A DAY OUT IN THE ARDENNES.

Last Sunday, OutlawDaughter and I, after a botched attempt the week before on account of atrocious weather, took to the Ardennes again for a healthy walk from Rochehaut over Frahan to Poupehan and back. Although the weather channel predicted again rain, a glance at the rainfront radar more or less convinced me that by the time we'd arrive in Rochehaut, our planned point of departure, the worst of the rain would be off to the east.

And so it turned out to be. At 2pm tops we parked our vehicle on the Rochehaut parking lot overlooking Frahan:




... and the few drips that still touched us turned out to also be the last, for the rest of the day.

So we off on a somewhat circular way that would lead us down the hill where Rochehaut (lit. High Rock) sits perched overlooking the Semois valley, to Frahan, thence along the "Crêtes de Frahan" towards Poupehan, and then back via the Roche Gilquin.




The long slope towards the Passerelle de Frahan, a foot bridge spanning the Semois, does not pose any difficulty whatsoever:



Not even 100 meters beyond Frahan's small church a path leads up and to the right towards the Crêtes de Frahan. Here we are at the very beginning of the Crêtes:



Along the well-indicated path, which follows the ridge of what is essentially a long narrow peninsula terminating in Frahan, one encounters a number of peculiar rock outcroppings:








At the base of the "peninsula" the rock formations are so numerous that they are dubbed the "Château de Montragut". This small platform is the highest in the whole complex.





And from there we continued our way to Poupehan. View from the "Chaire à Prêcher" viewpoint:




Beyond the "Chaire à prêcher" we descended gradually, coming along another POV the "Pic du Midi" (not much picky about it btw) and a good ten minutes later we were at the bank of the Semois again. We crossed it and continued our way first due north, then a little to the east, where we passed the POV "Roche Gilquin":




At 6pm we were back in Rochehaut. The twelve kloms took us exactly four hours. It's a pity the sky remained heavily overcast all during the walk, otherwise the sunrays would have revealed the full beauty of an "Eté Indien" in the woods surrounding the Semois meanders, but on the other hand we should perhaps just count ourselves lucky we did not get back soaking wet.

Nite.


MFBB.

A DAY OUT IN THE ARDENNES (UPDATE).

Excellent weather today and the weather charts predicted the East of Belgium completely cloudfree so it was off to the Ardennes one last time this year. Took our daughter with me, she loves the Hautes Fagnes (High Fens), Belgium's "roof", so it was quickly decided where to.


Some atmospheric shots.













And here are two pics our daughter took, with a Samsung Galaxy J5:





If you ever wanted to know what Outlaw Mike looks like, here it is:




With his trusted walking stick AD1985 or thereabouts, courtesy some Swiss forest near the Aletsch Glacier.


All photos taken on the southern leg of the walk Noir Flohay - Geitzbusch - Hill, a 15.7 kilometer circular walk with an appendix to Baraque Michel, where you can park your car. Baraque Michel is along the N68, about halfway between Eupen and Malmédy.

Since we walked counterclockwise and time did not permit doing the full walk (we started out hopelessly too late), we missed the northern leg which passes Noir Flohay, which reportedly offers the best panoramas. Don't matter. We'll do it next year, hopefully with the whole family. To get an idea of the walk, check out the following video. Double click for full screen and removing DowneastBlog's annoying banners and stuff, of course.





Video talks about the "High Fences". That's a lapsus of course, should be High Fens.


Nite.


UPDATE:



Reader timactual asked about the length of the wooden boardwalks and whether there were any restrictions as to where one could walk in these lands.

The High Fens are a National Park. The Department Nature and Woods imposes restrictions with regards to walking depending on the season, so as not to disturb several avian species, in particular grouse. This year e.g.:


A.) From 17 March to 15 June of this year walking on:


1) walkways 33 en 35 (B-zone) between Baraque Michel en Bouquet Bastin wasn't allowed
2) neither was walking in the C Zone of the Fagne Wallonne and the Fagne des Deux Séries
3) neither in the C zone and alongside the border of the Fagne de Cléfaye


B.) Additonally, from 15 June to 27 July:

Walking not allowed on walkways 4 and 5 (C zone) in the Fagne Wallonne (Drello) and on ways 19 en 21 (C zone) in the Fagne des Deux Séries (Brochepierre)


The boardwalks in the photos were the longest I ever encountered, some 6 kilometers before we turned back, with a couple of short interruptions where the land was dry. Because after all, the boardwalks are there for a reason. It's practically not doable to go cross country, since the bog is very wet. Yesterday, we made it as far as the northeastern tip of Grand Bongard. But it was almost 4.30 pm and I wanted to check out whether it was possible to make a shortcut across Grand Bongard instead of following the solid green line all around. The shortcut would have brought us to the point marked by the white on black flag to the right of no. 53. In this way, I thought, we could make it back in time AND still pas along Geitzbusch and Noir Flohay. However, after only thirty or forty meters I gave up. Required too much energy (you have to lift your feet to about knee level most of the time) and you're constantly treading in what the Germans would call 'Sumpf'. It's only normal that several streams have their source on this plateau (Helle, Statte, Hoëgne etc).

Anyway, we got back tail between legs along the same route (GR573). By the time we were back at Baraque Michel it was pitch dark.





MFBB.

A DAY OUT IN THE ARDENNES.

The weather was glorious last weekend, so I figured I'd head out to the Ardennes for what was possibly the last time this year. The rest of the family wasn't in the mood - they don't know what's good for them. So me was accompanied only by myself and I.


Cruising on the good ole E411 somewhere between Custinne and Wanlin:




View on the Chateau de Bouillon, once the home of Godfrey of Bouillon, the 'Belgian' crusader. Pic taken from somewhere below the Point de Vue de la Ramonette.




After getting off the La Ramonette crest and through Bouillon's Arboretum - which sadly, isn't such a big deal anymore since it's in the process of being overgrown by, guess what, trees, I came across the Monument des Fusillés. Seems you can't get nowhere in the Ardennes or sometime, somewhere, you are reminded of WWII. It was on this spot that on the 21st of July 1944 three men from Bouillon were cowardly shot by the Gestapo on orders of Léon Degrelle, the prewar Rex strongman and Belgium's most notorious nazi. The names of the hapless souls are René Pierlot, Henri Bodard, and Louis Bodard. As I said a prayer, I wondered about the circumstances of their tragic deaths. Degrelle was from Bouillon, and obviously, felt quite attached to the region of his birth (indeed, while in Spain after the war he ventured the desire to be buried on the nearby Tombeau du Géant, a famous landmark). The liberation of this part of Belgium was only a little more than two months away. Was Degrelle, foreseeing the imminent forced departure of his overlords, exacting revenge on compatriots who had stubbornly refused to accept his vision of a Belgium as part of the Third Reich? Was he pissed off because just the day before, his beloved Fuehrer had narrowly escaped death at the hands of Von Stauffenberg? Who will tell?




Then it was off to the Rocher du Pendu, a rocky promontory overlooking the Semois river. Rocher du Pendu means Rock of the Hanged, and an anecdote I came across years ago was this: once upon a time a farmer from Corbion who had earned a good deal of money with the sale of his cows on Bouillon's cattle market, foolishly wasted his earnings on drinking and gambling in that town's cafés. Getting sober again on the rocky path towards Corbion, which passes this very spot, he became overcome with fear at the reaction of his wife, who reportedly was an ancestor of Victoria Bissell Brown. So he hung himself, end of story.




Majestic firs, straight as an arrow, on the path towards Corbion:




Point de vue de l'Ecaillère. Below is La Grande Prairie.




A view on the Moulin de l'Epine from the Pic du Diable. Although I failed to see what was so devilish about this spot.




Descending towards the Semois, like a mirage, after some time the Abbaye de Cordemois. Which has architectural elements reminding me of the Abbaye d'Orval.




It was time to wrap up the walk. Besides, the sun was slowly setting.




The calm waters of the Semois. Perhaps some 30 kloms further - I would have to check it out - it flows into France where the name is spelled Semoy.




Almost back in Bouillon. The traffic arrangement is peculiar. What is in effect a mini "beltway" around town passes through a tunnel under the castle's keep.




A view on the Chateau. Must have been quite impenetrable defenses in its time. I read somewhere that in the 17th century, Vauban also left his mark.




Driving back, I couldn't resist making a small detour to watch Frahan sitting quietly on its peninsula in a Semois bend. Pic taken from the heights of Rochehaut:




And then it was back to Chateau Outlaw!



MFBB.

A DAY OUT IN THE ARDENNES: LIEGE AND SOLWASTER.

Because we can't keep complaining about muslims or socialists forever, it's good to catch some fresh air now and then. Once upon a time, a semi-regular contribution on my exploits in the Ardennes was a fixed staple on this here blog, but the last one dates from a couple of years ago already. Anyway, with sunny weather and zilch chance on rain, plus the daughter also willing to go, I thought it might be a good idea to head south again after a long pause. And so we did.

But first a short stop in Liége, la 'Cité Ardente'.


The Tour Paradis, or Tour des Finances de Liège, a brand new building housing some 1,100 fonctionnaires of the Ministry of Finance. Not that high, only 118 meters, but of a peculiar design.






Nearby is the main station of Liège, Liège Guillemins, designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava:





And then it was off to Solwaster, a tiny village perhaps halfway between Liège and the German border, at the edge of the Parc National des Hautes Fagnes. There's a modest walk there, No. 57 (dark blue rectangles), only 9 kilometers long, but commendable as a warmup exercise for tougher stuff. Also, quite nice because following the picturesque Statte brook (a tributary of the Hoëgne river, which seems to actually be a nicer place according to this bloke) for much of the way AND excellent signals, no risk whatsoever of getting lost. Sorry for the mediocre photography, I'm still using a geriatric iPhone4.





At some point we came across a peculiar rock formation rising some 20 meters above the Statte valley. This is the Rocher de Bilisse, about 500 million years old, so smack in the middle (give or take 10 million years) of the Cambrian. Very interesting since in fact having been pushed up through leverage from later sedimentary layers nearby, deposited between 280 (Permian) and 400
(Devonian) Ma ago.






A view on Solwaster from a ridge actually higher up the Rocher de Bilisse:






And finally back to the village. Landscape not so stunning as along the Semois further south, but it was worth the oxygen cure.






MFBB.

A DAY OUT IN THE ARDENNES.

More precisely in and near Durbuy and around Tellin and Resteigne.






Photo of Durbuy along the Ourthe river, western Ardennes. Taken from the Belvédère, actually a rather crudely designed concrete tower on a ridge overlooking "the world's smallest city" (pop. 400). Mind you, NOT my photo. When my daughter and I had climbed the ridge it appeared that the Belvédère was closed.




Then it was off to Tellin for a walk of about 11 kloms. This photo was taken some 4 kloms from Tellin's centre, on a small terrace overlooking the Lesse valley.




Rock wall in a quarry near Resteigne.




Walking along the Lesse near Resteigne...




Lesse close up.


Nite.



MFBB.

A DAY OUT IN THE ARDENNES.

Sunday, June 7, 2015.

Weather good? Check.

In the mood for a walk? Check.

Daughter also willing to go? Check.

So we off to the Ardennes, more precisely the central part. There's a plethora of good walking guides but I almost always use my trusted Julien Van Remoortere books, and today I picked (two thirds of) a walk near Nadrin, some 7 kloms east of La Roche en Ardenne (La Roche for short).

Somewhere near Grimbiémont, on the N888:





When almost in Nadrin, I took a sideroad in the little village of Bérismenil. If you follow that sideroad for 1.5 kilometer, you arrive at a small spot that's being used as a launching pad for paragliding. I don't do paragliding, but I appreciated the view. That's the tiny village of Maboge down there.




Incidentally, Bérismenil is also the place where in May 1944 a B17 came down. There's a small memorial consisting of a prop of the bomber on a rock pedestal:




A commemmoration plaque has some info on the B-17, which it's crew had christened "The Joker". The plaque explains that most of the crew could bail out and were either able to flee occupied Europe with the help of the Resistance, or where taken captive, spending the rest of the war in some Stalag. At least one crew member though, James Young, the dorsal gunner, perished. IIRC it was his charred remains that were discovered in the wreckage. I suppose that by this time, all of the surviving crew have deceased too. RIP gentle heroes.




Our walk started near Ollomont cemetery:




The view on the road from Nadrin to Filly, looking towards the wooded Ourthe Valley:




Before the Ourthe becomes, well, the Ourthe, there's the Eastern Ourthe, actually called the Ourt, and the Western Ourthe. This is the confluence of the two:




But barely downstream, the river is kept in check by a dam, thus creating a long, narrow horseshoe shaped "lake", the Lac de Nisramont. The crest overlooking the Lac is so wooded that you can barely make out a sliver of water though. Pity, for once trees are ruining the view.




Okay, to the left you can make out the Barrage de Nisramont. I know, the Hoover Dam it ain't.




Pic of La Roche:




No way to escape the (spoils of ) the Ardennes Offensive in the Ardennes. Driving out of La Roche, you can't miss the M10 tank destroyer still holding guard over the town. La Roche was heavily contested between US and German troops in winter 44/45. Now, there's a something to be investigated here. To the best of my knowledge, the Brits did not fight in La Roche. Yet this particular M10 has some kind of commemmoration plaque fixed to its front claiming it belonged to the 51st Highland Division. In which case we should rather speak of a Wolverine, since that's how the Brits referred to their M10's. My best guess is that the town authorities needed an AFV to commemmorate the battle, somehow couldn't get their hands on an American one, and fetched a Wolverine from the 51st Highland Division. Some blokes then painted a white star on the vehicle. I guess I won't be that far off.




As for the M10/Wolverine, it was not a "tank", but a "tank destroyer" - specifically designed to chase and destroy enemy tanks. It was equipped with a 3 inch (76.2mm) gun and was a relatively potent weapon. What you can't see is that the turret is open-topped. This may sound foolish, what with enemy infantry being able to lob grenades in, but somehow this configuration did make some sense. The open top allowed for easy observation by the turret crew in all directions, plus facilitated communication with accompanying infantry. Also, in case the TD was hit, or if a grenade was lobbed in, at least the gunner, commander and loader were able to get out quickly. The driver however...


So. That's all for today. Nite.


MFBB.