Back in England

The entire team are now back in England, and have just left Kings Cross heading for Wakefield.

The team spent Friday doing the debreif, and then headed to a Rock Festival in Leuven.

On Saturday we headed back down to the south of the country to Dinant to go Kayaking down the Lesse. No sooner had our bottoms made contact with the Kayaks than the staff had us moving down the ramp into the water. If we hadn't taken our feet of the floor the Kayaks would have been going down the Lesse without us. Between the 5 of us we picked up two additional paddles on the trip.

After a quick breakfast this morning with the Explorers from Kidderminster, packing the site, and filling the boot of the Skoda Octavia that we had, we headed into Brussels. Sam had obviously breifed the Kidderminster Explorers about Kevs driving as there were a number of comments about stalling.

We eventually found our way to Brussels Midi where we had an Ice Cream before checking in for the Eurostar.

As soon as we exited the tunnel the team were onto their phones checking their messages, with two of them having had no signal for the last two weeks.

Arriving in London we found out that John does know how to open sandwich wrappers from Boots (the ones from Marks and Spencer were beyond him on the way there). We had a quick diversion to the new platform 9 3/4 area, and then headed to the train.

The team are now relaxing in First Class on the National Express service, heading North, and most of us are wanting to be back in Belgium.

Very shortly the entire trip will be over for another year, with all the team safely back in Wakefield.

During the week thoughts have regularly drifted to 2010, so a planning team will very soon be set up, and getting this ready.

Thanks to everyone who has made this event happen, and for all the hard work that everyone has put into it.

Ryan's Post :)

Right here goes.....

Hello (Waves)

We finished the expedition today which I am amazed that I finished because honestly I thought I wouldn't finish this as even before I started I was doubting myself but happy ive finished it and that it's over :-D :-D :-D :-D

My hardest day was probably day 5 when we were in Couvin when I may have sat in a bus stop and had a bit of a cry (haha)

The most fun day I had was I guess yesterday walking around brussels with my friends :-)

Ah well its all over now :-) looking forward to relaxing at site.

talk too you all soon :-) :-) :-) :-)

Ryan

(P.s. you just lost the game) ;-)

Tom's Post

Expedition Finished today, back on base camp now in a skoda smelling of cheese. My feet are killing :( and i've gone insane but I've made it back in one piece. The most difficult thing has definetly been the inability to communicate with people, but it also shows how friendly people are compared to us.

Physically i'm exhausted. 100 miles is along way to walk but we made it; on day 4 i felt like i wouldn't have but i kept going and now my blisters have nearly gone.

I've learnt so much from this experience not just about Belgium but about me and everyone i've been with. Just hope the last few days are good before we head back to the UK.

As a team we've definitely worked together well and I'm so proud of us for getting through it together

Tom

Sam's Bit

We have just got back from our expedition. I don't think that it has been a physical challenge for me but a mental challenge. The 2nd day of the exped I was convinced I had swine flu but got over it :)

I have done better than I thought I would. I didn't get any blisters :D

Now it's just time to relax and enjoy Belgium
x

They are Back.

Having walked into Brussels this morning the team have caught the final train of the week back to Leuven, and have now finished their expedition.

Having met up with the supervising team at Leuven they are now back on site at De Kluis, finishing their projects, log and (with the exception of Ryan who insisted that I include this exception) updating their facebook pages..............

The team are going to each post an item on this blog later today.

The plans for the next few days are to complete the debreif tomorrow, and on Saturday everyone is heading down to Ansremme to going Kayaking along the Lesse.

Antwerp

The team are currently in Antwerp, having made camp on Monday evening.

They have spent the day in Antwerp, researching some of their minor projects, and sending the e-mail of how they are doing. We will forward this e-mail as soon as we can access it, as it may involve a phonecall to England tomorrow morning.

The supervising team have made the final visit to the team, and discussed with them their plans for the next day and a half, their budget, their minor projects, and their mileage.

The team have either completed, or have enough information, for 9 of their 10 minor projects, with the 10th having been started.

Tomorrow will see the team walking to Mechelen, and then catching the train into Brussels before walking to their campsite. Having managed their budget for the last few days they are intending to have a final team meal at a local restaurant before the end expedition.

They are all looking forward to the end of the expedition, and heading home to their own beds and, for some of them, healing their blisters.

The supervising team are going to change their plans for tomorrow, so that one can head up to Antwerp to buy a newspaper. The team today visited the newspaper office, and they are expecting an article, complete with photographs to be in the paper tomorrow. They have arranged for the article to be e-mailed to them with the photos, so that we will have a copy of it for the future. This was one of their minor projects.

Now on Day 8 - just 48 hours to go.

The team are now on day 8 of their expedition across belgium.

Since the last posting on Friday evening the team have covered quite some mileage, both on foot, and on the train.

On Saturday they headed as planned to the boat lift at Strepy-Thieu, quite an impressive structure. They spent some time looking around the structure, and the engine rooms. They also two of the older boat lifts, which are more hydraulic.

From here they headed into Charleroi, and decided that they would head down to Couvin that day.

Arriving at Couvin they headed to the tourist information, and to locate their campsite, and then headed for site, where they discussed their mileage, plans and budgets for the coming days with the supervising team.

Sunday was spent looking at the Brewery in Fagnes, and heading around a circular walk back to their campsite.

On Monday the team headed for Antwerp, where they will stay for two nights.

Today sees the final visit from the supervising team, who have now moved their base camp to the final location, De Kluis (just one of the names which we have been pronouncing wrongly).

Their route to date has been somewhat similar to their original plans, but some sections have been accelerated, therefore the team are enjoying two days where they can remain on the same site.

After finishing the day on Wednesday at Tournai, the team committed to be up and away from site by 08.15, they actually managed to leave the site at around 09.30, and headed for Peruwelz, a distance of around 10 miles.

For the third day running the temperatures in this area of Belgium increased to over 32 degrees, and therefore the team felt the effects of the heat.

Around 1300 the team left a shaded footpath to join the road with no signs of shade for miles. They therefore decided that the weather was too hot to carry on walking, so found the local train/bus station. They found that there were no buses running, and that the next train was in around 3 hours time.

They waited for the trian, having filled up their water supplies. The train journey was not a long one and they were soon at Blaton, and heading to the shops for food before heading to their campsite.

Whilst the campsite was well signposted from Blaton, the signposts ran out after a while, and therefore the team selected one slightly closer.

The team set up camp, updated their video diary, and discussed the following day with the supervising team.

During the day they completed one of their minor projects, visiting a local police station and discussing the law enforcement with the officers there. Not only did they visit the police station voluntarily (one of the requirements of the minor project), but also in order to help others.

Despite the rain Friday was still hot and humid, although not quite in the 30s. The team therefore agreed that they should walk around 10 miles to station where they could catch the train into Mons, before completing the walk to the campsite. This meant that they would not be walking in the hottest part of the day (provided they managed to get off site by the planned 07.30).

They arrived at their campsite by around 15.00, and were planning to walk back into Mons to complete some of their minor projects.

Their plans for Saturday are to walk to Thieu, and look at the Boat Lift at Strepy-Thieu, and then walk to the train station, for a trian into Charleroi.

This will help them with the milage that they lost on day 2.

On the way back to the train station they can not miss one of the other 4 boat lifts in the area, although they will not see the Inclined Plain of Ronquerres.

The Expedition to date.

Apologies for the lack of information in yesterdays post, although it is fun to use an azerty keyboard, it doesn't make it easy to type in the Tourist Information.

The train journey to Brussels was an amusing one, with the diversion, and Sams not being able to open the doors at Newark. This continued onto the Eurostar where the security staff looked at the petrol stove for quite a while before being convinced that it was empty, they then couldn't undertsand what it really was, and that it really did run on the same liquid that they put into their cars, some surprised staff in St Pancras Intl.

On the Eurostar more laughter followed Sam trying to open the door to the 'toilet'. Firstly he couldn't open it, and then when we showed him how, he went in and looked for the toilet. He came back to ask us where the toilet was in that cubicle, we later found that it was the baby change that he had been into. We did say that we were not going to help him change his nappy.

The jokes changed to Kevin on arrival at Brussels, when he stalled the car twice on the way out of the carpark. He is now on a total of 4, the same number as Sam had in Germany. His excuse is that it does not handle like an LDV, or a quadbike.......

John spent the car journey reading the user manual, or looking at the pictures to be more accurate. These explained how to get into the glove box to find the user manual. He tried to explain the Cruise Control. Never heard of that on an LDV Convoy.

The first full day in Belgium was spent in Gent, and on site. The team made their final preperations for the expedition, and received their final brief. They really should have taken their minor project document to Gent with them, to remind themselves what the options were.

The evening was spent laying on the grass looking at these options and trying to decide which ones they would like to do. They also started their video diaries, and joined some Belgian Scouts playing a game with a rugby ball.

Day 1 started with the team packing their tents, and preparing to leave site. Sam says that he is all ready, we'll leave that for the reader to decide....................

The team set off yesterday at around 10.40 from Brugge Train Station, heading off for their first Brewery Tour.

They soon found out that they had not booked the hostel for that night correctly, and searched around Brugge to find another hostel for the night. They soon found one on the outskirts, and advised the supervising team of their changes.

Early this morning they headed back into Brugge, and found a Driving School office where they went to discuss the driving licences for Belgium, a part of one of their minor projects.

Shortly after this they boarded the train to Kortrijk, and another change of plan ensued. The team continued by train to Tournai, and found a site close by.

They are now safely on their campsite for the night.

More tomorrow.

The Expedition Begins

At 10.40 this morning the team started their expedition.

Having spent yesterday in Gent, and doing their final preperations on site, the team made entries on their video diaries, and made sure that their equipment was reqdy to go.

Starting from Brugge Railwqy station, they headed into the centre of Brugge. They have since found that their hostel was booked for the wrong day, and are now staying at the Hostel de Arts, to the north of Brugge. Having sorted this out they updated the supervisors who were enjoying a glass of Sprite beside the canal.

Will update more when I find a QWERTY keyboard...........

The first diversion.

Within 40 minutes of the trip the train has been diverted, rather than heading out towards Lincoln as planned, we have just raced down the main line. This means that we will be sitting at Newark Northgate for around 40 minutes.
John has announced that he does not like the new shortbread biscuits that you get in First.

We have just been looking at photos of the Narrowboat weekend, and having some rather random conversations.

We had to teach Sam how to let him self out of the train, as he is only used to using the newer trains with the electric doors.

He does not know how to use a door handle........

The Explorers have just headed across to Costa for a coffee and stretch their legs, next time we need to let them have a map, as they have just returned and said that they couldn't find the Costa.

Sams score is now 4......5.

And they're off

The 3 explorers and 2 leaders ready to leave from Wakefield Westgate.