Lumaj wandelt

Intro

Last Thursday we hiked another small part of the long GR 5 trail.
It was going to be a dry and warm day. The weather's been unreliable lately, so we couldn't let that one good day go by. Actually it was almost too hot. Fortunately we found enough shadow along the trail to protect us from the sun. The last 6 – 7 kilometers led us through an open region. Again we were lucky, the weather gods decided to have mercy on us. Clouds chased the sun away, and the forecasted thunderstorms only came late in the evening. All in all we had a lovely hiking day.

Travel information

Bus 427 took us from the center of Antwerpen to the center of Grobbendonk in a little over half an hour.
Bus 540 (to Herentals) stops at the Abbey of Tongerlo and also in the center of Tongerlo. Once we were in Herentals we could continue to Antwerpen by train. Traveltime: a little over one hour.

The hike

(click the picture for more images on Picasa)

The hike started in Grobbendonk where we crossed the river Kleine Nete. A bit further we had to cross the Albert Canal and the E313 highway and that meant we had to walk on a busy traffic road. At the other side we arrived in Bouwel, a small village that has little to offer the visitor, except for a nice little church. Looking at a map we noticed that Bouwel has developed on only one side of the road Grobbendonk – Herenthout. The other side still is a green area. That's because the owners of the Bouwelhof (a small castle) have always managed to keep their properties out of the hands of the housing project developers. That's also why the Bouwelhoeve (a farm) has been rather well conserved on the edge of the village.

We cross the railway track Herentals – Antwerpen and then follow a biker's path for over 1,5 kilometer, running along the track. Upon leaving the railroad we finally also leave the housings. That was about time because at that moment we had been hiking for 4,5 kilometers through a busy urban and industrialised area. Not our idea of a nice hiking trail.
After almost 6 kilometers we passed through Zelle, a hamlet of Herenthout. It's nothing more than a number of big farms. We keep the village of Herenthout to our right and the trail now turns towards Noorderwijk. This is a forested area. Shadow! Along the way we admired the inevitable weekend cottages, living proof of the decades-long lack of land use planning in our country. Only recently things have started to change, but pressure groups and lawsuits now confront the authorities with the mess they've been creating for so long themselves.
Here we also start to notice the first hollow roads. The landscape is no longer completely flat.

We now come in a more open area. The sun shows no mercy and we almost run from one shadow spot to another. The sight of a wooden mill (Hogewegmolen) makes us forget the heat for a moment, but the mill isn't used anymore and its wings can't wave us some coolness.
We start to follow a cycling path that has replaced the old railway line Tilburg – Aarschot. The part Herentals – Aarschot has transported passengers between 1863 and 1959. Until 1999 it was then used for military transports. For a while the path follows the edge of the Warande Castle domain. The castle itself remains invisible.

We enter Noorderwijk, a village belonging to the town of Herentals.  After almost 14 kilometers hiking it's time for a break. We found a terrace and some shadow. Even 1,5 meters from the shadow's edge we still feel how the heat is radiated from the concrete pavement.

The hike continues through the forested area of Olen.
The village Olen is always associated with the 'beer pitcher with 3 handles', a legend about the Emperor Charles V. The original pitcher from which he drank can still be seen ... the only problem is that it can be seen at three different pubs in Olen. Anyway, GR 5 doesn't enter the village, so we're not able to verify which one is the real one. And furthermore you can't verify that without tasting the special Keizer Karel beer ... Belgium and beers !
In the forest we again follow the former railway track. From time to time the trail leaves the cycling path for smaller dirt roads. Unfortunately horse riders have also discovered the unpaved paths and have transformed them into impassable mudpools. How to reconcile everyone's recreational needs?

The last 5 kilometeres of the hike lead us through the open fields towards the abbey of Tongerlo. Except for the hamlet of Oosterwijk there's little or no housings along the way. It's a nice quiet part of the hike. Meanwhile the sky had filled with clouds. Lucky for us. At least we wouldn't be turned into roasted pork chops ...
A last dead straight 2 kilometer long concrete road brings us to the wall surrounding the Abbey of Tongerlo. Behind the wall we see the towers and the buildings of the impressive complex. The abbey (founded in 1130) is open to visitors, you can enter it. The abbey holds the oldest known copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper.
The monks themselves had several famous representatives in their ranks. After Worldwar II father Werenfried van Straaten (nicknamed the 'bacon friar') founded the International Bouworde (Construction Group) wich is a member of Unesco's Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service. Father Antoon Van Clé founded and inspired the Sporta organisation (sports camps for youngsters). Myself I once participated in one of their athletics camps ... 37 years ago.

There is also the wellknown Tongerlo beer. The abbey always had its own brewery, until the Germans dismantled it and confiscated the valuable copper vessels. Only in 1989, through an agreement with a commercial brewery, the Tongerlo beer brand started a new life. The beer is marketed as an 'abbey beer', but it's not one of the famous trappist beers. The reason is that it's not produced in the abbey by the monks themselves.