Last night I did camp next to that pond. I checked on google what time the sun goes down and started setting up about 15 minutes before that. About an hour and a half later the sun actually went down. I was trying to be discreet but was let down by google. People were walking their dogs past me. I should point out if I haven't already that I wasn't at a camp site. I was being a criminal.
I awoke this morning and no longer cared about the people with their dogs, I just wanted more sleep. I ended up getting up at 9 - more from boredom than anything else - to discover my bike had a flat tyre. Luckily it appears to only be a slow leak so I packed up and set off, stopping occasionally to top up the air.
I crossed into Belgium fairly soon after setting off. I was going to stop and take a photo but my loaded bike is so heavy that braking seems like a waste. A couple of times I slowed down thinking I was about to miss a turn only to realise I didn't need to turn and it made me feel like turning anyway just to justify the lost kinetic energy.
Later on I saw a sign for a military cemetery so I turned off and went for a look. It was only small, around 100-150 occupants. Mostly Brits plus 11 Kiwis, 4 Saffas, a pair of Aussies and a handful of other nations. There were also some German soldiers buried slightly off to the side and it was nice to see their graves have been maintained as carefully as the allied soldiers.
The thing I didn't expect to see were the two graves among the German graves for men from the Chinese Labour Corps. I didn't know such a thing existed. I can't really say much more about it because I know nothing of it. The graves had Chinese (presumably mandarin?) writing which I sincerely hope were their names. Because the English writing just gave a serial number. I'll post a picture when I can.
I left the cemetery and managed to make a wrong turn and rode quite a distance in the wrong direction. I had a feeling I was going in the wrong direction, but I thought it was a different wrong direction. I almost rode back into France. It wasn't so bad, just meant some extra riding.
I got to Poperinge and finally tracked down a cash machine. Somehow before I got back to the bike I managed to drop the 200 euros and it is really windy here at the moment. It took off and I took off after it! Straight through traffic chasing it down. I have insurance for injury but not for money blowing away. It started to spread but all the cars stopped for me so I darted around grabbing it. When I thought I recovered it all I started cracking up and looked at the cars and everyone was cacking themselves too. Then one bloke point down the road and a tenner was make a speedy getaway so I chased it down too.
I'm in Ypres now. I'm staying at a real camp site for 2 nights. I was going to wild camp but I think there is a lot more to see in Ypres than I expected so I need somewhere to stash my stuff safely while I zoom around without my gear.
They have showers here too.
I'd add more relevant photos but they are on the other camera.
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