GR12, balsamina and pigs dung

25th July 2007 in beautiful Lier. This little clean town in the Kempen has ancient narrow streets, nice church, colourful clock tower and a cosy Begijnhof. The start at 9.30 could not be better. Above that, the sun shone and we had a light breeze. With other words: perfect hiking conditions.
I left town from the south walking along the Nete and hiked through fields and small woods. Many roads were unpaved and some very grassy to Mississippi’s delight. On approaching Mechelen there are many glass houses. The yellow-white GR signs were often at odd places but with some intuition I was lucky not to get too far off track. I entered Mechelen along the Dyle river and hit a main street where I took bus 561 to Lier railway station, walked some distance on the cit wall to my car and at 17.00 off we went to a cool Leffe beer (at home)

I enjoyed this part of the GR12.

Total distance: 30 km. Flat. Ratio: crows flight/distance: 2,3. Avg.speed (rest incl.) : 4,0 km/h.
Personal rating: ***