Intro:
A nice hike through woodlands, offering enough variation so it never becomes boring.
The region is allthemore special when you realize that in the early days it used to be an open moorland. Today it's the largest woodland in the province of West-Vlaanderen.
All in all a hike really worth doing with lots of unhardened paths ... we enjoyed it.
Back and forth:
Every hour there's IC trains going from Antwerpen to Aalter (direction Oostende). In Aalter you change to a local train going to Brugge. The trip from Antwerpen to Beernem takes a little more then 90 minutes. From the train station at Beernem you still have a 3 km. hike to join the GR 129 trail, some 300 m. before the bridge over the E40 highway.
We left the GR trail after passing through Kruiskerke, about halfway the next trail marking point in the topoguide. From there it's still a 5 km. hike to reach the train station of Aalter. There's hourly IC trains to get back to Antwerpen.
Added to the 20 km. of the GR hike itself, this is a hike of always 27 - 28 km.
We took a trainticket forth to Beernem, back from Aalter.
The hike:
After crossing the E40 highway, the GR 129 trail leads us to Bulskampveld, a provincial forested domain covering an area of over 200 hectare.
The word 'veld' ('field') tells us that this used to be an open area of heath and wilderness lands. Only from the 18th century on the region was cultivated and trees were planted. The history of the area is linked to the noble families de Meeus and Lippens.
Forests and nobility, they're always grateful ingredients for stories of passion, murder and cover up operations. The Murders of Beernem have intruiged the locals for many years, and not so long ago they've been the subject of a movie.
Anyway, we haven't noticed anything dangerous or suspicious there. Bulskampveld is a peaceful recreation domain, complete with a visitors center, playgrounds, a cafeteria, a herbs garden, an agricultural museum, and beautiful hiking alleys.
(click the picture for more on Picasa)
Almost unnoticed Bulskampveld passes into the Vagevuurbossen (Purgatory Forests), another area of over 200 ha. Together they make up the largest forest area in the province of West-Vlaanderen. The striking name comes from a nearby Purgatory chappel where the Holy Mary invited the living to save the unhappy souls from purgatory. How this had to be accomplished? By buying indulgences or savings points maybe? Fortunately the Purgatory seems to have been abolished officially ...
The Vagevuurbossen certainly didn't strike us as some unpleasant porch of heaven, on the contrary, they're a nice place for hikers.
Leaving these forests the GR 129 trail enters the Sint-Pietersveld. All of a sudden the area is much more open, but that has everything to do with the presence of a radio broadcasting station and a large number of antennae, making it necessary to keep the grounds free of trees and shrubs.
This area also used to be part of the heath and wilderness lands. However, here the abbey of Sint-Pieters (Saint Peter) in Gent owned the grounds from the early Middle Ages, hence the name.
Around 1830 a businessman from Brugge made a (failed) attempt to start up a sugar factory. Some 20 years later the buildings were used to establish a 'Ecole de Réforme' (Re-education School). For some time they even had a quite successfull sailor's training. When a 'subsidiary' ('succursale') was started, the locals soon called it the 'suckerzoale' (the 'sugar ward'), using the similarly sounding words to refer to the sugar factory. The name prooved to be particularly appropriate when later on orphan and beggar children were accepted. The 'suckerzoale' has long gone, but nearby there's still a Penitentiary Agricultural Center and an Institution for Special Youthcare.
Also in this area, it was king Albert I that in 1923 laid the first stone of the radio-telegraph services. 8 impressive antennae poles with a hight of 284 m. were built to establish communications with the rest of the world. The original poles didn't last long. Some were destroyed by the germans during Worldwar II, some were hit in airplane accidents and one snapped off shortly after construction ... Today one can still see a number of antennae poles with a hight of 120 m., but they're not used anymore. Satellite communications made them redundant.
The installations are now owned by the Ministry of Defense that manages it's own communications center here. It's a military domain and therefore offlimits.
Still in view of the antennae we pass by a nature reserve: the Gulkse Putten. We couldn't see much of it because access is limited to guided tours, and it's well protected by the presence of the military domain. As a consequence the reserve has developed into a quite unique area where rare specimen of flora can still thrive.
The GR trail now makes a wide bend through an agriculture area, leading us towards Doomkerke. The remarkable churchtower that can be seen from far away immediately catches our attention. It was built in the 19th century at the instigation of the parish priest Carolus Doom, which also explains the name of the place.
Opposite the church there's a tavern named New York. It could have been a welcome stop on this hike, but unfortunately it was closed. The name refers to the period of end 19th, beginning 20th century when some 300 inhabitants of Doomkerke (almost 2 out of every 3 !) decided to emigrate to the United States of America. The Antwerp Red Star shipowners company had a very succesful local representative here. It's strange to find a link to our home town in this small and far way hamlet ...
Time now for a new wooded area: the Vorte Bossen. The dialect word 'vort' means wet, rotten. However, the paths that led us through this forest weren't rotten at all. We kept our feet dry all the way to Kruiskerke, another parish of the village of Ruiselede.
We're nearing the end of this hike, but not before having crossed another wooded area: the Hooggoed. 'Hoog' (high) is a term you wouldn't expect in a flat region that only lies at a few meters above sea level. Here we're getting at a staggering hight of 25 m. ! We could almost feel we were walking up to higher grounds..
After this last effort it was time to put an end to this hike. We ended it at the point where the topoguide is describing an itinerary to the center of Aalter. Up to the train station of this little town, it's still another 5 km. hike !| < Prev | Next > |
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