Lumaj wandelt

Intro:

We're entering the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg which means we've left the belgian part of the GR 5 trail definitely behind us.

The hike follows the Our, a river that makes up the border line between the Grand Duchy and Germany. No endless towing paths here, but winding (sometimes almost adventurous) little tracks along the slopes of the valley. Some steep climbing from time to time is inevitable.

A splendid nature walk making you breath deeply.

Back and forth:

No travel information this time.
We camped in Ouren where we could immediately join the trail in the morning.
At the finish in Kohnenhaff there was another camping ground waiting for us.

The hike:

Some light rain during the night forced us to pack the tent while it was still wet. But we learned our lesson during a previous camping hike, so we had a watertight bag to put it in. Nevertheless it's frustrating to see the sun emerge after having finished all the packing ... The neighbours made it up by offering us a nice cup of coffee, and after picking up the bread rolls we ordered the day before we were all set to go.

(click the picture for the complete series on Picasa)

We're leaving Ouren, cross the river and 1,5 km. further we arrive at the spot where the borders of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and Germany converge. From this point on the hike follows the winding river that is forming the border between the Grand Duchy and Germany for many kilometers. Belgium now definitely lies behind us.
The river is meandering southwards in a beautiful valley. Sometimes it's quite wide, but most of the time it's narrow and steep. Our trail mainly uses little dirt roads going up and down the slopes. Now we're down by the river, then we're walking on top of the surrounding hills enjoying wide open panoramic views. Sometimes the paths are almost adventurous and some tough ascends and descends are hard to avoid in this deeply incised landscape.
From here on we also have to adapt to the new GR signs. In the Grand Duchy you won't find the white / red GR stripes, they're replaced by a yellow circle on a blue background. You'd better know it, otherwise you won't get far on the GR 5 trail. However, the change won't be a problem at all because the signposting along the track is perfect.

Where the three countries meet, there's a little park commemorating the foundation of the European Community with the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The names of the signers - amongst whom figures our illustrious Henri Spaak - are mentioned on a number of big rocks spread over the little park. The EC has been a great project for Europe up untill the 80's - 90's, but nowadays it leaves a bitter taste. The idea that a huge bureaucratic system, far from the common citizen, is ever more steered into a conservative and rightist direction by powerful lobbying organisations, is certainly not what Spaak, Schumann and the other founders had in mind at the time. Combine with that the increasing nationalist trends and a lack of solidarity between the member states, and the result is an inert organisation of little importance to the rest of the world, but within which the inhabitants are confronted  with ever bigger inequality and individualism. Yet, these reflections are not a critic of the European idea in itself. We can only hope that one day (the sooner the better) our politicians will again understand the basic idea and revive it.

During this hike we only meet one little village on the Luxembourg side of the river. But there's not only villages, in the early days there were quite a few watermills in this region. Names such as Tintesmillen (Tintenmühlen) still refer to their presence. At a spot named Kalborn there also used to be one, there was even a dam construction in the river to guide more water towards the mill. When the mill wasn't used anymore, the river dam also got neglected and consequently some natural river inhabitants got into big trouble. The river pearl mussel all but dissapeared because of the deteriorating water quality and the fact that the brown trout also dissapeared. The mussel is depending upon the trout because its seed nestles itself in the gills of the fish to develop. Because the trout didn't succeed in getting over the dam, the mussel lost its incubator. The dam has recently been rebuilt in such a way that the fish still can get through. Furthermore, in the old mill buildings a mussel culture station has been installed. The little animal can get up to 100 years old and is a real water purification station in itself. Each day one mussel purifies 50 l. of water up to 90%!

Something else you'll frequently encounter alongside the river are camping grounds, or should we say camping villages? You'll also notice that the main language spoken on those campings is dutch. The Dutch people are the camping champions of Europe. Camping vans, caravans, tent trailers, ... you can't imagine all the camping equipment they have. The campings are mini-villages where bikes are used to travel between the tent and the sanitary blocks. It's a good thing that the disgusting hygienic conditions of the past have all dissapeared. Nowadays the grounds are clean and a lot of attention is being paid to ecological principles. Older, unadapted campings either have to close down, or have to renovate and adapt to conform to the ever more demanding environmental regulations.

In one of these mini-villages we end our hike: Camping Kohnenhaff is a true children's paradise. The quiet undeep Our river, wide open grassy playgrounds, icecream and a kids animation team ... that's all the youngsters need to spend a wonderful vacation time here.
Our little tent amidst all those camping palaces around us doesn't go unnoticed. A little guy comes and asks us where our caravan is. How to explain that a caravan is too heavy to tow when you're on foot, especially to a kid that only knows a car as its means of transportation? Luckily for us the parents come to our rescue and the rest of the evening we exchange our camping adventures.