We left the Ardennes this morning and drove to Hans-sur-Lesse to visit the Caves of Han. There appeared to be every primary age child in Belgium there on a day trip! We’d put off visiting Sunday due to high visitor numbers and we were now regretting that and  nearly didn’t stop. Checked out the wait time and it wasn’t too bad so went for it. Luckily managed to get on an English speaking tour with a load of British school children, our Dutch and French is just not up to scratch! The tour starts with a train ride through a park and we saw fallow deer and bison.

The caves are huge, it takes 1hr 45m to get around. Lots of steps but spread out so quite a gentle stroll.  Some amazing and ancient stalactites and stalagmites here. In a huge cave in the centre of the tour, they show a very good light and sound film on the roof and sides of the cave. You also see the gentle river Lesse running through the bottom of the caves, hard to believe it carved them out. Definitely worth a visit.

Next stop Maasmechelen, still in Belgium, even though we travelled through a bit of the Netherlands to get here. Stopped about 30mins out to stock up, mainly on alcohol and BBQ essentials, and arrived at a very noisy campsite, Salamander LV, which is literally on the edge of the Hogen Kempen national park. It is still 29° at 9:30pm. We’ve had a lovely BBQ and are now sitting outside listening to T’s and my choices on Spotify!  For the first time I’ve been bitten by the pesky mossies so an itchy hot night ahead!