Good to know:
Distance: 22.5 kms
Rate: easy
Map (incl. elevation information): Aubel
GPS-track available for download: yes
As always all photo's can be enlarged by clicking on them.
Again start is from B&B de Kraanvogel in Sint Pietersvoeren.
It was lovely weather: sun and blue skies, not too warm, just perfect walking conditions. The first part of the track is familiar to us as it is the track we ended up with yesterday. Nevertheless we enjoy the scenery. Just like these cows.
The path goes straight through a forest and then you will come across a huge fruit orchard.
After taking a look at our map and of course our GPS we turn right near a building. The path is difficult to follow because of all the weed, but we just continue the best as we can and finally arrive at a .......closed gate. Cows look at us with curious eyes and as it was no option to turn back we opened the gate (and of course closed it again, but you can also climb over it) and passed this old farmhouse. We expected a watchdog coming running up to us any minute but nothing happened. What a relief.
We cross a big road and .......there must be a track somewhere???? At least that is what our map and GPS show us. Oh well, we just go for it and after a while we can see the church tower of Aubel.
We take a small detour to reach Aubel as we don’t like to walk on main roads. The track goes straight through pastures with lots of cows grazing on it. We reach Aubel which is a nice small city where one can stop for having a short break. We wanted to buy a map of that region but a lot of shops were closed because of Ascension day the day before and thus were closed this day as well. The map we have used sofar does not include Aubel, Val-Dieu and its surrounding area.
We noticed a billboard with a map of the region and looked at it carefully and decided to go to Val-Dieu. Can’t be that difficult to find; follow red signs, then when you encounter blue signs follow those and there you are at the Abbey of Val-Dieu. Unfortunately it did not work out that way. Also our GPS did not provide the necessary information, at least we were not able to find the Abbey on it, so we did a huge extra loop in an effort to find the Abbey. We did not encounter any signposts nor was there anyone around to ask it, so at the end we just gave it up.
And just when we had given up we came across....yes, you guessed right.......a signpost telling us that it was just 3 km’s ahead. Too bad. Next time we will go somewhat better prepared (and have a walking map of this region at hand).
On our way up the hill we see this Table d’Information called “Knuppelstock”. It is a viewing point over the area (Land of Herve) and somewhere down below, we know for sure, is the abbey.
Slowly we return to familiar grounds and finally end up in Sint Pietersvoeren again.
Wow....great walk despite the fact that we did not see the Abbey, but we got a great taste of the region called “Land of Herve”.