While the virus still holds us hostage, we seek adventure close to home. We leave with little or no plan. We study maps, looking for natural places that we’ve never visited before. Where are the largest forests? Are there hiking trails that are uninterrupted by surfaced roads? Can we follow the course of a river? Is there a chance of finding a nice, somewhat hidden overnight spot? In fact, and a little to our surprise, such places still exist in our tiny little country.
The wild valley of the Hermeton river
If hiking some 15 to 20km through the hills, without crossing a road, passing through a village or even meeting another person is like a kind of adventure, then let’s call it that. We enjoy unexpected encounters with skittish wild deer. We are startled by a group of wild boar, and they are startled by us too. We seek the right spots to cross the river, over and over again. Our feet and even our legs get wet. Our boots are muddy all over. We follow a 3km path downhill that takes us 75 minutes because it’s rather like a jungle. We make our way through blackberry bushes. We climb a steep, rocky hill connecting to another path higher up. We arrive back at our truck fairly exhausted. We pass the night without hearing a single car in the distance or any other man-made noises. Yes, all this is still possible in the Belgian Ardennes.
To follow a path or to carve your own?
We drive far less. We walk much more. And we like this new relationship between travelling distances in the car and spanning areas on foot, nevertheless fully enjoying the comfort of the cabin when we return to its safe shelter. Because of our vehicle’s off-road capabilities, we are able to easily reach and enjoy special overnight pitches, some of which we already spotted during our walks.
Even in corona times, when more people than usual are looking for natural surroundings, this tiny little country still offers some really nice wild places to discover. To sum it all up: these are small rehearsals for the next big adventure.