16th September 2006. The GR12

Putte-Brasschaat. A stretch of the GR 12 just into Belgium. It was a bright sunny Saturday. At 10.45 the bus dropped us in Putte at a stone throw from the Ravenhof, a beautiful castle bathing in the morning sun and surrounded by a medium sized park. The sun still got filtered by some mist. It felt idyllic and was a very relaxing start. We were the masters of the silence.

We followed the WW1 anti tank ditch while the sun battered our heads at temperatures around 23 degrees Celsius. The ditch itself was marked with concrete bunkers but the surrounding water was clear and looked full of life. The abundance of trees provided enough shadow.
It was a big contrast with the posh houses with its Belgian and Dutch cars parked on the paved driveways. These houses and the tarred roads formed a background of our trip we definitely did not like.

The GR was not well marked on the Franselei so we walked an extra 2 kms. In the forest we fortunately retrieved the track which compensated for our pessimistic mood. The rest of the trip was fine again and at the castle in Brasschaat we left the GR which runs to Schoten and walked another 5 km to our car at the Donk church bus stop in Ekeren.

All in all a nice trip on a fantastic September day but unfortunately too much in a build up area.

Total distance covered: 28,9 km. GR12: 18 km.

Personal rating: **

GR129j trekking

What was supposed to be 3 days in the Haut Pays of the Belgian province of Hainaut became a 2 day trek. The new junction GR between the 122 and 129 called GR129j runs over a distance of 51 km south of Mons.
We left the car at Givry, at the connection with the 129, went by bus to Mons and from there by train to Quervain and again by bus to Angreau (2,5 hrs).
To start on the western connection in France at 3,8 km looked too difficult to organize transport to. So we started off around 16.00 in full sunshine and went off to a B&B which happened to be in a little town just short of Athis called Fay le Franc just half a km from the border with France.
The whole route was beautiful, hilly and the Bois l`eveque was a stiff go. Virtual no other hikers (as usual) The slightly hilly countryside provided no difficulties with the lowest point at 45 m just after Angreau and the highest at km 30 with 160 m. The large fields were partially ploughed while others were still green.
The track passes many small rural villages which forms a nice variation of the scene.
After a good night sleep the next day was a long one. We did not find a place to spend the night and decided to go back to our car in Givry at 31 km from the starting point. The last kms could have been more pleasant if we had not felt too tired.

All in all rating ***