Around the Adriatic Sea 2026: Dubrovnik – Durrës (Albania) – Bari
The second leg of my cycle tour around the Adriatic Sea: the Balkan countries, probably as far as Dubrovnik in Croatia, perhaps even further…
Monday was a relative rest day as I only had 5 km to go to Bouillon. In L'Epine, the tourist infrastructure is being built out; I immediately passed a brand-new suspension bridge across the Semois river.
On the way, I passed the 'Abbaye Cistercienne-Trappiste Notre-Dame de Clairefontaine', an abbey for women founded in 1845 through Orval Abbey. The abbey was closed on Mondays, but if you rang the bell you could visit the church.
In 2017, there was discord between sisters who had sworn an oath of silence and others who also did social work. According to Ruben, my August 23 garden host, the silence sisters left the community and now live there only a dozen or so sisters left. According to Wikipedia, the whole abbey was closed, but I think Ruben is right, because behind some windows I saw movement.
Notre-Dame de Clairefontaine Cistercian Trappist abbey
The smaller gites were all full. I called an unlisted B&B and there they asked for 65€, but only available from Tuesday.
Finally, I went to check out the historic Hotel de la Poste, right in the city centre, where 55€ pp was posted. Of course, that was based on a double room, for a single it was 70€. I took that one for two nights, as I was tired of lugging around a lot more in the city with my heavy backpack.
And on Tuesday afternoon, I have an appointment with an osteopath here for my back pain. So this is a luxurious recovery and rest two days in the hope that I can then complete the second part of my trek without any problems.
In the room, I am straight into a hot bath plunged as I expected this to do some good to the nagging pain in my lower back that I have been walking around with for about 10 days. At the same time, I washed all the clothes I no longer needed in the evening.
In the evening, I was lucky that the half moon was just above the Semois and took a nice photo of the reflections on the water.
On my rest day, I visited the castle of Godfrey of Bouillon and attended a birds of prey show at.
On leaving Bouillon, I immediately got a long climb presented until the bridge over the N89. It then continued up and down over narrow, densely wooded paths. The wind made an ominous sound in the high crests, everywhere I heard creaks and 'scuffing scissors'. I also got a pine cone pelted against my head. Fortunately, I had my cap on.
At Les Hayons, the first village I passed, I had just half an hour before the lunch break to visit the studio of Marie-Laure Alff visit, the artist who 16 great scenes from the life of Godfrey of Bouillon painted on silk. I had seen those works the day before at Bouillon Castle.
Apart from her silk paintings, Marie-Laure also makes hand-painted dolls depicting traditional trades, as well as local saints and fairies and forest nymphs who used to be born out of the mist over the Semois. Her old farmstead is therefore called La Ferme des Fees. Definitely worth a visit.
A little further on followed a nice panorama over the Semois and a climb further on a wide view of the surrounding hills at the 'Saut des sorcières‘.
No spectacular ride today, but all in all more than 600 altimeters in the legs. I spent the night at Camping Saint-Remacle, a beautifully located campsite with a spacious tavern on the banks of the Semois, but operated by a very surly couple. Or maybe they just weren't having their day...
Ferme des fées
After Cugnon, the GR makes two big loops up to Herbeumont. I was able to cut those via other paths or lanes, limiting today's route to just over 20 km.
From a bridge over the Semois at Mortehan, near a water mill, I saw a beaver or otter swimming quite close by, but by the time I could take a picture, it had dived underwater and I didn't see it surface anywhere. I don't know how long these rascals can last underwater.
At Herbeumont was food to be found, which wasn't too bad. Since my legs already felt a bit tired around noon, I decided to take a long lunch break at a tavern. According to Komoot, the second part of the trek would be up to Chiny are less demanding.
When, after more than an hour's rest, I was packed and slumped on the terrace of the tavern checking my route to be walked again, an elderly man beckoned me who had noticed my backpacking flag. As soon as I handed him a flyer, he rifled through his wallet and gave a donation that immediately made the last shred of fatigue in my legs disappear. Pierre is a retired bankier from Genk who is 'sharing' in life. Afterwards, we had a fairly long conversation about the affairs of life (our figurative backpacks that we all carry), and of course briefly about the banking crisis. Pierre preferred not to be photographed. In the end, it was after 15 hours before I was back on the road....
The rest of the hike was pure enjoyment: smoothly walkable paths, no steep goat trails except for one stretch, and most importantly, brisk walking without back pain, thanks to osteopath Pascal Brouillon, who had also treated me for free - for charity. If I may give one piece of advice to all those suffering from 'movement pains': visit an osteopath first before going to a regular doctor. The latter usually immediately waves the cortisone syringe around, but this is only symptom control. Afterwards, this painkiller pays for itself, because nothing is done about the cause of the pain....
And now I hope I don't get the Order of Physicians all over me 😉😆…..
Tonight I am not sleeping in the tent but in a bed in Auberge de l'Embarcadère. Manager Johan offered me a room with breakfast for only slightly more than the price of a camping spot on a campsite.
This morning I left quite late because of the royal breakfast at Johan's place in Auberge de l'embarcadère. Then we looked at the pictures of Johan's trek in the Carpathians and his trip to Antarctica.
First, I made another small diversions past the grocery shop in the village, and then I set off along a grassy path through a beautiful forest until Suxy. On the way, I got some brief showers over me. Just as I arrived in Suxy it started to rain more heavily, but I managed to take shelter in a bus shelter in time. After about 10 minutes it cleared up.
From 14:00 to 18:30, I walked through diverse forests and I did encounter one mountain biker. At first, the forest was very dense and somewhat claustrophobic. The spruce were too close together and were at the bottom completely overgrown with mosses. According to Ruben, my garden host from l'Epine near Bouillon, all spruce trees in Europe are infected with a disease. These trees do indeed look unhealthy. Then came back larger deciduous trees further apart, resulting in more light. For the first time in the Ardennes, on a grassy path, I saw a large doe with an already outgrown calf.
After crossing the track to Neufchateau, I was in Pays de Gaume. The paths widened and it was beautiful walking along an undulating road. Although, each climb was a little more difficult as my kilometre total was already heading towards 20. That creeps into the legs, three days in a row.
Some 2 km before the street of my garden host Julien I had to pass under a railway, and shortly before, some thunderclaps had echoed behind me. The wind was also swelling, so that became rain. I decided sheltering under the railway bridge. After about five minutes it did indeed start raining heavily for a while, but fortunately the shower lasted only about 20 minutes and the sun came through again. Under the bridge, I wrote the first part of this trip report.
Afterwards, wetness came anyway: first because I had to cross a narrow path through tall and obviously soaking wet ferns, and then I also got a serving of direct sky moisture over me. The lowering sun shone under the rain clouds, leaving me with a magnificent rainbow in the garden of Welcome to my Garden host family Julien arrived.
The latter was not at home, but I was allowed to find a place to pose beforehand, and in a garden shed I could take shelter from the rain. There I wrote the rest of this report.
And now it has stopped raining and I am going to set up the tent and deal with all other evening camping concerns.
Rainbow in Marbehan
The second leg of my cycle tour around the Adriatic Sea: the Balkan countries, probably as far as Dubrovnik in Croatia, perhaps even further…
On my travels, I meet so many friendly, helpful and hospitable people.
They deserve a hall of fame.
