Walking at the Wesertallsperre in Eupen

After picking up Jan at the train station in Eupen, mid-October we drove to the Wesertallsperre in Eupen.  We've been so often at the damned lakes in Robertville and Butgenbach, but I had only seen the Wesertallsperre just once.  

We drove through the lower part of Eupen, which we often pass, along the Weser/Vesder river that caused so much damage during the waterbomb of July 2021. There's still closed businesses and houses in renovations and the lower part of Eupen was now renovating the bridges over the river.

Once outside the city we turned off in the countryside and quickly we zigzagged through nature and climbed up to the dam where we parked. 

We crossed the dam and looked at the drink water reserve at the one side and the big deep valley on the other side in the direction of Eupen. I saw the overflow canals and had to think of the dramatic events in July 2021 again where the lake wasn't going to overflow as it hadn't been lowered/emptied (in contrast with the lakes of Robertville and Butgenbach that are managed by Engie for electricity production).  The debit that was released in the Vesder was a multitude at one point of its maximum capacity, and a lot of people are convinced that part of the disaster was a man-made flashflood that maybe could have been avoided. 

We turned off in the woods for a walk but we had to make a bigger loop since people coming out of a trail int he wood with mud up to their knees warned us that the trail was too muddy/marshy to walk. We took the wiser decision to agree with them and take a detour along wider prepared roads. 

We returned along the lake but the trail wasn't quite close to the waterfront. Since this is a drinking water reserve, it's also prohibited to swim or boat or do any other activity on the lake. 

It was almost evening and we could feel the sun was lower and temperatures dropped.  As this was our 2nd walk on the same afternoon, I was relieved to see the car again and I looked forward to just relax together at home in front of the tv for the rest of the evening.