Before we left New Zealand, I had chatted to a guy at work, who assured me you did not need to pre-book camping sites, but just turn up in the town. That was good in theory!

Like a lot of our first week’s cycling it was very hot. We tried to follow the official Flanders cycle path, but it was too zig-zaggy , so in the end we followed Google Maps.

We arrived at our first (Googled) campsite just out of Ronse, late in the day. Unfortunately it did not look much like a public campground. Our suspicions were confirmed when we found a lady who told us it was a children’s camp! However, she knew of another campground a couple of kms down the road. She kindly offered to drive there and we could follow her on our bikes.

After about 5 kms, she stopped the car, pointed down a valley and informed us that the campground was ‘just down there somewhere’. After another 10 minutes wandering around the valley, we found some people who looked like they worked at the camp, who kindly told us that this was also a kid’s camp! They directed us to a hotel nearby. It was a bit more expensive than camping, but by this time we were beyond caring.

After another 15 minutes cycling we came across the hotel. It looked lovely, but it was full! However, the owner had a friend that ran an Airbnb nearby, although a bit more expensive! He rang his mate and luckily he had a couple of spare rooms.

The house was set on expansive gardens. It was an interesting , slightly dated 80’s or 90’s design. Big rooms, high ceilings, indoor swimming pool, steam room, spa pool. 

Peter/Pierre was an interesting character. Apparently an international hockey umpire. Bit of a playboy, maybe.

He looked after us well. A nice range of Belgian beers when we arrived. Knocked up a hearty spaghetti bolognaise for dinner, accompanied by a bottle of red wine.

The patio where we ate our dinner had huge sliding glass doors. Unfortunately (perhaps clouded by alcohol) I managed to smash into one of these doors, which I thought was open. Smashed a fancy wine glass in the process.

Overall, a very nice place to stay, but it did cost us the best part of 100 euros each – way over our budget!