A foggy first walk at the Botrange

Christmas vacation wasn't exactly the chill vacation as I had planned with spending half a day quiet in the sofa reading or watching tv (ok those activities did take place a lot) and going for walks in the afternoon, preferably in the snow.

But with boys that were alternating fever and an open tap on snot in their nose and the outside that was non-stop raining, grey and a lot of wind gusts, and additionally my own heel that hurts and needs a bit of rest, I hardly got outside to walk at all.  And I noticed that impacted my stress levels and energy negatively.  I do need to walk outside in nature regularly. 

Finally, by the end of the 2nd week, the boys were on the mend, the weather promised a few dry hours and I managed to get all the boys outside for a short spin around Belgium's highest point. 

The dry promise was a fake one: with the low clouds on the signal de Botrange it was drizzling non-stop and it got us wetter than anticipated. But I enjoyed breathing the cool air and moving. 

We descended to the Peak brewery and already took a stop there. It was the first time we went into the Peak brewery which now exists for a couple of years and whose parking lot is always buzzing with activity and creating traffic issues.   (they are smart to borrow their customers plastified walk sheets and they market well so a lot of tourists now use their parking as start/stop to discover the area). 
But now their bistro was a very cosy welcoming stop on our tiny walk and we enjoyed a nice beer before climbing up to the highest point again. 

Jan took a non-official shortcut to the woods to bring us back to the trail...which was quite muddy.  In the mean time it was sunset time already which gave a special atmosphere in this mild fog. 

Well this was a "view" on the Fagne Walonne as we had not experienced it before...no counting the hundreds of windmills at the German horizon this time :p.