Why this ride
A 307 km round trip from Charleroi - roughly 4 h 45 in the saddle. It goes by way of Beffroi de Gembloux, Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict, Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort and Béguinage de Diest. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Bois du Cazier and Béguinage de Diest
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 307 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 45
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Bois du Cazier
On the morning of 8 August 1956, a fire broke out in the Bois du Cazier coal mine in Marcinelle, near Charleroi, after a mechanical error in the shaft loaded a lift cage with a wagon and cut an oil pipe and electric cables. Smoke filled the galleries within minutes. Two hundred and sixty-two miners died, and only thirteen were rescued. Most of the dead were immigrants, and one hundred and thirty-six of them were Italian, men who had come to Belgium under a 1946 agreement that exchanged Italian labour for Belgian coal. The disaster remains a deep wound in Belgian and Italian memory, and it changed mining safety rules across Europe.
Read the complete Bois du Cazier write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bois du Cazier is where the day begins. Next is Beffroi de Gembloux.
2. Beffroi de Gembloux
Gembloux grew up around a Benedictine abbey founded in the tenth century, and for most of its history the monks ran the show. The abbey buildings, rebuilt in a grand classical style in the eighteenth century, now house a university faculty of agricultural sciences, fitting for a town surrounded by some of the richest farmland in Belgium. The belfry, a solid tower that was once part of a church and later became the town's civic symbol, stands in the centre and is part of the UNESCO listing of belfries of Belgium and France. Climbing it gives views over the rooftops and across the open fields of the Hesbaye.
Read the complete Beffroi de Gembloux write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Beffroi de Gembloux comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict.
3. Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict
The beeches in the Sonian Forest grow so tall and straight that people call it the cathedral forest, and once you stand under them on a misty autumn morning the name stops sounding like tourist talk. This great woodland on the southeastern edge of Brussels covers thousands of hectares, and most of the famous columns of grey trunks were planted in the late eighteenth century, when the Austrian Habsburgs ruled these lands and their foresters reshaped the old wood. A few patches, including the Tict reserve near La Hulpe and Waterloo, are left to grow wild with no felling at all, and they form part of the UNESCO listing for the ancient and primeval beech forests of Europe, a chain of reserves stretching across the continent.
Read the complete Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict. Next is Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort.
4. Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort
Leuven is a university town through and through. Its university, founded in 1425, is the oldest in the Low Countries, and its students fill the streets, cafés and squares, giving the city a youthful energy. At its heart is the Grote Markt, dominated by two buildings: the Town Hall, a Gothic masterpiece covered in hundreds of statues, and opposite it, the Church of St Peter, a great Gothic church whose tower was never finished but which is part of the UNESCO-listed Belfries of Belgium and France.
Read the complete Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort, about halfway. Next is Béguinage de Diest.
5. Béguinage de Diest
Diest has one of the largest béguinages in Flanders, a walled town within the town, with its own streets, gates, church and some ninety houses. The béguines were laywomen who lived a religious life without taking permanent vows, earning their own living and sharing a community, and their béguinages flourished in the Low Countries from the thirteenth century onward. The Flemish béguinages are listed together by UNESCO. In Diest, the béguinage has been restored with care, and its cobbled streets, whitewashed houses and quiet gardens feel worlds away from the traffic outside.
Read the complete Béguinage de Diest write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Béguinage de Diest sits at 144 km, about halfway. Next is back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort.
6. back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort comes up about 191 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict.
7. back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 231 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict. Next is back through Beffroi de Gembloux.
8. back through Beffroi de Gembloux
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de Gembloux write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Beffroi de Gembloux, late in the day. Next is Bois du Cazier.
9. Bois du Cazier
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bois du Cazier write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 307 km.
Leg by leg
Bois du Cazier to Beffroi de Gembloux
Bois du Cazier → Beffroi de Gembloux is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de Gembloux to Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict
Beffroi de Gembloux → Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict to Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort
Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict → Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort to Béguinage de Diest
Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort → Béguinage de Diest is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Béguinage de Diest to back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort
Béguinage de Diest → back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort to back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict
back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort → back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict to back through Beffroi de Gembloux
back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict → back through Beffroi de Gembloux is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de Gembloux to Bois du Cazier
back through Beffroi de Gembloux → Bois du Cazier is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.