Lumaj wandelt

Intro

Regular visitors to our website will have noticed that we're not easily labeling our hikes as fantastic or wonderful. In Flanders we're already happy if we can say a hike was quite nice.
But this time it was different! The hike Tongerlo - Testelt on the GR 5 is really a wonderful hike. We hope our report will convince you too.

Travel information

We took a train from Antwerpen to Herentals. From there we went on by bus to the abbey of Tongerlo. Travel time: one hour.
We had planned to end the hike in Averbode (after 16 kilometers). The railway website had indicated a bus service that would take us from Averbode to Aarschot. There we could take a train to Antwerpen. However, having arrived in Averbode we learned that the bus service was not available in the weekend. There is an on-call bus available, but you have to make a reservation at least two hours in advance ... too late for us. So we decided to continue the hike to Testelt. There we could take a local train to Aarschot.

The hike

We had planned to pay a visit to the Abbey of Tongerlo, because we were especially curious about that oldest known copy of Da Vinci's Last Supper. Unfortunately the museum of the abbey only opened at 1 pm ... But even without that masterpiece you can wander around the place and get a good idea of what it's all about.  What we still fail to understand is how an organisation based on the ethical principles of unselfishness, sharing and sobriety, manages to be one of the world's richest enterprises (and we're not referring to their spiritual riches).

(click the picture for more images on Picasa)

Still brooding on the question we leave the abbey and join the GR 5 trail.
A little over a kilometer further we enter the forests of Westerlo. A straight path takes us through the Beeltjens pine wood and over the first 'mountain' we get to see in this area: the Asberg. It's nothing more than a hight of some 10 meters in the middle of the forest. The locals used to call it the Alverenberg, the mountain of the elfs, which adds a nice magic touch to it.

Gradually the pine wood becomes a hardwood forest. We're now in the lower and moist area around the river Grote Nete. This is the Kwarekken forest. The trail follows the winding river for a few kilometers. This is a beautiful part of the hike. Nature thrives here and does its best to show us all it can do.

After having crossed the N19 (Westerlo – Aarschot) road GR 5 still follows the river but now the environment is completely different. On the other side of the river lies the 60 hectares domain of the Merode Castle. Chronicles mention the presence of a fortress from 1066 on. You'll notice some quite impressive ancient trees while you walk on. At a given moment we're standing right in front of the castle, behind us the remains of a long-stretched mirror lake. The views from the castle must be superb.

We're leaving the river and walking along an artificial cave built for the devotion of the Mother Mary we're heading for Bergom. For a while we're back in an open rural area, but once we've passed Bergom we enter the forest domain of Hertberg. We won't leave these pine woods for the next 3 kilometers.
The next village on the trail is Blauwberg. GR 5 stays out of the center, but we decide to walk up to the church in search of a place for a break. We're lucky, café De IJzer has a terrace where we can bask in the sun.
This is a lovely place. The church is situated in a large open green space. Some trees offer their welcome shadow for the warm days. It's good to see that they didn't give in to the trend to replace the grass by a sterile concrete square (at least not for now).
A small statue next to the church reminds us of Alfons Jozef de Ridder, better known by his writer's name Willem Elsschot. Meeting the guy here is quite a surprise to us. He lived in Antwerpen, but as a youngster he regularly came here and stayed with an uncle who owned a grocery store in the village. At the time youngsters used to wander about, and he became particularly fond of a swampy area somewhere between Blauwberg and Veerle: the Helmschot, also called Elsschot. That's how one of the greatest Flemish writer's names was born. The name won't mean a thing to foreigners, but in the dutch language he's considered a monument. The little statue, inaugurated in 1990, is called 'Kaas' (Cheese), referring to the title of one of his novels. It represents the main character Laarmans, seated on a ball of cheese ... a bit modern for our liking, but never mind.

Without noticing it we now leave the province of Antwerpen and enter Vlaams-Brabant. We're back in a forest. This time it's called the Averbodes Forest. We start meeting bikers and other hikers, which shouldn't come as a surprise because we're heading for a popular recreational destination: the abbey of Averbode and the famous icecream stands. It happens to be Monument's Day and the place is even more hectic then it usually is. In the abbey there are free guided tours, but we just take a quiet stroll around the inner court and pay a short visit to the baroque church. Like the abbey of Tongerlo where we started this hike, Averbode also belongs to a Norbertines congregation, but here they are specialised in the printing and publishing business. If you studied at a catholic school in Flanders it's impossible not to have gotten in touch with their books and magazines.

A lesser known place, right next to the abbey, is the Park of Mary. It was built in 1935 and once attracted thousands of visitors. It's been neglected for many years and now it looks like a bewildered romantic park. Nevertheless we highly recommend you to take a walk through the park. Strange constructions, statues and scenes take you back into time.
Averbode also reminds us of Felix Timmermans (sorry, that must be Ernest Claes), another writer whom we'll meet further up the trail. His grave can be found against the wall surrounding the abbey, and in the village there's a statue of the young Ernest as a drummer in the local music band.

After all the religious sightseeing we couldn't resist the famous icecream stands in the 'licking avenue'. Many years ago a farmer started producing his own icecream in the traditional way with fresh quality products. He started selling his icecream near the entrance to the abbey. Soon others followed his example and now people come from all over the place for a 'lick'. Try it, you won't regret it.
Later on we thought we had reached the end of our hike in the center of Averbode. We had found a terrace and were enjoying a tasty beer. We had written down when the bus was due. Normally it would arrive 20 minutes later. Why I did it I'm not sure but I felt like double checking the information at the bus stop itself. To my surprise it turned out that the stop was not serviced during the weekend! The railroad website had given us the wrong information. The only possibility to get away from the place was the on-call bus, or an expensive taxi ... The on-call bus was no option. You have to call for a reservation at least two hours in advance, and on top of that the call center closes early in the weekend. Rather than having to spend our money on a private taxi, we decided to add another 5 kilometers to our hike. That way we could reach a train station at Testelt. All we had to do was follow the white/red signs because Testelt is the next reference point on the GR 5 trail.

We left Averbode on foot and soon were walking on the edge of the swampy Vierkensbroek nature reserve. An hour later we reached the railway track and the river Demer. GR 5 doesn't enter Testelt, so we left the trail and continued towards the village center. The train station is on the other side and fortunately there were trains passing in the weekend.