Lumaj wandelt

Intro:

On Saturday we gratefully accepted a nice year-end gift: beautiful weather. Just to say that true gifts don't have to be expensive things, and that moreover they can even be useful.
Even the railroad company was impressed with this gift and offered us two gifts on top: a return ticket to Roeselare for only 9 Euro, and trains on time! It really was one of those days that nothing could go wrong ...

Unfortunately the hike itself can't be called a success. The first half to Zilverberg was still acceptable, but during the second half only the Sterrebos managed to capture our interest. The omnipresent housing and industry have whiped out any signs of a regional identity and have left none of the rural paths that undoubdedly must have existed here. All in all a rather boring experience. This is typically one of those GR trail parts in Flanders that you want to forget as soon as possible.

But, if you're interested in the history of the 'Flemish Emancipation Struggle' you can find several symbols of it along this trail part. After having called the previous hike on this trail the 'Death March', maybe we should call this one the 'Flemish March'.

Back and forth:

Moorslede Station is situated between Moorslede and Passendale. There used to be a trainstation, hence the name. Now it's a busstop.
We got there in 2 hours 20 minutes travel time, having boarded 3 trains and 1 bus. First a train from Antwerpen to Gent Sint-Pieters. There we took a train going to De Panne and got off in Lichtervelde. Then the train towards Kortrijk and leaving that one in Roeselare. Finally bus 94 going to Ieper. Limited times everywhere to catch the next train or bus. We were really lucky that every ride made it exactly on time.

We traveled back home from the busstop Kachtem Halte. Bus 60 drives to Kortrijk, but we got off in Roeselare and took the train there to Kortrijk. Then from Kortrijk to Antwerpen by train. This trip took us over two hours and a half.
Kachtem Halte is not easy to find. In the center of Kachtem there's also a busstop, but it's not serviced in the weekends (unless you make a reservation in advance for an on-call bus). Kachtem Halte is situated way out of the village center. We had to ask for directions and were lucky enough to be taken there by a friendly driver.

The hike:

(klik op de foto voor meer foto's op Picasa)

Our previous hike on this GR 128 trail dates from March this year, but despite all that time we still clearly remember how we ended that hike, deeply impressed by all the suffering both World Wars caused in this region in the first half of the previous century.
Strangely enough, during this hike all the evidence that pointed to the war past of the region has suddenly dissapeared. No more military cemeteries nor monuments. That doesn't mean that we left the battling fields, because around Roeselare one can still find several impressive military cemeteries. At the time a village like Moorslede was completely destroyed because it happened to be built on slightly higher grounds, compared to the surrounding landscape. However, on the GR trail there's no more evidence of all that to be seen.

We started by still following the muddy former railroad track where we left it last time. It was a freezing cold night and the melting snow on the track had turned into solid ice. More then once we suddenly made acrobatic movements that would be totally in place in avantgardistic dance choreographies. Fortunately we were all alone, because it must have been a strange sight.

After those first gliding kilometers we ended up on an asphalted road on the outskirts of Moorslede. The village center indeed is situated higher than the surrounding area (altitude 55 m.!). It's not so difficult to imagine why the continuous fighting for this place finally destroyed it completely.
Our GR trail doesn't really go through the center of the village, but we needed a coffee and some food, so we decided to make a little detour to the church. That's how we found the statue of father Constant Lievens, proudly sitting on his horse. He was a contemporary of Albrecht Rodenbach and graduated with him in the same 'wonder class' at the catholic highschool for priests in Roeselare.
Lievens decided to leave as a missionary to India. He didn't get old. He got TBC and died in 1893 at the age of 37. His life abroad prevented him from being part of the struggle fought by his classmates for the 'Flemish Cause'. But his accomplishments were not less then theirs. In no time he became a hero for the locals in India by standing up against the social oppression of the poorest. In 2001 the Vatican started the procedure to declare him a saint. It seems he's still waiting for a miracle to be declared ... not that it matters if he's canonized or not, he made his contribution for a bettter world.

Leaving Moorslede we're treated to nice views on the wide open landscape. This is the valley of the Leie river.
On our way to Zilverberg we walk through the quiet hamlet Kasteelhoek with it's Koekuit castle, dating from 1929. For your information: 'Koekuit' or 'Koekuut' is the local name for a koekoek (a cuckoo). The present castle replaces a previous one that was used by the Germans in Worldwar I as a hospital, but it was destroyed in 1917. One of the inhabitants of the previous castle happens to be our link back to Constant Lievens. As a kid Constant grew up in this hamlet. His talents as a good student struck the mayor of Moorslede, and that mayor happened to be living in the castle. He decided to pay the money to get the young Constant to the priests highschool in Roeselare ... without him we probably never would have heard about Constant Lievens.

We arrive at Zilverberg and are now on the territory of the town of Roeselare. Up to the next highlight of this hike: the Sterrebos (a small forest) and the Castle of Rumbeke. Forests are rare in this area, and that's why this one is a popular place for the local people. Even on this cold second Christmas day there were people walking in the park.
The name 'Star Forest' is due to the starlike pattern in which 12 lanes were drawn from a central point in the 18th century. From the forested park they gave views towards the numerous churchtowers and windmills that existed at the time. The idea of the star would have been inspired by the Prater park in Vienna.
Today, it's still possible to get the general idea, but the real eyecatcher here is the castle. It's history goes back to the middle ages when the Counts of Flanders owned the place. That's why some people (in a rather pompous way) prefer to call it the 'Cradle of Flanders'.
Anyway, it's a fact that since 1467 the castle was owned by only two families: the Thiennes and the Limbourg Stirum families. The first Thiennes, Robert Mulaert, bought himself a nobiliary name shortly before that date, and then married the woman that lived on the estate. His offspring managed to keep the place for the next 400 years. The last Thiennes had no sons, only 3 daughters. The eldest one inherited the castle, and when she married a member of the Limbourg Stirum family, the castle became the property of that family. They would live there for another 130 years until the year 1987. Both noble families have always influenced the local political, social and cultural life of the region. At the same time they held important functions at the royal houses of Europe, no matter who the rulers were at any given moment. The only court they never got involved with is the French court. In that sense the title 'Cradle of Flanders' might be a little more justified.
The last noble owner sold the domain to the provincial government and it was opened to the public. Nowadays the castle seems to be exploited by BAAV, a professional organisation that represents the tourbus companies of the province of West-Flanders. They organise guided tours in the castle and rent out the facilities for all kinds of activities. What that has to do with their social goal, that's a mistery to us ...

We're heading now for the village of Rumbeke. It's a dull hike here through a densely populated area. Suddenly, in Rumbeke, we pass by a catholic building complex where we notice a signboard 'De Groote Stooringhe' (the big incident, written in the old flemish way). It's the name that was given to the student revolt on July 28, 1875 in Roeselare, led by Albrecht Rodenbach. It was the first time ever that a group of students turned itself openly against the use of the french language in our education system in Flanders. Somehow, this hike seems to draw our attention again and again to these symbols of the Flemish struggle to get rid of the French language oppression. If Rodenbach and his companions had known at the time that 135 years later, the Flemish and the Walloon people are still not capable of living harmoniously together (at least politically), they would have turned around in their graves ... happily or sadly, we didn't figure that out.

Our hike is getting to an end. We cross the railway line Kortrijk - Brugge, walk through a vast and awfully smelling industrial area (Shanks Waste Solutions), follow the canal Roeselare - Leie, and end up in Kachtem, a village that is part of the town of Izegem. Rodenbach is not really our beer, but a Westmalle beer is also Flemish ...

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