Rixensart – Jauche. On our way to Liege

We are really getting into Belgium now and today started on the road to Liege and the German border. Breakfast at 7.30 with Dave and Ted already tucking into theirs when we came down and then 30 minutes in the van to get us back to Rixensart.

Team photo with our new team members and then Ted and I set off in the sunshine. We walked on the road through the Bois de Limal with Ted chatting away and my legs feeling fine. We missed a short cut but were soon into Wavre, another market town. This one is very French, with a big outdoor market with live chickens and ducks for sale and we lost our way through the stalls. We had to ask directions three times to find our way to the N268. As we turned onto the road, we saw the van looking for us and Ted and Dave swopped roles for the rest of the first session. Past the football ground and towards Grez Noiseau. Photo stop outside the Shop – ‘Mr Foot' – it had to be done. We stopped in Grez Noiseau and had a coffee and biscuits in the van about 11.30 – too early for lunch in the brasserie that Ted had found and where he had befriended the owner Edouard.

The second session took us out into the proper countryside and after climbing up through the Bois de Belvoit, I was called by the Barnsley Chronicle – at last I have reached the paper I used to read every week as a boy. Crossing the N91, we passed a Belgium Royal Air Force base and out into a very exposed and very straight 5 miles of road. Right on time, the clouds darkened and Sandra and I were buffeted by the heavy rain and gusting wind as well as by the big wagons as we walked along the narrow hard shoulder.

Dave and Ted were waiting for us 3k from Jodoigne. They had driven everywhere to find somewhere to stay tonight and had carried on a road towards Namur for 25k, instead of the 5k the policeman had told them, to find Les Trois Clefs and book two rooms for this evening.

Lunch was fresh baguette, tuna and pate and I walked the 200 metres to the nearest bar only to find it closed – so many places are closed at lunchtime - and carried on for the third session of the day. My shin and ankle had decided to swell up some more, so we called into a pharmacy in Jodoigne and managed with Dave's help to purchase a spray for insect bites and an anti-inflammatory cream– hopefully one of them will do the trick.

With Ted, then Dave and then Sandra, we covered a further 4 miles from Jodoigne getting soaked again but drying just as quickly. We finished 4.1 miles ahead of schedule, tired again but after another good day and good company.

The hotel looks better than most we have stayed in, our room is large with a decent bath and I'm getting ready to eat!

Yellow jersey award – Sandra – did the longest, hardest and wettest stretch.

Distance covered – 21.1 miles Total covered – 310.3 miles