Elgar decided it was time to do some walking again.

He searched on the Internet for a nice walk but not too long because it was very hot (30 degrees Celsius). After reading through the itinerary Elgar opted for walk nr. 20 (8 kms) from the website Wandelgids zuidlimburg. Hopefully we can trust our little Moose here.

So off we went with a lot of water, digital camera's, binoculars and of course ...... Elgar the Moose. Needless to say that the rucksack was packed and rather heavy.


The walk starts in a town called Lemiers, just about 5 km's from the German border. We came across a lot of so called "Vakwerkhuisjes". Timber framing is the modern term for the traditional half-timbered construction in which timber provides a visible skeletal frame that supports the whole building.



The first 4 km's where through fields and with the high temperature and this huge ball in the sky called the Sun, it was not as easy as it had looked on paper. First we had to climb up to a plateau.



And then the track slowly made its way downwards through the fields and provided some astonishing views over the area.



Down in the valley again the walk passed along some trees and open fields again, where farmers were working hard to cultivate it.

Elgar had to show us the way several times cause he was the one who had read the itinerary properly. We just merely followed him, although we are still not sure whether that was a good idea or not.



We encountered this plant / flower but don't even know the name of it, nor have we seen it before. Can you tell us what it is? Then please let us know (either in Dutch or in English). We are always eager to learn.



We walked up a small hill where we had a magnificent view over the landscape again. Despite the climbing and the heat, we still enjoyed the view presented to us.

The "Vakwerkhuis" which you can see in the picture on the right is the same as the one we shot at the beginning of our walk, only now of course seen from above.



The last 200 meters of this track turned out to be quite a challenge. The path went through shrubs and it just looked like a jungle. Huge stinging nettles and brambles covered the path. After 50 meters we gave up and made a detour through a field. The only one who did not get a scratch at all, was ..... yes, Elgar. He was hiding in the rucksack, the hero !

After this ordeal we reached Lemiers again, where you can find this old church. This small Romanesque chapel once was actually a true church, used by a parish. It dates from either the second half of the 11th century or from the 12th century, although there are sources that claim that the oldest parts of the building dates from the 7th century.



Well, we made it back to the car despite the heat, the sun and the shrubs. We deserve a cool drink now. Not sure about Elgar the Moose, though. He was sleeping throughout this walk for most of the time.

Today we arrived at home and parked the car in front of the garage. Normally we would drive the car into the garage immediately but this time we somehow decided not to do that. We did some household work for about an hour and then wanted to put the car into the garage. This time we opened up the garage door from the inside.

And then we saw this very young and tiny hedgehog, Just pressed against our garage door. One thing is for sure: we would have driven over it if we would have opened up the electric garage door from the outside.

Just look how cute she/he is !



As Hedgehogs are protected animals we phoned a local hedgehog rescue center what to do. They advised us to put it in a box, with a lot of newsprints, give it some water (not milk!!) and to get it some food, canned cat food would do and then to wait one day to see what happens.

This morning we carefully took a look whether this little thing had eaten something and guess what: the whole saucer was empty. Hurray !!

Tomorrow we will bring it to the rescue center, because it turned out to be much too young to be running around on its own. He/she only weights about 140 gram and combined with its size, can only be about 4 weeks old. So he will be staying in the rescue centre for a couple of weeks and then will be released into the wild again. Underneath photo's just show how tiny he/she still is.

Well, with the global warming being a hot item nowadays, we see a lot of wind farms appearing in the landscape. Here just a few of these huge mills.

This morning we started off with a strawberry breakfast and our Moose just loved it. And we told him to eat well, because we were going for a long walk in the fields in the area. Luckily he is a very easy going Moose and just does what he is told (sometimes !)

Today we opted for a walk of about 12 km (7,5 miles).
We downloaded this walk (nr. 33 to be precise) from a Dutch walkingsite – Wandelgids Zuidlimburg - which is particularly focusing on walks in our area, the Province of Limburg.
(All photos in this article can be enlarged by clicking on them)

The walk started in a town called Heijenrath (Limburg, NL) and for the first half hour we walked through a forest.



Then we had to make a sharp turn and were presented this lovely panoramic view of the landscape of this area:



The path took us along the wood edges for at least 2 km's and provided lots of scenic views and of course wildlife and flowers.




We spotted a family of buzzards with at least two juveniles trying to follow their mum. We also saw plenty of woodpeckers (all sizes and shapes), tree creepers and butterflies. But none of them wanted to pose for our camera.


On the look out for birds

And then it was back to the woods again and the route took us to these "holle wegen" as we call them in Dutch. Free translated: sunken roads. Very difficult to walk as they are always steep and the ground is uneven. We also had to watch out for mountain bikers who came bicycling down this narrow path. But it was very picturesque as the photo shows.



But as we all know, walking makes hungry and we decided to have a lunch break. We ended up in Teuven (Belgium) as we had crossed the Belgium border somewhere along the track. We both took a delicious salad at Moeder de Gans. In English the Restaurant is called Mother Goose Inn. If you are in the neighborhood, it is definitely worth a visit.



But oh well, after 45 minutes we had to get moving again cause we still had to walk at least another 5 km's. We crossed the border again into the Netherlands. Here is the border post in the middle of nowhere.



After going through beautiful fields we ended up on Slenaken where this small church welcomed us at the town centre.



Slenaken itself was very busy. Although it is just a small town, it now was like peak hour in a big city. Hundreds of tourists where sitting in the pavements of the many restaurants / cafes along the street. We quickly moved on to escape all this and ended up at our car quicker than we thought we would have.

It really was a terrific day, with lots of sun, lots of wildlife, nice scenic views and some good food.
We hope to go for another walk next weekend !

Greetings from Elgar the happy hiking moose!