Diary of the GR5 Walk in 1999

Breakfast seemed a rather large buffet spread: all the right things plus a few extras. I was being particularly fussy, conscious of the high price I had paid, but I wasn't disappointed. If the freshly squeezed orange juice didn't satisfy me, the choice of between a freshly cooked omelette, scrambled or boiled eggs certainly did. This was by far the best breakfast since the start of the walk.

I should explain that my preoccupation with breakfasts probably has something to do with the fact that I usually eat very little during the day including lunch. Whatever I eat in the morning usually lasts me until dinner.

Today, I want to reach the youth hostel at Westerloo, 23.5 km away. I ring form the hotel and get a reservation for tonight. Great! One more hassle out of the way. Finding accommodation each day is a little stressful.

I try a new approach to reduce my blisters: two pairs of socks. They are a tight fit but I feel less impact on my heels. Now walk and see what happens. I now have, on my left foot, blisters on three toes and a large one on my instep. Worse still, I have one on my right heel. I can't remember when I last walked without some sort of pain. This walk was meant to be an enjoyable experience, not an exercise in mind control over pain.

I pay my account and head out, determined to pace myself over the next 24 km so that I arrive at the youth hostel between 7 and 8 pm, This should allow plenty of time for breaks to ease the strain on my feet. Hopefully it will improve as I lose weight. Well that is what I keep telling myself, but it is my feet that need to be convinced. My plan is to have a fifteen-minute break after each hour of walking.

The first step is to get back onto the GR5. This appears easy enough after consulting my topo-gid: walk along the N135 that crosses the E313 freeway and meet the path at Bouwel. Wrong! Just as I head out of the hotel and turn onto the N135 all I see are barricades. For some reason the N135 is closed to traffic. I walk past the barricades and see the reason: there is a new bridge being built over the E313. Worse still, there are spans missing and there is no way to get across. I scramble down the side and dart across the busy freeway between the speeding traffic and climb back up to the N135 on the other side. Another obstacle for the day has been overcome! They will have to do better than that to stop me.

The path is along a busy city street and then another first: the track follows a railway track. In fact, the GR5 markers are painted on the supports for the overhead wires. The temperature is about 20oC and there is a light cool breeze, overcast but with occasional sunshine: an almost perfect day.

I wander, once again between farms with the path occasionally going through forests. The second windmill in Flanders looms ahead. I consider stooping to take a photo when something much more interesting comes into view: Two walkers with full backpacks.

They are a French couple from Posiers who are walking the GR5 from South to North. They do a section each year and they are on their fourth and last section: from the Belgium-Luxembourg border to Hoek van Holland. He is carrying a 20kg pack and she is carrying 12kg. They both appear to be doing it a lot easier than me! We chat about the path, swap information about accommodation, take some photographs of each other and we then walk off with a hearty "bon voyage!"

At Noorderwijk there is a supermarket. I buy a cold drink and some fruit and an ice-cream. I am now over halfway for the day with only a further 11.2 km to walk to the youth hostel. The blisters are still hurting but hey are not getting any worse.

The path to the Abbey at Tongerloo is all through farmland. The sun is out but there is still a good breeze and the walking is very pleasant. As an alternative to always carrying full water bottles at the start of each day, I have decided to ask for water along the way. I stop at a farm to ask for water. No problem! Within minutes I am on my way again with 1.5 litres of very cold water. There is more than enough for the rest of the day.

The Abbey is very impressive building and I am tempted to wander in and look around but my feet already have enough work for today so I walk the last two km and reach the youth hostel at 6:30 pm.

This is some hotel! It has a large caf� as well as a playground. It is situated right on the edge of the Builtjes and the Kwarekken, two large forest and recreation areas. There are people everywhere. I check in and am handed a plastic card as my room key. The receptionist asks if I would like dinner. I say yes and she leads me straight to the huge dining room containing mostly children with only a few adults. Within seconds, I have a bowl of soup and a plate with mashed potatoes, roast pork and a sort of fruit sauce.

My room, in a new building, has four beds and comes with its own toilet and shower. Outside is a large room with tables and chairs. This is better than some of the hotels I have stayed in. One of the other occupants, Albert, a Dutchman from Rosendaal is a keen photographer and was a bookbinder by trade before he was made redundant at the age of 57. In his spare time he restores very old manuscripts for an Abbey. He is now 65 and travels all over the world three or four times a year taking slides. He is a member of a number of photography clubs and even arranges expositions of his own work. Albert has three Nikon cameras and a variety of lenses which he carries in a backpack whilst cycling. We spend most of the evening in the caf� discussing a variety of topics over a few beers. What an interesting man he is.