cathedral is opened, though. I am touched by the serene atmosphere of the village. Menno and I say goodbye. From now on I will be alone. Hopefully I will be able to reach Villapourçon today. Unless the cold, wet and gloomy weather, I have picked up a kind of angelic feel in Vézélay. The landscape seems to breathe a rich spiritual past and the rain seems to have an odour of incense. Everything seems to have some unknown purpose and direction. In the long and winding road up the first hill range of the Morvan I see two cyclists before me. After a few minutes I reach them.

They are on the way to Santiago. They will try to reach Nevers, an important halting place on the way to Compostela. As we reach the top of the hill, the two pilgrims take the right way to Compostela. I take the left way to Lormes.

There are road constructions just before Lormes. In the confusing circumstances I take the wrong way and after a long descent I find out that I have gone down all the way from the massif of the Morvan to the flat lands around. I have to cycle back again to Lormes, another hour upward, only to descend on the other side of the village and to begin another long ascent. Because of all the climbing I am completely warmed up but on the same time my skin is cold because of the rain. My body is thermally unstable; as I am eating some chocolate under the roof of a bus stop, I see that I have an aura of steam around me.

I am having a long rest in Château Chinon. There is only one more ascent on the programme. After reaching the summit, I only have to go down to Villapourçon. As I reach the village of Villapourçon, it is finally dry. It is good to meet Menno and Klaartje.

Day 11: Villapourçon - Sanglier - Luzy - Toulon sur Arroux - Anzy le Duc - Marcigny - Chambilly 114 km

It is raining once again as I am descending the Morvan. After heartily saying farewell to Menno and Klaartje, I have to face the elements again. This time not for long however. After two hours it is dry and after another hour the sun breaks through. A quiet day of cycling through the rolling hills of Burgundy brings me at the meadows of a farmer where I can have a campsite.

Day 12: Chambilly - Ambierle - Col de la Rivière Noire - Col de la Planade - St Rémy sur Durolle 95 km

A feeling of excitement goes through my veins as I am cycling closer and closer to the first hill range of the Massif Central. A 1.000 meter climbing brings me up to the mediaevil town of Ambierle and further up to the Col de la Rivière Noire. The landscape is intensely green. It must rain a lot here and after the last two weeks that must not be a surprise. Today is a very sunny day however. For the first time I reach a camping with tourists in St Rémy sur Durolle.

Day 13: St Rémy sur Durolle - Thiers - Sallèdes - Vic le Comte - Champeix - St Flore - Col de la Chaumoune - Condat 138 km

Today feels like poetry. First I reach the nearly vertical city of Thiers, perched against the cliffs of the Durolle. Thiers seems to have grown organically out of the green and fertile earth. Then, after a short climb, I am on a river terrace, a few hundred meter above the wide valleys of the Dore on the one hand and the Allier on the other hand. The weathered landscape of the Auvergne is magnificent. As I reach the Allier valley and leave the valley for the long climb up to the Col de la Chaumoune, I meet a Dutch couple. I sit two hours with them along the mountain stream, cheerfully chatting and joking together. then I go on again, I reach the Col de la Chaumoune early in the evening and descend to Condat, where I find a camping for tonight.

Day 14: Condat - Riom es Montagnes - Puy Mary - Salers 68 km

The district of Cantal is one of the least populated in France. Old, weathered landscapes and old volcano complexes, that is what we get here. After Riom es Montagnes I climb up to the volcano complex of the Puy Mary, an extraordinary trip. This is the most beautiful day so far. A world of alpine meadows, darkly wooded hill flanks, small valleys, steep crater walls and big coneshaped domes unfolds. After a long climb through this continuously changing landscape, I have a long way down over volcanic crests to the village of Salers, a renaissance village which is completely made up of black lavastone.

Day 15: Salers - St Julien aux Bois - Bretenoux - Carennac - Rocamadour 120 km

After Salers, there is forty kilometer downward and flat terrain before I reach the Dordogne region. Now it is only up and down through lush, green landscapes. The weather is as hot and humid as possible without brewing a thunder storm. At the end of the day that is what I get eventually. I reach the camping of Rocamadour just in time before hell breaks loose.

Day 16: Rocamadour - Luzech - St Maurin - Valence d'Agen 142 km

In Rocamadour I have kept up with the St Jacques route to Compostela again. Rocamadour is perched against a cliff. The city has three levels. Above the cliff is a 12th century old church. The second level has lots of chapels and is actually built against the cliff. The third level is the actual mediaevil town.

It is raining again. Not too hard, but this is the kind of bad weather that will stick around for a long time. There is not too much to be seen in the hills south of Rocamadour. Around noon I have reached the River Lot in Luzech. Strange enough all the shops and restaurants are closed. I have no water and food any more so hopefully I will find a restaurant soon.

I have bad luck. There is nothing on the way in the hills between the River Lot and the River Garonne. This time I am happy that it is raining. Despite the rain, the thirst is growing steadily. Sixty hungry and thirsty kilometers further, I reach St Maurin. I have not drunk for five hours and I have not eaten for eight hours but now I can finally buy water and something to eat.

Ten kilometers further is a camping. It is the ugliest one I have ever seen. In the middle of an industrial area, under the smoke of a nuclear energy complex and in the rainy, grey weather, this is the worst place I have ever stayed. I eat a takeaway pizza in the desolated town. The only noises are the sound of rain and the sound of an alarm that is already going on for an hour as I return after my dinner.

Day 17: Valence d'Agen - Lavardens - Mirande - Tarbes - Lourdes 180 km

As I awake, I feel the urge to leave as soon as possible and to cycle as far as I can go from this unfriendly, industrial place. The whole day I go on and on. The last few hours I see the mountains of the Pyrenees ahead. The sight encourages me to go on untill I reach Lourdes. Here I find a small camping in the middle of the town. A woman tells me that she once had walked from her house all the way to Compostela. She is very enthusiastic; she urges me to ask for the credencial and to follow the caravan of pilgrims to Santiago. I ask myself if that is possible for cyclists also, but she is sure.

In the evening I go to the cave where St Bernadette was said to have seen Maria hundred years ago. Nowadays there are thousands of sick and injured people per day who are coming to the cave to taste the healing waters. And there are thousands of people who help them. This place is full of love and faith but also of hopelessness and fear. I do not know what to think. I have to rejudge on what pillars humanity should be built upon. That is my spiritual homework for the coming days.

Day 18: Lourdes - Bielle - Laruns - Col du Pourtalet - Sabiñanigo (Spain)-Jaca 149 km

After a long sleep and after drinking coffee with nearly all the camping guests, I am finally on my way around noon. Along the foothills of the Pyrenees I go westward And after some uphill and downhill cycling I reach Bielle. From here I go southward and reach Laruns at nearly 4 o'clock. Here is the beginning of the ascent to the Col du Pourtalet and the Spanish border. It is too late to start climbing today, especially because it is very cloudy and there is a heavy southwind. But then a cyclist, coming from Spain, tells me that the weather in Spain is excellent. After a little thought I decide to start climbing today whatsoever. And indeed, after ten kilometers there is not a cloud to be seen.

The col du Pourtalet is not a difficult ascent. It has a percentage of 5 to 7 all the time. Eventually, I reach the pass and the Spanish border at seven o'clock. An eagle is flying above my head. It is beautiful to see the sun going down, being high in the mountains. I enjoy the idea of exploring new territory in Spain. I nearly cannot wait and let myself roll down into the promised land, into new worlds. Read about my journey through Spain on the next page.