GR 122, GR 5A, GR 129 and GR VA, they were all there to accompany us on this hike. Not a coincidence, because the Flemish Ardennes undoubtedly are one of the most popular hiking regions in Flanders.

We expected to see a lot a hikers and mountainbikers on this trail, but the freezing temperature decided otherwise. We're not complaining though, we had the fairytale-like landscape almost exclusively for ourselves.

A well-succeeded hike in a nice part of Brabant-Wallon.

We got surprised by the many rural paths, the interesting variation of forests and open landscapes, and the ever sloping hillsides. A hike that once more confirmed the reputation of Brabant-Wallon as an excellent hiking region.

And to make it even more interesting: start and finish of the hike can be reached by train.

Having reached the Flemish Ardennes, the GR 122 trail suddenly changed into an interesting and captivating experience. The distance indicated in the topoguide was underestimated by almost 4 km, but because we had a good time we barely noticed that.

The hike introduced us to a picturesque stretch of the river Escaut, the valley of the Zwalm, the Mineworker's Path, the Toep Chapel at Brakel, and a host of rural villages such as Sint-Maria-Latem, Munkzwalm, Sint-Goriks-Oudenhove and Roborst. All this thanks to Omer Wattez, the inventor of the name 'Flemish Ardennes' and promotor of the region.

The question is often asked on the internet search engines, but also in our day-to-day conversations we notice a lot of incertainties on the GPS possibilities of smartphones.

This is the answer, loud and clear: TO USE THE GPS FEATURE ON YOUR SMARTPHONE, IT IS BY NO MEANS NECESSARY TO HAVE AN INTERNET CONNECTION !!!
Even if you have internet access on your phone, you'd better turn it off while using the GPS function to follow or register a hiking track. It will save battery capacitiy, and it will certainly save on your internet subscription.

As we had expected this was not a hike to remember.

Only the final third of the hike became worthwhile. The landscape starts to show some relief and opens up. We're approaching the Zwalm region, and that gives positive hopes for the next part of this GR 122 path.

It's been a while, and 2011 has become a year of the past ... but we still owe you a report on our last GR hike of 2011.

On a much too short winterday we traveled to Dinant by train. There we started by first following the valley of the Meuse. Then we continued through the Lesse valley, to end up at the little train station of Gendron-Celles. After almost 24 km., some five solid slopes, way too many rests and stops, and lots of gliding on muddy paths, we arrived fully in the dark at our destination. In short, a wonderful hike that we really enjoyed!

For us this will always be one of the GR classics in Wallonia. And all you have to do to get there is take the train.