Interesting Day

Since I have been writing these in chronological order, scroll down to "Post - Long Time Coming" or use this link to get to the first post I wrote about spring break.

http://danielagee.blogspot.com/2010/04/post-long-time-coming.html

To continue about break, after Bruges, I took a train ride to the small town of Spa. I had in my mind that Spa is a pretty little town, and the green hills were a very welcome sight. However, the trees of Belgium have not gotten the memo that it is spring! All of the trees looked dead, like it was the middle of the winter. Brown leaves from the fall still cover the ground and it doesn't even look like the trees are beginning to show life. That was a huge let down, but I still tried to remain positive.

A few weeks ago, the tunnel under Blanchimont (one of the corners of circuit) leading to paddock collapsed. Because of this, all track activities were cancelled. I knew this since the moment it happened, yet I still figured that the track would be open to visitors wanting to look around. Unlike Monza, though, which is in a public park, Spa had closed its gates. I took an indirect (only route possible) bus ride from Spa to Francorchamps, where the track begins, only to find the main gate closed. However, I saw a sign pointing to Eau Rouge. So I hiked along the highway, with only the guardrail and prayers to God for safety as protection. Yet through the trees I could see the exit of the La Source hairpin and hiked through the trees to peer through the fence to see the track.


I hiked along this fence until I found an opening large enough to see Eau Rouge and take a picture of it.


Oh man is Eau Rouge daunting! TV does no justice for how steep and blind it is. Dad, you'll be the only one to really understand this, but imagine driving the other direction and up turn 9 at Laguna Seca at full speed and then having the Corkscrew be your apex at the top of your eye sight. That's what you see from the bottom of Eau Rouge. Once through that corner, that main, long straight is so uphill! The TV barely shows that! And here's the exit of Pouhon where you can see the descent of the track.


But anyways, back to my hiking. So at the bottom of Eau Rouge, there is a creek that runs under the circuit (it's red because of the soil, thus the name of the corner) and to stay going along with the fence, I tried to cross the creek. Well, the first step I took, I tried placing my right foot on a rock and immediately slipped and fell backside first into the creek. Luckily I wasn't in the middle of the creek at the time, but nonetheless, my whole backside was soaked. Thankfully my camera and phone were in my front pockets! Regardless, it put a huge damper on the day that was already not going as I hoped. I tried to remain positive and decided to keep trying to trek around the track, but I had to hike back to the highway and along side it before I got anywhere near the track again.

I found one spot in the fence at the exit of Eau Rouge to see a very obstructed view, but had to keep hiking along the highway before getting to Les Combes, right where the old track used to turn away towards Stavelot, for my next photo opportunity. I found a whole in the outer fence and hiked again through the trees until I came to the main fence that separates spectators from the track. This was the closest I got to the track and if I had really felt like, I could have followed this path along the track to the interior of the track, but I didn't know this at the time so I went back through the whole in the fence to continue around the track.





Eventually I made it to Pouhon, the farthest away point on the track from Francorchamps. I climbed through some trees and then a rock face to maintain going along the fence as the track turned back towards Francorchamps. This part of the track is extremely downhill, another thing the camera does not show, so my hike was downhill until I made it to a bog with basically know where to go and no sign of the track. I climbed my way back out to the road I had been on. I thought of what to do and I saw signs for Rivage, a town part of the track nears, but the road looked to only go on away from the track. Hopelessly, I turned back the way I came and made the trek back along the highway until I finally made it to a bus stop, almost back at Francorchamps. All in all, I hiked 7 miles and only got a small glimpse of the track.


I am very happy that I made the effort to see the track, because it is my most favorite track of all time and from I could see, the coolest track to drive! But it was very frustrating and disappointing to hike forever, soaked from the creek, to only see probably a quarter of the track. I would certainly like to see the track again, but who knows if that will ever happen. Sadly, the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps might just have to be a track I enjoy with TV. Anyways, here are some more pictures from Spa.





In currently sitting in the Brussels airport and am flying to Nice in two hours. I'll be in Nice for two nights and will visit Monaco tomorrow. Hopefully you have enjoyed all of my adventures so far and I'll post more when I'm back in Roma.

I miss all of you and can't wait to be back in California in a month! Love you!