June 13th Clairmarais to Wallon-Cappel

Distance:   27.365 kms
Blisters:     2
Coffees      1

June 13^th Saint Momelin to Wallon – Cappel

Unforunately I forgot to switch my GPS on at the start and end of the walk so the trace is somewhat misleading.

Having spent a peaceful night at Camping Beausejour we set off to walk alongside the Canal de l'Aa to Clairmarais. Today should be straight forward – alongside the canal - through la foret dominiale de Rihouls Clairmarais to Renescule then along a Roman road to Wallon – Cappel.

In the 27kms of canal and forest we met not a single walker, in fact we met not a soul who wasn't in a car. Imagine walking through Tentsmuir forest without meeting a single living soul! In the middle of the forest we came across a mobile v2 firing site from World War 2 but the forest was otherwise fairly flat and boring. The canal bank was reasonably well formed but nobody was walking their dogs, the canal which was at least double the width of the Canal du Midi was completely empty of all traffic - no barges, no pleasure craft, no boats moored, no fishermen.

We kept remarking that the area was missing out on potential tourism opportunities. However it was nice to have the entire length of the canal to ourselves if a little unnerving.

Tomorrow we are walking from Wallon–Cappel to Lillers and then to Noeux-les-Mines where Bert and Susan are based in their hotel “la maison rouge”. We are planning to move to a canal bank site in Saint Venant where the Mairie has enticed us with the offer of free electricity, water and parking.