Walking south of the Centre de nature Botrange - north of G'haster / Baheyon
My mother came to visit us in the Ardennes for the first time since many years, also for the first time without my father. The weather predictions were just horrible with icy temperatures and non-stop rain fall but in the end it promised a dry morning, so we quickly profited to get ready and go for a walk while we still could.
Beertje wanted to go for a walk nearby the playground but Kabouter opposed to doing the same walk over the Botrange again only 2 weeks since we did that. So instead of climbing up to Belgium's highest point, we descended a trail down south. The blue guided trail that we seemed to be on, seemed to make such a big tour around an open field that we decided to follow the bigger field road instead. The green cross trail crossed back north but that seemed too quick a return back to our car so we continued a little more. Yet shortly after the nice big field road transformed quickly in a muddy, soaky marsh trail full of obstacles. We jumped from dry stash of grass to the next.
We had head wind most of the time and there didn't seem to be another soul out, so we hoped to cross some wildlife...but just try to keep the children silent for more than 30 seconds. Hopeless. Jan and I had crossed deer before in these woods south of the Botrange before however, so we were keeping an eye out for them.
While we knew we were heading in the right direction back north to the rue de Botrange (even though the exact road trail was guessing a bit as there were no more signs), we had to jump across little creeks now and then and once truly testing the waterproofness of our shoes when we had to pass the children across. Fortunately it was one of the rare times ever that my mother was wearing my old walking shoes that I passed on to her to have appropriate foot wear for walking.
Beertje wanted to go for a walk nearby the playground but Kabouter opposed to doing the same walk over the Botrange again only 2 weeks since we did that. So instead of climbing up to Belgium's highest point, we descended a trail down south. The blue guided trail that we seemed to be on, seemed to make such a big tour around an open field that we decided to follow the bigger field road instead. The green cross trail crossed back north but that seemed too quick a return back to our car so we continued a little more. Yet shortly after the nice big field road transformed quickly in a muddy, soaky marsh trail full of obstacles. We jumped from dry stash of grass to the next.
We had head wind most of the time and there didn't seem to be another soul out, so we hoped to cross some wildlife...but just try to keep the children silent for more than 30 seconds. Hopeless. Jan and I had crossed deer before in these woods south of the Botrange before however, so we were keeping an eye out for them.
While we knew we were heading in the right direction back north to the rue de Botrange (even though the exact road trail was guessing a bit as there were no more signs), we had to jump across little creeks now and then and once truly testing the waterproofness of our shoes when we had to pass the children across. Fortunately it was one of the rare times ever that my mother was wearing my old walking shoes that I passed on to her to have appropriate foot wear for walking.
Finally we got back on the nice open fire roads in the woods that was well visible on the gps maps to progress a bit faster.
And then we found a deer on our road... one of the first times being out there with the children. Just a few 100 meters further we rejoined the main road from the centre de nature, back to the car and the cafeteria where we all enjoyed an early lunch. The walk of 5 kms took us 1,5h with the small children but felt like we had been walking further.
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