Hiking the crêtes de la Warche

Early June was a gorgeous sunny weekend and a rare one that we had the time to spend all weekend in the east of Belgium. So Jan proposed to make a long hike on Sunday, taking our picknick. He proposed a hike that is 17 kms with a few potential short-cuts.   The children were very reluctant to leave so I was a bit afraid on how we'd end up.  

We drove all the way down to the outsides of Malmédy where the Warche feeds into a watermill at a campground to connect to one of the startingpoints of this loop hike.   Right behind it, we passed a big stone quary.  I was pleased to see that this industrial activity showed with multiple signs that it had attention to restoring some of the nature in some way after its intrusive activity with room for little different ecosystems. There was also some nice tourist information on the activity etc.  Interesting for an activity that is usually just noisy, loud & ugly. 

Right behind the quary we followed a little side-creek of the Warche in a steep climb up the hills.  Fortunately there was plenty of shade to manage this physical exercise. 

We crossed the village of Xhoffraix with some smart shortcuts and ended up at the heights above the Warche with a view on the skihill of Ovifat at the horizon across the Baheyon valley.   There we found a newly built picknick spot that wasn't on our map yet and which was empty...so time to take a nice break and eat our lunch. 

spot Belgium's highest skihill

We descended the steep descent towards the confluence of the Warche and Baheyon rivers, a place we know from our "Rheinhardstein loop", which is part of these official 17 kms. But we'd not return those last 6 kms towards the dam. 

The children played a bit at the water edge, without falling into the water. 

And then we chose the "easy" trail along the water instead of climbing up the slopes again. Along the river, we gradually descended back towards Malmédy in the steep valley. 

The remoteness, the steep slows but "low" mountains full of pine wood reminded me so strongly of the Kootenays in Canada.  It made me so emotional that I had tears in my eyes and felt homesick but also so gratefull that a new trip to Canada is planned in the coming months. 

Funny enough, I was quite behind the boys as often but when I caught up with them they were in the midst of an English conversation. They had also noticed the ressemblance with the Canadian landscapes and had started to practise their language to prepare for our upcoming vacation.  Bless them.  I felt so great.