Intro:
It's almost sad. This hike finishes the GR 128 trail part described in the topoguide French-Flanders. We had wished it could go on and on.
This hike offers a lot of variation. From the Mont des Cats, it goes up and down over the Mont de Boeschepe and the Mont Noir to Sint-Jans-Cappel. Beautiful hiking paths.
The rest of the trail leads us into the much more open border region with Belgium. A quiet and desolate area.
Back in Belgium the trail takes us to the Mount Kemmel where the hike ends. A bit of a disappointment because GR 128 uses only boring concrete roads to get us there.
But despite the finish, we're really enthousiastic about the beautiful journey we made through French-Flanders. We discovered a little part of France and we certainly enjoyed it a lot.
Back and forth:
As was mentioned in the previous report, we were dropped by car at the starting point of this hike by friends where we spent the night. That was easy ...
We traveled back from Kemmel, and that was not a simple journey ...
It started by taking bus 71 to Wijtschate. There it went on with bus 72 to Ploegsteert and then bus 6 to Komen. From Komen to Antwerpen via Kortrijk by train. A 4 hour trip. Not something to repeat every day.
The hike:
Starting at the abbey on the Mount Cats we immediately walked into the forest. We got a wonderful surprise: the forest hyacinths had turned the ground into blue carpets, a spring phenomenom we never grow tired of. Soon we arrived at the Koortskapel (Fever chapel). What kind of fever, we don't know, but in french the name is Chapelle de la Passion ... maybe Love fever? As far as we're concerned, we don't mind that kind of fever, wo we didn't feel obliged to stop and to pray for healing.
What was worse is that some youngsters, accompanied by an adult, were throwing away plastic cups, just like that ... We made a remark, but that only made them add the plastic bottle to the cups. If the one up there really can cure a fever, then maybe for once he might do the opposite: give the fever to that bunch of idiots.
(click the picture for more images on Picasa)
The trail brings us to the enormous broadcasting antenna that identifies Mount Cats from all over the region. This is the start of a beautiful descent and hike towards Mount Boeschepe. We couldn't get enough of the nice views and panoramas that presented themselves to us.
Boeschepe itself is being approached walking through a relatively open landscape, so the village and the wind mill are visible from far away. The Ondanckmeulen (Ingratitude Mill) reminds us of the youngsters we met on Mount Cats. We can only shrug our shoulders and try to forget the incident for the rest of the day. So much arrogance and stupidity ... (is arrogance a consequence of stupidity, or is it the other way around?).
There's no lack of 'Mountains' here. We walk over the Kokereleberg and then the trail is heading for Mount Noir (Black Mountain).
Getting to the top there's a change in the trail. GR 128 used to descend the hill via a country road, but now it enters Park Marguerite Yourcenar for the descent. Reading the word 'park' we picture a nicely arranged artificial landscape, but Madame Yourcenar's park is pure nature. A wild forest covers the southern slope of the hill. Imagine being a child and having this as your playground! Little Marguerite won't have missed her television set.
The trail keeps descending and arriving near Sint-Jans-Cappel we're back in the open landscapes. In the distance we can distinguish the town of Bailleul, but GR 128 makes a left turn and heads for the belgian border. Before getting there we first have to climb the Hille. A slowly ascending asphalted road always tends to be more tiring than a rural path. That probably has to do with the tediousness of walking on a flat hardened surface. The name Hille has been copied from the english soldiers. This was their hill. The top is located right on the country border. Ahead of us lies Belgium, but the trail postpones our 'home coming' with a few additional kilometers in France.
Finally we enter Belgium at the Zwartemolenheuvel (Black Mill Hill). The french part of the GR 128 trail finishes here. Like most border regions this used to be a smuggler's paradise. We regularly notice the signs of a 'Fraude et Estaminets' (Fraud and Pubs) hiking path. But the smuggling is history. The only thing left is the presence of petrol stations on the belgian side of the border crossings. Filling up your fuel tank is still cheaper in Belgium than in France.
Meanwhile, in the distance we've been distinguishing Mount Kemmel for quite a while. It's not really obvious, but in fact there's two 'mountains'. Mount Monte with its altitude of 132 meters is 24 m. lower compared to Mount Kemmel.
On the plain we can see the church towers of several villages: Dranouter, Loker, Nieuwkerke. They're all part of the community Heuvelland (Hill Country).
The last part of the hike leads us to the top of Mount Monte. We had expected something better to end the trail described in our topoguide. A boring straight asphalted road ascends to the top. And once having arrived at the top, it even gets worse. We now follow the busy two-lane road Dranouter - Kemmel. What a contrast with the wonderful paths we hiked in France. Isn't there any possibilities left to design a more attractive trail here?
Arriving almost at the townhall of Kemmel, our GR 128 trail joins the GR 5A trail. We remember that GR 5A has found a much better trail to climb Mount Kemmel ...Anyway, it's time to close the topoguide GR 128 French-Flanders. Despite the dissapointing finish we'll never forget our captivating journey and discovery of this unknown part of northern France.
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