Cycling Across Europe - Episode 2 | France, Belgium Cycle Trip

I think we might have lost our minds. We decided that we're gonna go all the way to Luxembourg in one day. So that's 130 kilometers. Why are we doing this in 35 degree heat? In the last episode of our cycle across Europe, we arrived in Paris and began cycling east towards Budapest. After cycling for 170 kilometers, we eventually arrived in the city of Reims, which is where we are now. Right, so we had a little bit of a malfunction. The rack broke. It's not brilliant when you're carrying 25 grams of weight. 25 grams? 25 kilograms. So we're now in a French decathlon, trying to fit a new rack and reading French instructions. So yeah, not ideal. Brand new rack, fitted by this man. We're gonna go and burn this because it just absolutely is dreadful. Storm over there, not looking too friendly. Trying to cycle in through our first rain. Yeah, raining, which is actually quite nice, but I hope it stops for when we set up camp tonight. So we found our spot for the night, I think. Not a bad view. Good morning. Day four. Yeah, day four. Didn't sleep the best last night, I think it's because we had a fox that was screaming all night, to be honest. Austin had sleep paralysis last night, while he was trying to shout something in his sleep, he just couldn't. This morning we're on porridge and bananas, and we're aiming to do 80 kilometers, which will get us to halfway to Luxembourg, and then tomorrow we're going to aim to do exactly the same. So we're hoping to be in Luxembourg for Monday, but we're expecting another two days of 36 degrees, so it's going to be brutal, but we'll get through it. We have a dead man. Literally just going through farmer's fields, and we must have just laid down a load of manure because it absolutely reeks, and I'm breathing in poo. My back is literally killing me. It hurts so bad. I don't know if we'll be able to get the full 85 in today, but we'll give it a go. I might just need to rest a bit, but I'll keep you updated. So we've just arrived in Vuzier, after 40 kilometers this morning. It's quite a smelly 40 kilometers because we had to go through a lot of poo fields. I think they just laid a load of manure down, and Austin's been struggling with a bit of a back problem. So we're thinking, stay in Vuzier until it cools down a bit, because it is now about 36 degrees, which would just be crazy to continue cycling. But yeah, we've got all our food now, so we've just had our lunch. We had a big baguette between us, and then for this evening we've got ravioli with some pasta and some mushrooms, which should be quite nice. But yeah, we're going to chill in Vuzier, enjoy this lake environment, because Austin's going to jump in in a second. And yeah, just relax. We haven't really relaxed much during our cycles because we've been so restricted on time, so we've just had to go, go, go in the mornings. But yeah, we're giving ourselves the afternoon just to chill. So yeah. And here we have the wild Austin weeing in the lake. So we did 65 kilometers today. It's not bad considering I think it was probably the hottest day so far. We aimed to do 90, but it was just far too hot to do that, so it kind of leaves us with 130 before we get to Luxembourg, which we're hoping to get there tomorrow night. But 130 in a day, I mean that is far too much for us, especially when it's going to be another 37 degree day. So we'll split it up between two days. We'll do a 65 and a 65 probably. And yeah, we'll just try and spend more time in the days just enjoying it and just, like, taking in the surroundings. Because when you're getting your head down and you're just cycling, you kind of just, you kind of just, you forget what's around you really. So yeah, we're going to drop it down to 65 for the next two days. And then we'll arrive in Luxembourg, where we're going to spend two days with our friend from university. Shout out to Luxie. And he's given us accommodation for two nights. So there'll be a lot of beer involved, I reckon. But yeah, I'm looking forward to it. So I'll give you a little tour of our campsite. We've got a nice opening here, which is where we've just dumped all our stuff. This is the garage, as I like to call it, where we put our bikes and stuff. This is all of Austin's stuff. And this is Austin chilling by the river. Oh, this is where we, this is our laundry room. This is where we're putting all our clothes to dry. And this is Austin trying to get rid of his back problems. He needs to stretch his bum. Well, I will not be doing that for you. But yeah, this is where we're camping tonight. I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone that's shown support to our journey so far. As much as this is a crazy adventure for us, we are doing this to raise money for WWF's Amazon Emergency Appeal. So please, if you're able to donate, then go to the link in the description of this video and give what you can. Good morning and welcome to the all you can eat buffet. By all you can eat, we mean one bowl of porridge. We've got a good selection. We've got lovely strawberry jam. We've got my favourite peanut butter and we've got Nutella and two bananas, which look like they're a bit dark. So what we do is we get the water boiling here, fill up our bowls full of oats, and then we don't have to clean our pond. Yes, not a bad view for the morning. Day five and today we're going to get as close to Luxembourg as we possibly can. So we're 130 kilometres away and we could, by tonight, be just into Belgium because there's a three-way border between France, Belgium and Luxembourg. So tonight we could be entering a country. But hopefully all goes well. We'll be just about 40 kilometres outside of Luxembourg by the end of tonight and then it's just an early morning cycle and then we can chill, finally, in Luxembourg. Ben's daily shower, weekly more like, all nightly. How's it? We have just arrived in Stenay and that was probably my favourite ride so far. So we did 25 kilometres this morning from Bouzani and we did one hill climb at the start, which is quite tough. But we got through it and then all the way down, it was just straight downhill, which is lovely. And we were going through forest as well, which meant we had shade the whole time. So yeah, that was my favourite ride so far. And Austin's back seems to be getting better. How are you feeling? It's okay. I need to have a little rest and then I should be okay from next leg. Yeah. So we're gonna get our lunch now in Stenay and then head on towards Luxembourg and get as many kilometres in as we can today. We made it to our second country. We're in Belgium. So that's two out of the eight countries that we're doing. So I'm really happy. I think we might have lost our minds. We decided, so we had an ice cream halfway and for some reason, we decided that we're gonna go all the way to Luxembourg in one day. So that's 130 kilometres. Why are we doing this? In 35 degree heat. But we thought, push ourselves as hard as we can and then we'll have a bed tonight, a shower tonight. Hello. Yeah, we've just stopped in a random place. Austin's back. He's playing up again, but we think that it might be best if he just gets to a bed. Just does two days in a bed instead of on the blow-up mats and he'll be a lot better. I'm feeling okay. I've literally drank about two litres of orange juice because it's just the quickest way to get calories into you. Probably on about 100 grams of sugar, which is just stupid, but it's getting us through. So yeah, hopefully within the next three hours, we'll be in Luxembourg. We're about 35 kilometres out. So hopefully, next time you see me, I'll have a pint in hand and I'll be in Luxembourg.