Grags and pits in Viroinval

I wonder why a two hours drive here in the Benelux always seems to take much longer than a similar trip in California.
However, we always need to drive a little further if we want to see more than the flat woodless Flemish landscape.
Finally we reached the village of Nismes, a quite touristic village with tempting restaurants, cafes and irresistible ice cream signs.

I found it remarkable that Rob doesn’t remember our romantic weekend spent in this area some 10 years ago.
Only when approaching the rocky pits he seemed to remember our past visit here.



This region is rich with dramatic rock formations, called “Fondry des Chiens”. The penetrating water eroded deep chasms in the limestone during the last two million years. This is the only area in Belgium where one can admire this geological curiosity. No need to say, how exciting this dizziness invoking pits were for Maarten. Exciting, but dangerous!

Several times we were seriously lost. Using “that” old guide book, I’ve mentioned before, shouldn’t be any problem because today we also brought our GPS! But! With low battery!!!

Thanks to a friendly local we found our way at last. He also drew our attention to the green rose chafer, a beautiful metallic beetle that can be observed feeding from flowers of hawthorn especially during this month.
So at last we were glad we didn’t miss this green beauty. Without getting lost we wouldn’t meet and speak this man and we would never have known.
Maarten is crazy about insects since ever therefore looking for the beetles along the trail made this trip even more fun.

Maarten also caught one may bug. I remember their abundance during the summer evenings back in my childhood. But Rob claimed he has never seen this kind of insect before. And he is probably right. I’ve learned that in The Netherlands and Belgium those species are no longer as common as before.

A steep path took us to the 60 meters high cliff of the Roche aux Faucons. From the rock we had a splendid view over the Viroin valley. Deep down there was the river we had to cross.




Climbing on all fours and sliding again, luckily it stayed dry the previous weeks so no muddy shoes today.

Through nettles and thick brush we were looking for a place to cross the river. I thought we were the first ones this season that were walking this wild meadow when I stepped into something unpleasant soft and sticky with a disgusting smell. Soooo nasty and so gross! I was very tempted to toss my shoe.


As there was no bridge over the river we had to strip off our shoes and socks, roll up our pants and get into the icy water. The only one who really enjoyed that was Maarten. The stones in the river hurt our feet and the water was pretty deep at places. Oh yes, my buttocks also got wet.



We dried quickly and put socks and shoes back on and set off again.
Then suddenly the nearby overgrown railroad track came to the life. The seasonally run steam train was just passing by with a loud choo choo!


After climbing along an old stone quarry we got lost in the woods. It was too late to finish the entire planned trip, so we took a shortcut following a clearly marked path.




I have to admit these 5 kilometers were not really amusing, meaning we walked over well maintained forest paths, therefore not much adventure and a little boring for our little hiker.




Luckily there were still many hawthorn shrubs along the trail.

Vous êtes Hollandaise, n'est-ce pas?

This spring first sunny and warm Saturday really spoiled us. But on Sunday the temperature dropped up to 13 degrees and started to rain bringing us back to reality. This is Belgium!

Let’s hope the bad weather won’t ruin our trip!

The rain gained in intensity until it became a downpour when we reached the little village of Houx, our starting point of the hike.
NO hiking without waterproofs today!

Cobblestone path led us from the village right to the steep muddy trail climbing up to the ruined castle of Poilvache. We’ve been here before, long time ago, then on a warm sunny day. It was beautiful!
But also today the lush woodlands were covered with windflowers, fig buttercups, cowslips and my favorite sweet violets.

By the time we reached the ruins we were already soaked. Luckily it felt quite warm so we decided to continue anyway.





The nature reserve along the river Meuse is a great hiking area but using this dated hiking guide it was a challenge to find our way.
Many times it was rather following our instinct. Most of the suggested paths were overgrown and impenetrable.


That’s how we came across this rusty bomb probably from the World War II. The boys were shaking with excitement, especially the bigger one, so I really had to rush them away from this place.
Up and down we went climbing and descending for several times, forcing our way through the thicket, we startled a deer in the brush… Finally, rather by a miracle we found ourselves on a path leading right to the searched Tour de Géronsart, ruins of a medieval watchtower.

Naturally Maarten couldn’t resist climbing those thick walls making me nervous, therefore I could hardly enjoy the marvelous views from the old bare windows overlooking the Meuse river valley.

Descending back to the valley it was muddy and slippery meaning Maarten was most of the time on his buttocks having blast of course!
Ooh, almost forgot to mention that it actually stopped raining somewhere half way.

An old jeep puffing up the hill with a little doggie behind the wheel stopped next to us and two laughing men went straight: "Vous êtes Hollandaise, n'est-ce pas? I can tell just by looking at you. This is actually a private area. Mais c'est pas grave."

Our guide book was dated, but what an adventure!