Hello! We have been meaning to write for a few days now but have not had internet or time to sit and write! Now we're staying in a campsite near a town called Radelange in Belgium, near the border with Luxembourg. It's quite cold but luckily it has a bar with a fire so we're keeping warm!

We set off on Monday morning from Quesnoy-sur-deule. Denis (Vianney's Dad) came with us for the first part along the canals to the Belgian border. We meant to continue to Mons on Monday eve but decided to stop a bit sooner at a campsite in Blaton. So we had cycled 82km. The owner was quite surprised to see us and he said the season is just beginning. We camped next to some goats and geese who were quite noisy! We made lentil stew for dinner. That evening we had a response on the website warm showers (like couch surfing) from someone in Buzet for the following night saying we could stay with them. We worked out that we would have to do about 120km to get there but we said yes as we really wanted to stay with them! It was really cold that night so we wore all our clothes to sleep!

The next morning (Tuesday) we got up and got going. It was quite hard going and daunting thinking of the distance we needed to cover! I think we had definitely underestimated how the paniers do slow us down! We got to Mons at 12pm and bought some food for lunch from a supermarket. We still had 100km to go so we weren't sure if we'd make it! We ate lunch by an impressive huge boat lift on the canal. We cycled on. We met a nice man called Pierre just before Charleloi who helped us find the right route. We cycled past loads of big rusty old factories in Charleloi which was interesting. It looked like a film set! We cycled on and on and started to think that maybe we could make it after all. In the end we arrived at 8pm. We met Jean-Francois, Donna and their daughter Judith. They were all lovely! They live in a 'habité à groupé ' (like a housing co-op) and it was a beautiful timber frame house. We had some nice belgian beer and a delicious meal and it was really interesting to talk to them. They had done a 6 month cycle trip as a family and they showed us some photos and it looked amazing. We went to bed and slept so well!

The next morning (Wednesday) we got up and packed. The family were going on holiday for a few days so we were all getting ready to go. They gave us the address of some friends who live on a small farm who we could stay with in a couple of days and help out on the farm if we like. We said goodbye. It was a great first warm showers experience and we were so glad that we did make it to their house.

We did a shorter journey that day. First we cycled to Namur (15km) to look around for a few hours as Jean-François and Donna has suggested. We met a nice man who was cycling too and he was going to stay at the same campsite as we were planning on staying in that night so we arranged to meet him later. We locked all the paniers in a locker at the station and walked around the town. It's a really nice town with a big citadel with views out over the town. We even had tea and cake in a little cafe! Then we got the bikes back and cycled around 30km to a campsite. It was horrible weather but we found a kind of shed where we cooked our dinner. Vianney went off to find the man we had met earlier and he came to join us. He is called Vim and he is flemish so we spoke a mix of French and English with him.

The next day we cycled to Havrenne (40km and very up and down as we're now in the Ardennes!) where we had the address of the family who lived on the farm from Donna and Jean-François. We hadn't communicated with them ourselves so we felt a bit strange just turning up there. We found Soline and she was expecting us. She showed us where to store our bikes and her little son Jolan showed us his trampoline! Then we met Grégoire who showed us around the farm with some other people too who had come to look around. It's called 'les pousses verts' and it's a nice small organic vegetable farm. We had a lovely meal that evening with Soline and Grégoire.

The next day we helped Grégoire on the farm. First we harvested lots of rocket which was a lot more time consuming than it sounds! Then we helped Grégoire and Gil (who helps on the farm) to collect up lots of grass for 'paillage' (tillage in english maybe?). Then we spent the afternoon potting out little tomato plants. That evening Grégoire and Soline had plans so we cycled into Rochefort (without paniers - what a dream!) and went for a drink, then we came back and cooked some lovely fresh organic veg from the farm and Soline had made us a delicious dessert.

The next day (Saturday) it was raining loads but we needed to leave the farm so we packed up and said goodbye to Grégoire, Soline and Jolan. They are so nice and it was great to stay with them. We cycled in the rain and through the hills. We went through beautiful pine forests. We were thinking to carry on to Bastogne but the only cheap option for staying somewhere was camping and it was so cold and rainy so we decided to stop in Champlon youth hostel. We met a nice Bulgarian family there who come from Varna (the seaside town next to Dobrich) and their son was born in Dobrich! Small world! We had a nice evening with them and we ate together. They gave us Bulgarian wine and food. We tried to offer them some of our lentil mush but it didn't look that appetising! But we had some nice fruit from the farm which we offered round for pudding. The family live in Brussels now but are visiting Varna in July so we may meet up with them.

Then this morning we had breakfast provided at the hostel (including painted eggs and chocolate eggs!), said goodbye to the Bulgarian family and set off. We cycled through the hills and did some quite big climbs. We tried to go quickly the first couple of hours as we wanted to get to a town which had a supermarket as we were running out of food. We got to carrefour just before it closed. We cycled on in the afternoon and started to see signs for euro velo 5 again (what we are following but been using maps as no signs) and the route took us through the forest by a river. We saw lots of trees which had been gnawed down by beavers and beaver dams too. We carried on to the campsite (53km in total today) and here we are! We had our own little easter Egg hunt in the campsite with the eggs from the hostel. It's very cold outside so we're bracing ourselves to go back to the tent! Tomorrow we're going to try to get to Luxembourg city.

If you'd like to follow our journey you can download strava and look for vianney petit-gombert.

Also we're raising money for medicines sans frontieres. If you'd like to sponsor us go to:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/VianneyHannah. Thanks!