The friendship between the riders. As days went by, strong ties were woven with Clément, Jacques, Kevin, Jan, Yves, Kenny, Steve, and Daniel. No need for lots of words to be spoken between us.
The authentic warm-heartedness displayed by Berten and Stefan to us riders, and their creative passion for mountain bike-packing and their A-Cross The Five
Meeting and sharing a few words or considerations with Anne De Smet, Paula, Javier, Steve, Alan and Jean François before the departure or during the first day out there
The extreme variety of the types of terrain we met with along the 1,200 km route. I’ve asked myself many a time how on earth Stefan had managed to devise such an ever-changing and perfect route. What an awesome achievement!
The diversity of landscapes, buildings, farm houses, churches or chapels or temples and of languages, food and customs
The forest everywhere, in all forms and shapes, like a huge continent of its own with no frontiers: it welcomed us, took us in, made us feel snug, sheltered us, nurtured us with its fabulous and never-ending energy and it never failed to restore our enthusiasm and vitality
The rivers like some blue, dark grey flow travelling along with us, while we were riding through wooded lands and fields- the Meuse, the Semois, the Sûre. And all those streams or brooks in the woods that were murmuring, burbling, splooshing, and that kept pushing us further and further along
The scarcity of asphalt and the abundance of soil, rock, stone or pebbles, humus, decaying leaves and of gnarly or lean roots, some bulging, others shrinking. And the sand- so much of it for the last 150 km. And some cobbles, for good measure.
The richness of smells, so different at night and during daytime, in the rain or in the sun
The profusion of colours and the vibrancy of light: never the same, always different, always playful and fleeting, never predictable. And how the full moon shone so brightly from the third day, its perfect orb inlaid in the black mantle of the night. How I kept gazing back at her, in the middle of the night.
The extatic contentment I derived from perceiving surrounding birds' flights and songs, twigs snapping or being trodden upon in the undergrowth, the slender and lean silhouettes of does and deers springing across the path, the wild life that is so profuse and lends the woods its intensity of living, in daytime as well as in nightime
The scarcity of food and water supplies, hence the liberating necessity to learn how to make do with nothing else but sugar, salt and a few sips of water, until we would come across some shop or café in a distant village
The necessity of keeping moving onwards, so as to cross the finish line within the deadline set by Berten and Stefan, made my cycling hours take on a sense of urgent intensity I hardly ever experience in my daily life. I had grown familiar with that urgency during the French Divide last year and once again I gladly and totally surrendered to that irresistible and all-encompassing drive for always being on the move down and up the trail of A-Cross The 5
The necessity of always being on the alert for direction changes, owing to the navigational complexity and the difficult nature of the terrain. Hence the necessity of always being fully alive to the world and to myself, the kind of necessity that sweeps away all lies or pretenses. How liberating.
The constant closeness to this nature that never fails to fill me with enthusiasm, away from towns and cities. Be it night or day. Back to cradling my life. Back to the essence of living. How blissful.
The unshakeable certainty I had that, no matter what, I was going to ride the whole trail of this fantastic A-Cross The 5. No way out for me, I was spurred on by the unprecedented desire to enjoy it all to the full.
The childish elation that pervaded me when riding fast downhill, or making haste in winding and playful single track, in oneness with my body and my Stumpjumper, both of them just as eager to maximize the fun as I was. The sheer pleasure of opening up to a new world. How liberating. How exhilirating.
The certainty I had that our days were unpredictable to the utmost, never having any clue as to what the next moment was going to be like. The route devised and created by Stefan is a relentless series of surprises, unexpected twists and turns, instants of pure and easy fun, sobering times of danger, drearily slow hours, flashes of wondrous genius, and moments of peacefully contented serenity. The trail of A-Cross The 5 is ever-changing, and there’s no end to that miracle happening. So much gratitude to you Stefan for gifting us mountain bike packers with so magnificent a trail
The sharing of all those days and hours of happiness with my love, André! Much of it can’t be recounted, it belongs to us only.
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