Belgium

"Dad, I dont want to stay here and do cooking", said Victor yesterday morning as we stood inside Antwerps central youth centre and deliberated over the surprise timetable change. It didn't take long to make a decision, "sorry mate, you guys are not staying at home today!". The resulting long faces caused a twinge of guilt and uncertainty but as I suspected they met some nice kids had a great time. Of note over the last two days:

[*] My gear freaking tendency was exposed by an experienced salesrep at K2, arguably Antwerps best camping store http://k2.firstserved.net/Home/tabid/251/Default.aspx . Due to the lack of a day pack in our present baggage list I had been deliberating if I should replace my 20 yr old Berghaus backpack with a travelpack with inbuilt daypack. The girl on staff talked herself out of a good sale and convinced me that hanging a small daypack from the front would be a better solution. I really get a positive lift by such integrity and must ensure I mention her excellent service to her boss.

[*] I relented on the evening exercise last night to allow Lute, Isa and myself a visual indulgence by seeing "Transylvannia" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transylvania_%28film%29 at the free open air cinema that runs in summer at the old wharf sheds on the Schelde River. It was a good flick and our second Tony Gatlif film which once again confronted and drew me into the raw world of the Gypsies in Eastern Europe. As my good buddies will know, there is something in the music and the lifestyle that that touches my soul.

[*] I picked up a custom made pallet box that will be strong enough to ship back the 500kg of blacksmithing equipment I have gathered and our other gear.

[*] Sold enough AECOM shares to keep us on the road for a while. It was difficult to go through the process of selling when the market is so low but it had to be done and I have still made a decent profit.

[*] The night hikes through the city with the additional daypack strapped to my front made me realise the downside of having flab instead of stomach muscles; I am not strong enough to hold myself straight and be aware of my surroundings. Not Good! I have therefore started building up my core body strength with some morning yoga routines.

16 days until Blastoff...............

"I think it's about time we turned around now!", stated Lute quite emphatically. I was quietly frustrated but calmly accepted the decision, it was after all only our second training hike. Anyway upon return I mapped out our route using the Google Earth path calculator and to my surprise discovered we had walked a total of 4km, which is not too bad. One of the spin-offs from tonight's walk was the realisation that Victors hip belt can't be tensioned up enough and I am going to have to source some additional padding. Lute also has some minor discomfort in her neck which I am hoping is not going to get worse.

Its 2230hrs and we have just come back in from a short 1/2hr trek around Antwerp with fully loaded haversacks. With only 3 weeks to go I have decided to put myself in the role of bootcamp instructor for my slightly reluctant family. We are all in OK shape but we are certainly not fit and dragging around a heavy pack is something that takes some getting used to. I enjoyed some of the looks that were cast upon us, they made me feel like I was wild, free and on an adventure.

The apartment is now beginning to look like its on a diet as we slowly return all the paraphernalia that has been loaned to us. Not all is remaining in Belgium though and I will be picking up a palletbox on Thursday to load up the blacksmithing goodies and other treasures that have been deemed too valuable to remain. Such treasures include two boxes of rock crystals that the boys excavated from a remote abandoned mine we discovered in France...they will no doubt join the tonnes of other invaluable samples that litter the garden in Perry Street.

Max is very excited after participating in a holiday activity that saw him learning to scuba dive in a local swimming pool. Lute is tired, a product of work and the insomnia she has been suffering from over the last 3 weeks.

Max and I have not had any psychotic attacks from our Larium trial (Phew!) and with his hayfever starting to subside we decided that Victor could also start today. Lute will probably begin next week. There is certainly something disconcerting about taking antimalarial prophylactics especially when you only have to take them once a week. That innocuous little pill sure packs some punch and my organically centred tendencies are repelled by the concept. However the alternative of possibly contracting malaria is not appealing.

The boys went indoor climbing today in the south of Antwerp, which they enjoyed. They said they were the best in the group and I can only imagine their bandy low weight frames helped. They have no fear of being left behind with strangers any more and if I happen to ask, they are quick to reply "Yeh its OK dad you can go now!". It's moments like this when I feel the confrontational era of teenage independence dawning. Throwing them into the deep end in a foreign land has no doubt accelerated the process. Antwerp has an excellent summer holiday program for kids to participate in and for only 4 Euro's the boys have access to activities ranging from scuba diving to music instrument making.

I have been busy juggling getting everything ready for our camping trip to the South of France (we leave Thursday) and continuing the prep for the big journey. For those of you who may like the concept of travelling thru Europe using smaller, environmentally friendly campsites you should check out the website run by ECEAT - European Centre for Ecological
and Agricultural Tourism http://www.eceat.org/.

Note that due to the southern migration of well planned Dutch, Belgians and Germans it is important to book at least three months in advance if you want to guarantee your spot during the July holiday season. Even then, some were fully booked when I started enquiring. The campsites profiled do vary in their "eco" extent. The last place we stayed at in Florenville (Belgian Ardennen) asked us to put used toilet paper aside in a bucket and we still chuckle over the concept that they were recycling it.

Our next two weeks in Southern France will be spent at the Groeneuitleg http://www.groeneuitleg.com/ and Albugue http://www.albugue.com/.

umm, feeling just a tad fragile this morning. Yesterday evening was a blast though my wine consumption and predilection for being the party butterfly meant that there wasn't alot of conversational depth. The four piece gypsy band that started up late in the evening hit a soft spot but for some reason I kept dropping my juggling balls. Of course not everybody could control themselves and hold back on the "no presents" request. I received a very nice reference book called "Handboek voor den smid" from Pee, Pat, Rani and Isa. Thanks guys, I will treasure it forever!

Of course its not all about partying and the domestics still have to be done. Yesterday I had to punish Victor when he was naughty at the laundrymat......