Avelgem – Parike. Getting on with it.

Last night's meal was in the hotel restaurant, the Hotel Sachsen. The boys had had a few beers before Sandra, Phil and I arrived and were quite relaxed by the time we sat down to eat. The owner spoke good English and the chef/bar maid spoke Flemish and French but after a few minor misunderstandings, we had a very good meal and another nice evening in a good hotel. The owner let me use his PC and plug in my pen to upload the diary and photos – he had already looked at Tim's website when he saw the address on the side of the van.

We said goodbye to Phil who was flying back from Charleroi – he'll be back with his son, Sam, in 10 days time – and Sandra and Jonno drove and navigated him back to the airport. Having been dropped at yesterday's stopping point, I took a little longer than usual to get into my stride but we were soon averaging just under 4 miles an hour, heading for Oudenaarde – another famous battle site.

Nearing the town, we had already covered 9.5 miles and I rang Sandra to see how they were doing. The reply was not what we wanted to hear, they were still 45 minutes away. I knew from our notes that the first real hill from Calais was coming up and we agreed to get to the top before we stopped. Fortunately, Sandra and Jonno parked just over the top and we had covered 12.1 miles before 12 noon .

A good break was in order and Sandra cooked us some pasta and ham and the three of us ate the lot plus pate and crisps and yoghurt and fruit and …. One hour later, we set off again and immediately, I knew that the first session had been too long and too far. My legs hurt from the knees down and the knees up and my knees were sore as well. We had only planned to walk 5 miles before another break but it was the hardest 5 miles so far and my smile was replaced by a grimace.

As we neared Brakel, we saw a roundabout with a massive sculpture made out of bikes, a tribute to Belgium 's favourite sport – we must have seen over 500 cyclists out for the day on their bikes - and a mile down the road, we stopped for our second break. This was a shorter stop and Jonno joined us for the last session. For some reason, my legs felt easier and with a steadier pace, I enjoyed the walk. All day we had passed gardens with immaculately prepared lawns, not a blade of grass out of place and there were more as we reached Parike and our last stop. Just after we had reached the van, Sandra told us it was an uphill mile to the hotel. We contemplated doing the extra mile and having 15 minutes more in bed tomorrow but once you have stopped, it's almost impossible to restart, so we rode up the hill.

Yellow jersey award for walker of the day – Dan – has worn the soles of his shoes right away

Distance covered – 21.0 miles Total covered – 246.4 miles