Kalmthout to Brecht: E2 Day 107

A pleasant day's walk across farmland and through woods.

As there were no special sights today the guidebook was reduced to photos of cows and a dairy farm. Appropriate as it is a dairy farming area, although I only saw a few cows in the fields, maybe they keep them in barns? The area smelt of farming, the warm smell of farmyard manure occasionally drifting by. Many fields had tall grass, presumably a hay crop, or the dark earth had been ploughed up. The roads and tracks I walked along were often picturesque, lined on one or both sides with trees. Although there were no hedges around fields, they did surround farm buildings. Around a couple of farms, the beech hedges had been trained to create large circular openings and the associated trees had been coerced into some shape as well.

Small roads used by cyclists and rare vehicle were often lined with trees.

Ploughed fields, hay crops, trees beside the road and no hedges, woodland in the distance, typical Flemish countryside.

A group of small, off road vehicles raced by. I thought it a poor way to see the countryside, they would not hear the call of the Lapwings above the noise of their engines. Mature, mixed woodland of tall trees alternated with farmland. The straight forest tracks ran between the arched branches of the trees, newly in leaf, their bright, light green contrasting with the darker shades of the taller pines. The route also entered a few villages. Most houses were built of, or faced with brick. The colours looked different from those in Britain, and the bricks smaller. A row of modern buildings used different coloured bricks to good effect; some dark red, others a sandy red, some brown or dark grey, others in lighter shades.

Modern housing.

Wuustwezel was a small town I arrived at in time for lunch. The café was not open until late afternoon so I bought a ham and cheese roll and coffee at a bakery, then copied everyone else and sat eating them on the chairs outside the closed café. Needing some food supplies in case my campsite tomorrow night had no eating places, I went into the Lidl supermarket to pick up a few things. On leaving the shop assistant wanted to look inside my rucksack, presumably to check I had not shoplifted anything. I felt like a naughty boy for the second day running although today I had done nothing wrong!

This evening the brasserie I am eating at again has many asparagus dishes on the menu. I chose the steak and chips, which also arrived with asparagus (and mayonnaise).