"Life is a pilgrimage. The wise man does not rest by the roadside inns. He marches direct to the illimitable domain of eternal bliss, his ultimate destination", Swami Sivananda
- Introduction
- The statistics and metrics of the day
- The most memorable occurrences, moments and thoughts
- Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 05, from Guînes to Licques
- Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 06, From Licques to Tournehem-sur-la-Hem
- Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 07, From Tournehem-sur-la-Hem to Wisques
- Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 08, From Wisques to Thérouanne
- Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 09, From Thérouanne to Amettes
- Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 10, From Amettes to Bruay-la-Buissière
- Pictures of the day.
This post complements the post I published on the 2nd of August 2016 in which I described the experiences I had while riding between Alembon and Bruay-la-Buissière. I am not going to repeat the contents of that post in this one again, but I will add a few highlights for each stage below. I would strongly encourage you to ready the August, 2016 post before continuing on this one, though.
Statistics and metrics of the day
- Date: Sunday, 31st of July 2016
- Route: From the Rural Gite in Alembon to the Ibis Style Hotel in Bruay-la-Buissière via Licques, Tournehem-sur-la-Hem, Thérouanne, Amettes and Bruay-la-Buissière
- Distance: 86.02 Km
- Departure time from Alembon: 10:29am
- Arrival at Destination: 5:58pm
- Duration of day’s Journey: 7h 29min
- Expenses this day: Total = € 99.00
- €30.00 – Food
- €69.00 – Accommodation (Ibis Styles Hotel Bruay-la-Buissière)
- Overnight Location: Hotel ibis Styles Bethune Bruay, (+33)3/21011111
- Type of Accommodation: Hotel
- Lightfoot Guide Stages:
- 05: Guînes – Licques (portion between Guines and Alembon done on previous day)
- 06: Licques – Tournehem-sur-la-Hem
- 07: Tournehem-sur-la-Hem – Wisques
- 08: Wisques – Thérouanne
- 09: Thérouanne – Amettes
- 10: Amettes – Bruay-la-Buissière
- Physical and Body Stats: Link to the Garmin Connect Page for this ride
- Time of non-stop cycling: 7h 29m
- Average Speed: 11.5 Km/h
- Max. Speed: 56.8 Km/h
- Total Elevation Gain: 805 m
- Average Heart Rate: 135 bpm
- Max. Heart Rate: 168 bpm
- Calories: 2762 CAL
- Number of Pedal Strokes (Cadence sensor): 15,771
Most memorable occurrences, moments and thoughts:
- Everything was going well, until… The unexpected, yes the unexpected again… By 9:30am I had packed everything and was ready to leave the Gite. I then realised my CatEye cycling computer was missing. Looked in the front bag, as I was certain I had put it there the night before. Wasn’t there, of course. Went back to the room and looked everywhere as I thought it might have fallen of the front bag during packing. Wasn’t there, of course. So all what was left was to look for it in the panniers, which were already neatly locked to the bike. Well, a pilgrim has go to do what a pilgrim has got to do. Looked for it in the front panniers as these were a lot easier to remove. Not there, of course. Took everything off the back of the bike again and looked in one pannier (not there, of course) and then the next, and bingo! It had fallen into the pannier as I was packing my things. I was happy not to have lost it, although I knew it was with me the night before, but the unpacking and packing took me almost 1 full hour. I didn’t do that mistake again…
- Do not underestimate the SUN! The day before had been rainy and not particularly hot.
50 Shades of Red I had seen on the phone’s Weather App that this day was supposed to be cloudy, but not rainy. It didn’t occur to me that I no longer was under British Weather. The day turned out to be very hot and sunny and I hadn’t passed any sunscreen on my skin. By the middle of the afternoon I was already feeling the damage the sun had done to my skin, which now looked very burned. The sunscreen was on the very bottom of one of my rear panniers. I should have stopped and passed the sunscreen on, but the thought of removing everything on the back of the bike (I had an intricate system there) was not appealing, so I continued. By the time I realised my mistake it was too late. The result was some heavy sun burns and sun fever by the time I got to Bruay-la-Buissière. As it was Sunday I knew it wouldn’t be easy to find accommodation and I wasn’t feeling very well so I used Google Maps to show me the available hotels nearby and the most affordable was the Ibis Style hotel 5 Km away from the town centre.
Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 05, from Guînes to Licques
Video Length: 5 min and 26 sec
To skip introductions and recommendations jump to time stamp 0:52 in the video timeline.
Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 06, From Licques to Tournehem-sur-la-Hem
Video Length: 3 min 12 sec
To skip introductions and recommendations jump to time stamp 0:52 in the video timeline.
Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 07, From Tournehem-sur-la-Hem to Wisques
Video Length: 3 min 12 sec
To skip introductions and recommendations jump to time stamp 0:56 in the video timeline.
Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 08, From Wisques to Thérouanne
Video Length: 3 min 49 sec
To skip introductions and recommendations jump to time stamp 0:36 in the video timeline.
Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 09, From Thérouanne to Amettes
Video Length: 4 min 02 sec
To skip introductions and recommendations jump to time stamp 0:35 in the video timeline.
Video of Lightfoot Guide Stages 10, From Amettes to Bruay-la-Buissière
Video Length: 6 min 05 sec
To skip introductions and recommendations jump to time stamp 0:48 in the video timeline.
The next video was recorded as I was crossing the town of Marles-les-Mines, between Amettes and Bruay-la-Buissière and their Folkloric group parade was about to start at the town’s FÊTE FORAINE.
Pictures of the day.
Click on any picture for full detail
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