Lumaj wandelt

Intro:

Hiking from Tielt to Deinze means you're passing from West-Flanders into East-Flanders, and that the slightly sloping landscape evolves into a slightly hilly scenery.
It results in a little more interesting hike, compared to the previous one on this trail (from Kachtem to Tielt), but it still isn't really worth while. The itinerary stays primarily on asphalt and concrete roads and the landscape never really captivates. Nevertheless the first signs of spring did their utmost best to soften our final judgment.

We can only keep up our hopes and continue to look forward to our next hike on this GR 128 trail.

Back and forth:

This is an easy one to do by train. Tielt and Deinze both are situated on the line Leuven - Gent - De Panne.
We bought a return ticket going to Tielt, and getting back from Deinze.
From the train station in Tielt you have to walk 2 km. to reference point 28 where you pick up the trail.
In Deinze the station isn't situated on the GR trail either. From the church in the center it's another 400 m. to reach the station.
All in all this is a hike of 22 km.

The hike:

Be sure to have a topoguide at hand, because without it you might get into trouble. Generally speaking the trail signs are clearly present, but some direction changes are lacking. A bit further you'll see them again, but that's not a great comfort ... An example: between reference points 28 and 29 you have to take a sand road. Even with the topoguide in your hands, you get the impression you're standing in front of a private road leading to a farm. However, the topoguide says that you have to walk up to the entrance gate, and so you take that road. But the GR trail signs are missing at that spot. Without the topoguide you're bound to ignore that road.

(Click the picture for more on Picasa)

After a few kilometers you'll reach the Poelberg, a 45 m. high hill that stands out in this rather flat landscape. At the top you'll find a Mary cave, a nice spot for a stop. Somewhat further the Poelberg mill towers over the land. Judging by the amount of information that can be found on the internet, this place surely must be one of the more (and rare) interesting spots in the area. Next to the cave you see the buildings of a former convent and what used to be a school. There are plans to make this a 'recreational' area. The plans include a tavern with a terrace and lodging for cyclists (several cycling trails are passing here). Hopefully the plans don't include access by car. The rest and peace that reign here now would be lost forever ... Personally we'll remember this spot as the place where we spotted our first snow-drops of the year.

Sadly enough, after having enjoyed the Poelberg and the splendid views, the hike degrades into a boring asphalt and concrete march. It stays that way up to Grammene where it gets worth while again, but by then we've hiked 15 km.
The topoguide mentions there's a pub in the village. That's why we made the little detour to the center. A useless effort ... except for a decripite house where the sign 'At the swan' might have referred to a pub, there's no pub to be found here.
So we got back to our GR trail to find out that this was the start of a nice hiking stretch through the domain 'Oude Leie' (old Leie river). During over 2 km. we were following a quiet stretch of the river that has been sleeping here since the main stream had been straightened in 1974. A marvellous path takes us along the river. At the more muddy places, the path has been reinforced by plank bridges. At the end of this path we get to the confluence of the old and the new river Leie, where the irrigation channel (known as the Schipdonkkanaal) starts it's course to Zeebrugge on the Northsea coast. We follow this canal up to the next bridge where we cross it and get into the center of the city of Deinze.

Only one more remark on this hike. Somewhere between Aarsele and Wontergem we crossed the GR 129 trail. We met this trail on a number of previous hikes. It leads from Brugge to Dinant and as such is the antipole of our GR 128 trail. Both diagonally cross our country. Maybe one day ... ?