Lumaj wandelt

Intro:

What a day! Tuesday April 6, 2010 was our first really nice day of spring, and we made sure we didn't miss it ...
You could almost hear nature moan and groan under it's frenzied growing pains and barely controlled reproduction urges. We fully enjoyed the splendid show. Even the hike did it's best to please us. Maybe still a little too many asphalted roads and urbanised zones, but also plenty of interesting sights and beautiful natural areas all along the itinerary. Combine this with the beautiful weather, and you won't read anything negative from us about this hike.

Back and forth:

By train it went from Antwerpen to Gent-Dampoort. There we boarded bus 36 going to Zele. It's only a short ride to the church of Destelbergen. Total traveltime was merely one hour.

At the church at Uitbergen we took bus 98 going to Aalst. Be aware that there's not that many busses passing by here (in the weekends there's even no busses at all) and the last one leaves at 5.30 pm. We got off the bus in the next village, Wichelen, at the train station (stop Steenakkerstraat). There we boarded a local train to Gent Sint-Pieters, and continued our journey to Antwerpen. Traveltime 90 min.

The hike:

The main theme of this hike is 'water'. The hike crosses a generally moist region. The river Schelde is never far away and in this extremely flat landscape that means a lot of water is always present. Just have a look at the detail map in the topoguide and you'll notice pools, ponds, lakes, canals and brooks everywhere.

Click the picture for the full series on Picasa

It starts shortly after leaving Destelbergen. The Damvallei lake is part of a vast area covered with lakes, peat ponds and brooks. A large part of this useful biotope was destroyed when the R4 highway around Gent and the junction with the E17 highway were constructed. What is left of it is now well-managed by the Natuurpunt organisation, but the noice of the traffic is something you'll have to live with.
At the Damvallei lake some members of the organisation are busy setting out some kind of rafts in the lake. They're meant to be articial breeding places for the the common tern. In our country it's a rare migratory bird, but each year it appears here on April 16th ... Strange, this precise date. It's like as if they made a reservation last year for this particular date and now the hotel personnel is preparing everything for their arrival.

We continue our hike making a wide curb around the road complex. We're passing a few more little castles of Destelbergen, some peat lakes transformed into fish-ponds, and then cross the R4 and the E17 highways, finally leaving this noisy paradise of cars. The hike passes by the Hauw, again a protected nature reserve made up of brooks, swamps and peat lakes.

The Katteneie Farm is a modern horses dairy farm. We didn't taste the milk but it would be a healthy remedy for about everything:  skin problems, lack of energy, intestine problems, ... The horses certainly were well cared for and looked healthy. And with some newly born foals to watch, we can only keep a positive image of this enterprise.

The GR 128 signs take us further through the fields and in the distance we start to notice the towers of the Castle of Laarne. That's where the trail is heading. The impressive construction is a typical example of a robust feudaal castle, similar to the ones in Beersel and Horst. With a little imagination you can see the knights fight for the favours of the lady of the castle ...
Looking completely lost was a German, standing next to his car, studying an impressive map. He had choosen this first wonderfull day of the school holidays to travel to the belgian coast. He got fed up with all the traffic jams since Brussels and had decided to leave the highway to make his way to Knokke passing through Zelzate. We couldn't give him much hope for improvement and adviced him to just drive around in the area where he was now and to continu later in the evening. Rest and peace guaranteed ... He even seemed to like the idea.

Just outside the village of Laarne we met the GR 122 trail (Zeeland - Champagne-Ardennen). Another hiking idea for later ....

After having endured an urban area and an industrial zoning, we're entering a vast area of moist lowlands, situated in between the village of Kalken and the river Schelde. We meet a lot of cyclists enjoying the beautiful day just like we do. Fortunately our trail leaves the paved roads and we're following a country path along the old river. The area is called the Kalkense Meersen, an uninhabited area that used to be regularly flooded by the river during the past centuries. Actually the old river is one of the remainders of those floods. In the distance we regularly notice the church tower of Wetteren.
We hike along the old river until it meets the Kalken canal. This waterway was dug in the 16th century to connect Kalken to the river Schelde. The purpose was to facilitate the trade of manure, a not so sweet-smelling specialisation of the region, but obviously it must have been a profitable business. Maybe that's the origin of our well known expression: 'money doesn't stink'.

Where the Kalken canal ends, we meet the river Schelde. This is the first time we get to see Flanders' most important river along the GR 128 trail. It's a wide, winding, slow-flowing river with lots of reed along the shores. A bit further we pass by the village of Schellebelle where a little ferry can get you to the other side if you want to visit the village. It's a picturesque area and we fully enjoy the walk along the river. But it's also quite busy. All the cyclists seem to use this road. A pub with a sun-oriented terrace is doing good business.

The last kilometers of the hike take us through the Heisbroek domain, another moist area in a wide curb of the river.
That way we arrive at Uitbergen, the finish of this hike. There's still some time left to catch the bus. A tasty trappist beer helps us pass the time. Was it the first heat of the year? Or a lack of exercise? We feel like as if we just ran a marathon.

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