As the afternoon grew long on Wednesday, I was running out of steam both mentally and physically. By this stage the map on my phone didn't have much detail so I needed to find some WiFi. I knew I was around 15km from Ghent but I had no camping plan yet. I meandered away from the main road and bounced along a small street until I came upon a cafe, Donza, which seemed bike friendly. While I was umming and ahhing about how to lock up and what to take in, the cafe owner came out for a chat to say that I could sit in the window to watch my bike, but in Deinze there wasn't much chance of anything going wrong. As I sat down I felt a bit heavy because once again I had nowhere to stay and the plan of camping on the side of the road really wasn't coming along. I had decided to just search for a camp ground again when the cafe owner came over for a chat to hear about my journey. Almost immediately he offered me a place to stay. He introduced himself as Steffan and his partner as Lien. After closing, we headed back to his house where we chatted, ate and drank. It is impossible to describe how my mood changed from when I arrived at the cafe. The trip had not started at all the way I thought it would. There were so many things I hadn't thought of that made me reconsider the way I was going to do the trip and what I could possibly achieve. I was already questioning why I was even doing it. I couldn't possibly see how I was going to meet people the way I wanted to and come out of it with a more positive view of people. Now, sitting at the dinner table with Steffan, Lien and little Bo, their nearly two year old son, I was sure that I was on the right path. By the time I was really to go the next morning with a belly full of hot breakfast and a plethora of handy gifts from Steffan's sister (I think?), I felt like a new person. I rode 100km that day and it felt like nothing could stop me because I now had such a positive outlook. I also had genuinely the best apple I've ever eaten, which was one of the gifts, and a delicious home made energy bar. I can't wait to see them in Australia where I will need to find the best places for coffee now that I have told Steffan that we are good at it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |