Visiting the Griefvogelsation & Wildfreigehege Hellenthal in the Eifel
2 weeks ago we picked up a flyer from a wild park in the Eifel which turns out to be only 30 min from our stay in the east of Belgium.
Since Kabouter had been asking to go back to the zoo in the Ardennes (which would either be Le Monde Sauvage Safari Parc or Forestia) , we considered this German park that is closer. And we didn't consider it long...off we went.
The park is about 20 kms from Monschau nearby the Eifel woods On our drive there, I saw a lot of trail heads, parking lots with trail maps etc which invite me to come and explore these woods at another time. But now we wanted to go and see the birds of prey and the deer.
Similarly like Forestia, you arrive at a nice parking lot and the entrance is at a restaurant. From there on you can loop through the park in a big circle. Whereas Forestia crosses a valley with steep descending and climbing trails without any vistas, here you are mostly walking on top of a plateau but with stunning views on the nearby valleys and lake. In the middle of the loop there is another fast food restaurant, a big playground, toilets and some more petting animals.
But first we headed to the deer and the otters. For the otters we had to deeply descend a mouflon valley only to find the otter habitat deserted at first sight. There were no mouflons to be spotted either but I also feared we'd not see any otters. Just when we turned around to start our climb back up to the main road, 2 little fellows left their home and enthusiastically ran towards us at the fence to beg for some food. Just as in Forestia, you could buy little bags of food that you could feed to most animals. Of course the children each had to have their bag although they didn't always have the courage to hold out their hand with food to get licked by the animals....so that was often a mom's job to do ;).
We crossed a part of the deer sections where we actually had to walk through a group of assertive hungry fallow deer. As soon as they understood we were carrying food around, they followed us like groupies. When Jan put his hands on his back without much reflection, they licked them by surprise :D. The children were first a little intimidated but that didn't take too long and quickly we were calculating how many car seats we had and how much deer we could smuggle home.
In the other parts of the park the walking trails were reserved to humans again and we could watch the animals behind fences again.
There is also an important birds of prey section in the park. Actually we first crossed half a dozen young birds that are getting walked through the park regularly because they need to get used to sounds, people, visiting dogs, ...
Since Kabouter had been asking to go back to the zoo in the Ardennes (which would either be Le Monde Sauvage Safari Parc or Forestia) , we considered this German park that is closer. And we didn't consider it long...off we went.
The park is about 20 kms from Monschau nearby the Eifel woods On our drive there, I saw a lot of trail heads, parking lots with trail maps etc which invite me to come and explore these woods at another time. But now we wanted to go and see the birds of prey and the deer.
Similarly like Forestia, you arrive at a nice parking lot and the entrance is at a restaurant. From there on you can loop through the park in a big circle. Whereas Forestia crosses a valley with steep descending and climbing trails without any vistas, here you are mostly walking on top of a plateau but with stunning views on the nearby valleys and lake. In the middle of the loop there is another fast food restaurant, a big playground, toilets and some more petting animals.
But first we headed to the deer and the otters. For the otters we had to deeply descend a mouflon valley only to find the otter habitat deserted at first sight. There were no mouflons to be spotted either but I also feared we'd not see any otters. Just when we turned around to start our climb back up to the main road, 2 little fellows left their home and enthusiastically ran towards us at the fence to beg for some food. Just as in Forestia, you could buy little bags of food that you could feed to most animals. Of course the children each had to have their bag although they didn't always have the courage to hold out their hand with food to get licked by the animals....so that was often a mom's job to do ;).
We crossed a part of the deer sections where we actually had to walk through a group of assertive hungry fallow deer. As soon as they understood we were carrying food around, they followed us like groupies. When Jan put his hands on his back without much reflection, they licked them by surprise :D. The children were first a little intimidated but that didn't take too long and quickly we were calculating how many car seats we had and how much deer we could smuggle home.
In the other parts of the park the walking trails were reserved to humans again and we could watch the animals behind fences again.
There is also an important birds of prey section in the park. Actually we first crossed half a dozen young birds that are getting walked through the park regularly because they need to get used to sounds, people, visiting dogs, ...
After some lunch and some playtime we completed the visit and treated the goats and lama's near the entry with the remaining food. They didn't object at all.
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Comments
En zo tof dat jullie een huisje in de Oostkantons hebben; zalig om zo vaak de natuur in te kunnen!