East Vlaanderen - part 2

I've been cycling through the section of Vlaanderen that is south and west of Hoogstraten. It is dull and empty. Nothing but cornfields, cows and agro-industry, interrupted only by the highway. The air is permeated by the stink of chemical fertilizer; can't be healthy to keep breathing the stuff in. Finally, at kp 98, somewhere around Malle, I hit a canal with a picnic table. A rarity in this landscape. So I take a break.
(original date of this entry: Aug 20, 2018)

Church of Hoogstraten

The big canal is the Kanaal Dessel-Turnhout-Schoten. Now I suppose I'll traverse some more tracts of cornfields–how can anyone live in such a monotonous landscape?–on my way to Zoersel, then Zandhoven. The weather is good for cycling: warm but overcast with a light breeze. I just shared my picnic table with three middle-aged racers who had stopped for crackers while I chomped Spanish chorizo and sipped red wine. One of them told me they would ride some 85km today, just going up and down the canal. One had an Eddy Merckz racer, another a Trek.

Kanaal Dessel-Turnhout-Schoten

Now I'm heading for Zoersel (kp 61), south of Westmalle. Here it feels rather suburban: late-model Audis plying the roads, the houses modern brick blocks with slight "country" touches. If anything, it's even more complacent and bourgeois than Holland. Fietsers here wear helmets. In general the route sticks to country roads, never detouring through forest. So kinda dull. 

I noticed a knooppunt variation: in stretches, the LF (9) follows its own trajectory, not coinciding with any knooppunten.

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Hoogstraten to Lier via LF-9

Zoersel was just a blur of traffic. I went over the E34 to kp 7, mistakenly headed for kp 95, then turned around and went for kp 6 (on LF-5), and for the first time since entering Belgium, I am in the forest, this being the Pulderbos. The silence of the place is soothing. The serene woods end at Vorselaar.

Albertkanaal, south bank

New knooppunten to Lier

Just as total exhaustion set in, it started to get good. I had no choice but to keep moving. At the Albertkanaal, I climbed the ramp and went over the big arched bridge. It was already after 7 pm. On the other side I went back up the canal east, then followed a side canal (Netekanaal) southwest toward Lier (-> kp 75). At some point the trail deviated from this long straight canal to a winding river (Kleine Nete). This path went on and on, the river to my left fringed with purple flowers, rows of pines to my right, whose lower parts had been denuded for some reason. What a beautiful ride, even though I was exhausted and stressed that I'd still need to locate my vriend op de fiets.

Kleine Nete

Finally I reached a bridge at kp 76. A sign indicated that new knooppunten had been installed and I contemplated this with another fietser, a good-looking man with a mane of white hair. We both opted to continue along the south bank of the Netekanaal to kp 93, but he darted off before me. Another 15 minutes of pastoral canal cycling, then over a railroad bridge to kp 88, then over another (kp 89), into Lier. I had made it, but the journey wasn't over. Continued...