Kabouter had a birthday party on the first Sunday of July at the natural area near Erps-Kwerps / Kortenberg. Jan had recently done a guided walking tour there as well, so since we had to drive there to pick up Kabouter I asked to go a bit earlier and explore with a walk ourselves. I was curious to learn a bit more about the nature area's close by Leuven that are still fairly unknown to me.
Fortunately Jan was well aware that this is a wet forest even on dry days so I searched my best waterproof high shoes in lack of rubber boots and Beertje and Jan dressed in rubber boots. And boy, that was a good necessary choice!
We parked near the Natuurpunt info center and admired already the multiple landing planes coming over the top of our head. They would form a constant during our walk and a big contrast to the nature reserve offering peace and quiet...interrupted by those jumbo's over our head every so much time. Oh well.
We walked the "AS Adventure" walk through the Gingelom bos. (apparently companies can sponsor walks here). There were puddles everywhere and we also needed our mosquito spray ! Thankfully Jan had thought of that as well. Glad we came prepared or this would have been a very painful experience.
The trail is reinforced by wooden support but not the straight well cut planks you'd often assume.
Over halfway we were forced to take a shortcut back to the starting point as the rest of the trail was in bad shape. Well, if they didn't consider the first half bad shape, we surely weren't going to test the rest.
In so many puddles we had heard the noise and seen a quick jumping movement but in the end we were finally lucky to spot some of the many frogs or toads that seem to be around from up close.
It was nice to have been out in between rain and get some movement and all in all I managed well without my boots. We treated ourselves to a nice local beer while waiting for Kabouter's games to end at the Natuurpunt visitor's center "
De Groene Vallei"
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