The sun is shining but with only 4°C it’s cold when I leave my car at a parkinglot on the edge of the village Epen in the very south of the Netherlands, the hills of South Limburg. Going around the corner this days’ hike starts with a hollow road which ends in front of a vakwerkhuis. A few minutes later I’m walkin through fields with a stunning view in front of me. Two other hikers make their way across the fields in the distance and I linger a bit to let them disappear. I like to walk alone.
Hollow Road
After a short walk on a roadside. Cross a bridge, turn left and find myself on a narrow and muddy path that leads me through fields northwards along the river Geul.
The Geul is the best known river in South Limburg. It has its source in Germany, is 56km long and flows also through a part of Belgium. Due to the large difference in altitude, 242 meter at beginning and end, it is the quickest flowing river in the Netherlands.
It’s only been a few months since this now calmy flowing river flooded large parts of the region I’m walking in due to heavy rainfall, destroying everything on its path. Today nothing reminds of those horrible days and I am treated on spectacular views on a gorgeous sunny day.
After an hour I arrive at Mechelen and decide to treat myself on coffee and a piece of ‘kersenvlaai’, cherry pie in Limburg, on a sunny terrace. Temperature is slowly rising!
Leaving Mechelen the path leads me through a series of meadows and fields again. I hear churchbells in the distance and come across a family of curious cows who I quietly pass.
The Elzetter Forest appears in the distance and I am reminded to keep my focus on my navigation when I miss the narrow path on the right at a crossroad and take the wide road on the left. I have to turn back.
The walk through the forest is wonderful. The tall trees on this hillside forest are starting to change color, the leaf covered path up and down is sometimes challenging and the silence is overwhelming. This is what I came here for.
After leaving the forest a steep, narrow and hollowed out path leads me back down to the fields along the Geul, this time further south and southwards close to the Belgium border. The fields are muddy and I sink almost ankle deep into it, but I manage to keep my feet dry.
Where a small bridge crosses the river the path leads back northwards in the direction of Epen. In my case this included a little detour due to me being distracted.
Finally on the right track again I come across the Volmolen, a watermill, built in the 17th century and rebuild in 1880 after being destroyed by fire.
A walk across fields and meadows leads me back to Epen where the hollow path that was the beginning of this beautiful hike brings me back to my car.
This is a long post about the first hike in September 2020, but to me this tough hike represents the turning point in a very difficult period in my life, a point where I finally started to get out of my head. So it deserves some attention.
Puy de Peyre Arse
When my brother, SIL and I went on (a corona proof) vacation to France in september 2020 I hadn’t read a book that year at all. Being an avid reader that means something is not okay and one of my goals in France beside getting my head clear was to start reading again. The first book on my list was ‘Wild’ by Cheryl Strayed. Wild is the story of a young woman who goes on a 1700 km solo hike on the Pacific Crest Trail in the USA when she is at the lowest point of her life. It’s a hellish journey, emotional and physical, with a big and heavy backpack (aptly called Monster), but in the end it has made her stronger than she ever was before. Although I hadn’t finished the book at that time it already helped me during the first hike: the Tour de Peyre Arse. A medium difficult hike, as the description said, but I’m not sure I want to know what a difficult hike is after this day ….
A Puy is a mountain of vulcanic origin and the Puy de Peyre Arse in the Auvergne is one of the highest mountains of the Monts du Cantal, with the summit at 1806 mtr.
The starting point of the 15 km trail is at the Col de Serre at an altitude of 1364 mtr. The trail starts at the Nature Station with an easy 3 km path, gradually climbing to the Col d’Eylac at 1460 mtr, parallel to the main road. It was a nice day, sun was shining, sky was blue and the surroundings amazing, simply a great day for a hike…..
Follow trail 41
And then there was a gate…… And everything changed once we got through it…..
The path on the other side of the gate was completely different. It was small and steadily going uphill along the slopes of the Puy Mary. The mountain side was on the right and to the left we had an amazing view on the Vallee de l’Impradine.
It was also a slippery, muddy path, wet from being in the shadow at the northeast side of the mountain and I remember thinking I was glad we were going up since going down seemed tricky. Little did I know what we were up to later that day.
La Vallée de l’Impradine
Gradually the path got wider and lead us to the ‘Brèche de Roland’ , a break between the Puy Mary (1783mtr) and the Puy de Peyre Arse (1806 mtr) at approximately 1600 mtr.
Walking over the ridge between the two mountains, with the spectacular views at the Vallee de la Jordanne on the right and the Vallee de l’Impradine on left side of it was awesome and gave an overwhelming feeling. It felt like standing on top of the world.
Vallée de la Jordanne
Vallée de l’Impradine
From the Brèche de Roland the Puy de Peyre Arse was right in front of us. The path towards the summit was steep, rocky, got smaller when we climbed higher and disappeared altogether when a big rock made it impossible to go further. The only way was to go back and take an almost invisible foot width ‘path’ on the west side of the mountain. It took us 1 hour to cover the 1,5 km ‘path’ from the Brèche de Roland to reach a wide spot about 10 meters under the summit.
Resting place at the Puy de Peyre Arse
We used that place to take a break, eat a bit and enjoy the spectacular sight. Meanwhile we looked for the path at the other side of the mountain that would lead us downward to the Col de Cabre, and found out there was no path! At least not the first meters. The only way to go downhill was to let yourself slide down, holding a trekkingpole in one hand and holding on to whatever there was to hold on to with the other hand.
After 20 meters a small, rocky path became visible, which lead us downhill to the Col de Cabre (1528 mtr) and then to the left through the Vallee de la Santoire, which finally seemed a flat part, seen from above.
Vallée de la Santoire
The path down reminded me of the first part of the path of the Samaria Gorge on Crete, a steep downhill path which takes 2,5 hours to cover. Big difference with the current path: on Crete there was a fence to hold on to and it was at the beginning. Here in the Cantal mountains there was no fence and this part of the trail came at the end. It was a constant struggle to stay upright, to find the best part to put your feet and avoid slipping away.
Seen from above I thought it would get easier once we had arrived at the Col de Cabre and go left through the valley, but boy was I wrong! It only got harder. If you think going uphill is hard, try going downhill in 45° angle when you’re tired and your legs burn and scream for a rest and it seems like to go on forever ….
Two hours (and 4 km) after we left the summit of the Puy de Peyre Arse we arrived at a very small village, La Gravière. From there it was only 4 km back to the car, but it was late afternoon and we were tired. We also knew that it would take at least 1 1/2 hour to walk the 4 km to the car. We decided to try to get a taxi back to the Col de Serre. Luckily a few locals (somehow I think it was the mayor) were sitting chatting on a bench in the town square. You should have seen their faces when I asked (hurray for french classes in highschool) where we could call for a taxi. A taxi??!! Non non, not available in this part of the region, and letting one come from a larger place would be way too expensive. But, these friendly people came with another solution: one of the inhabitants had a squad and could bring one of us to the car on the Col de Serre who could then return to pick up the others. Guess who was the lucky one to drive with the man? Yup, since I was the only one who speaks french, I would go with him. Luckily the squad was not the four wheel thing where you sit behind the driver, but a mini-pickup. That being said, the whole route to the Col de Serre was uphill and the small vehicle was groaning and puffing and it even smelled like something was burning. But…. we got safely to our car and I returned to the village to pick up the others.
In hindsight the trail was too much for us and we should have chosen a less difficult one. But although we may not have finished the whole trail (better safe than sorry) we did what we did. It doesn’t come close to what Cheryl Strayed achieved with her journey on the PCT, but it was an amazing adventure. And more important, this hike helped me the way her journey helped her: this difficult trail let me focus so intense on what I was doing that I forgot the worries and troubles. I slowly started to find myself back again and this hike was the beginning ……
Before January is coming to an end I’ll take some time to look back on 2020. That year was probably the darkest year of my life, and NOT because of Covid. As I wrote in a previous blog our family was confronted with severe mental health issues of our son in 2020 and we are still (trying to) deal with it. Trying, because after all these months I still struggle with it enormously.
I also wrote that I felt we were slowly climbing out to the light. Well I was wrong, we hadn’t hit rockbottom at all! It got worse and made us feel pretty desperate.
I’m grateful for all the help he gets from care givers these past months, but as a parent we feel a bit left out in the proces. I’ve always tried to lend an ear to whatever problem my children had and this situation was no exception. But to listen to the same story, worries and troubles over and over again is a whole new thing. How to handle suspicion and anger, doubts about therapy and his own mental abilities? What to say when the other one doesn’t want to live anymore? And how to behave when there is someone in your house who hardly speaks and shows nothing but anger?
Photo: Google
The whole situation took its toll on me and I knew I needed to do something about it to prevent me falling apart. And although it wasn’t easy I decided to literally leave everyone behind and go to France in September for a corona-proof hiking vacation with my brother and SIL.
I have a professional person with whom I talk once or twice a month about all the troubles and he already told me I needed to distance from the situation by claiming more time for myself but that is easier said than done when you all live in the same house. Going to France however would literally mean creating distance between me and the ‘problem’ and I knew hiking could give me more peace of mind.
It turned out to be THE BEST decision of 2020. I will tell about the hikes in other blogs but they did what I hoped they would, I got out of my head and found peace of mind again, and it rekindled my passion for walking.
Puyde Peyre Arse(Auvergne)
In hindsight the whole situation at home has taught me a lot about (dealing with) mental illlness and about myself. We’re not even close to an end to this situation and it’s not easy to realise that he can’t always control the anger and suspicion and that it simply happens to him but by distancing myself mentally I can handle it better. That doesn’t mean distancing from the person but from the situation and there are a few things that help me.
I use mindfulness to delve into memories that give me a good feeling, reliving them almost from hour to hour and thus taking my mind away from the worries. The roadtrip to Scotland in 2016 with friends I met on Twitter has been an anchor that helped me through the darkest moments. Long walks, usually on Sundays, help me boost my energy and clear my mind, while enjoying nature’s beauty. I also read a lot, listen to music from my youth (going down memory lane) and try to make time for creative hobby’s.
Furthermore I learned how important it is to talk about it with other people . I’m grateful to have family, friends and people at work who I can trust outside of my family at home. Especially the chats with far away but very close friends help me on a daily basis. Sharing my troubles with them doesn’t solve the problem, but helps to make the burden less heavy.
Last Sunday I went for a walk. Not the first time this year and it reminds me that I need to post some photos and info from my other walks this year (I wanted to write a blog after each walk but so far that didn’t work out).
The walk felt a bit strange. I usually go out on my own for a walk on Sunday and last Sunday was no exception to it. What made it different was the fact that I was wondering if I will be allowed to go out for a Sundaywalk the following week also.
In this troubled and worrying time, with the Corona virus spreading globally around, I already try to avoid most and close contact with other people outside of my family, but I think there are way more measures necessary to keep the threat contained. The time for appeal to common sense is over, we need clear decisions and vigor. With my husband (severe COPD) and my mother (heartcondition) in the high risk group I get very angry when people keep saying it’s just like the flu and keep doing what they always do.
My walk last Sunday was a nice one, through The Malpie, a region with wet heather and fens. Let’s hope I can soon walk there again with a less heavy mind and soul.
At the moment we’re still allowed to go out and I will be walking tomorrow. Walk while I have the freedom to do it.
When Walking Peakers join for a walk somewhere in the Netherlands usually the host of that day has walked the route before and knows a bit about the region we’re walking in. But a few weeks ago our host had to cancel her guiding due to personal reasons. We decided to walk anyway, only had to come up with an alternative route in short time. Since I live close to the province we were supposed to go for our walk (Limburg) I decided to see what I could come up with. I found a route that sounded promising but had no time to check out for myself. In the end there were three of us who met at the starting point near Afferden for a 12 km walk in Nature Park De Maasduinen. The weathergods blessed us with a day without rain and a nice temperature and it turned out to be a beautiful and surprising walk.
De Maasduinen is a region with dunes stretching out along de river Maas in the north of the province Limburg. The course of the river, the wind and mankind are resposible for the way it looks these days.
Our walk took us through woods of oaks and pines, over the heather (which didn’t bloom anymore at his time of the year) and of course through dunes. The views were breathtaking, fall showed its beauty in many colors and we were so flabbergasted by the abundance of enormous mushrooms that we called this ‘The Mushroom Walk’.
Since we were such a small group this time and because we had a weekend without walking on our walkingcalendar we decided to plan this route again at the end of november to give others a chance to join in. No need to say that I don’t mind at all!!
This time 3 weeks ago I was on the eve of a long awaited and highly anticipated journey, walking the West Highland Way with my oldest son. Sadly it didn’t go as planned. I had to stop after walking 4 days and 96 km due to painful knee issues. It was a tough decision, and my son and I were both very disappointed. Since all our accomodations were booked we decided to stay in Scotland and make the best of our time while being there.
It took some time to get over the disappointment and appreciate what we did accomplish. We walked 96 km, mostly on tough terrain, often wondering if we had missed a sign because there seemed to be no path at all. (Well, we actually did miss a sign on the last day, but that was due to bad weather.) We saw amazing vistas, and I’m so very happy I took the time to take pictures, even when pain was dominating the fourth day. They will make a great photobook. We met nice people, had nice chats and enjoyed tasty food. And although it was raining a lot after we officially ended our walk, we were able to explore the surroundings where our accomodations were on short walks. After all Scotland’s beauty is everywhere.
And who knows, maybe the way this journey ended was a sign. A sign to show me I hadn’t be true to myself. That I was focussed too much on the goal instead of the journey from the beginning, despite everything I had said about it. I joined My Peak Challenge in 2017 mainly because of the charity part and setting goals or challenges were not my thing, like I wrote in a previous blog. And yet I let myself get tempted to set a challenge, because when I’m really honest to myself, that is what this was, a challenge. I should have known better and stayed closer to myself, to who I am: someone who takes life and its events as it comes. Life itself offers enough challenges without me adding an extra one.
So here I am, I managed to walk halfway the West Highland Way, from Milngavie to Tyndrum creating beautiful memories along that path, no one can take that away! And who knows, maybe I can walk the remaining kilometers next year. If not, well, so be it. Que sera sera!
Finally the day I have been looking forward to for so long has arrived. In only 7 hours my son and I will be on our way to Scotland. And on Wednesday our longdistance walk will begin: Walking the West Highland Way from Milngavie to Fort William. Suitcases and backpacks are packed, and boarding passes are ready.
When I started writing this blog I was in a not so happy mindset, a lot of negative and bad things had happened, and had taken a lot of my joy and excitement away. As simple as they were the items I wrote about helped me to get that back. This little written journey towards my big journey showed me again why I chose to do this and what I was looking forward to: finally return to Scotland and enjoy the beautiful scenery of one of the most amazing places there, the Scottish Highlands. And so excitement is building. And with it also came a little bit fear. Will I really be able to do this, will my body allow me to complete this journey. I always say we can do more than we think and age is just a number. Will I be able to prove I’m right? Well, there is no turning back now, and even if there was I would never do it. And I guess it’s normal to get a bit scared shortly before a dream comes true, like this quote states:
Only 5 days to go and I’ll be on my way to Scotland, to walk the West Highland Way. A little over 200 days ago I definitely booked everything necessary for this walk and have since then gathered the equipment I need for this journey.
The first thing I did, after deciding to walk the whole Way, was to buy a good pair of walking/hiking shoes. After excellent examination and advise in specialised store Het Loopcentrum in Horst (Limburg) (https://www.hetloopcentrum.nl/wandelen/ ) I came home with a pair of shoes that fit like a glove, and combined with good socks they have so far taken me many kilometers without pain or blisters. Gradually also other equipment founds its way to our home. A decent backpack, walkingtrousers, raingear and various clothing amongst others. And of course books and maps.
When I told my kids about my plan I could never have expected that I would end up booking the trip not only for myself but for a plus one as well. A few days after my announcement my oldest son came up to me and said he wanted to join me on that walk. It nearly blew me off my feet when I heard it! Although both my kids have always been active in sports (judo, soccer) and my oldest son always had a job that is fysical straining, long walks were definitely not their greatest hobby. And now one of them wanted to walk 154 km!
Photo: Google
His explanation was that he had been thinking of his youth lately (he’s 26 at the moment) and especially of our holidays in France. We all have great memories of those vacations on a campsite near Castellane in the south of France, but somehow every year there was more than one day where things didn’t go smooth, easy and relaxed, and to be honest often he was to blame for it. The journey by car took too long, some of last year’s friends weren’t there, he didn’t like what was on the menu and so on. It left him grumpy and angry, me frustrated and angry and more than once I threatened to go home if he didn’t change his attitude. In the end we always stayed, and had great vacations. Fact is that he always came to apologise and, knowing my children, I know his apology was honest. Somehow certain situations left him out of control over his emotions and reason, causing him to get angry, yell and say things he didn’t mean. It took quite a few years for him to learn to deal with it. And with it came realisation that certain things can’t be undone.
Now, at the age of 26, and hearing my plan, he thought a lot of those moments. How he regrets to have ‘ruined’ one or more days every vacation and that he can never change that. And although I told him that growing up is never easy for children AND parents, and that we knew this when we became parents, he wanted to join me on this walk to create a joyful memory to look back on for both of us. His explanation moved me deeply. But, as touching as it was, I gave him time to think it over until November. In November I would start looking for an organisation to book a tour and if he still wanted to come with me at that time we would go together.
And we will go together! He didn’t change his mind, he got more determined to go. Looked things up on the internet about the West Highland Way, saw the beautiful photos from other walkers and got more and more enthusiastic. So, almost 200 days ago, I booked the tour for both of us, arranged flighttickets to Glasgow and transfer from and to the airport when we are in Scotland. And after that we got all the necessary equipment for him as well. We also went for long walks together in the neighbourhood. Not exactly the same conditions as in the Highlands, but determination and persistance to do this are just as important. And now we are both counting down untill we will finally be on our way next Tuesday.
I went out for a walk yesterday. Normally I have a plan where I want to go but this time I went without one. I decided to go where my feet wanted to take me, and let it be all about the journey, not the goal!
It was supposed to be a short walk, an hour and a half or so, but turned out into a 20km hike through woods and on the moor of the Strabrechtse Heide. Luckily I always take my backpack with me, just in case. As usual after a few kilometers I found my pace and what I call ‘adjustment to the world around me’, paying closer attention to whatever comes along and on my way, buildings, paths and nature.
Some years ago I followed a workshop Mindfullness. I was having issues with chronic hyperventilation at that time, and was looking for ways to treat it. Yoga helped me with it, but I heard about the benefit of mindfullness and was curious to learn more about that as well.
In short mindfullness means to be in the ‘now’. Not thinking of the past, not about the future, but focus on what happens right this moment, what you do, what you see, where you are. I was hooked right from the beginning. It helped me not only to get the hyperventilation under control, it became a tool to relax and find inner peace when I felt nervous or restless. Mindfullness requires no special equipment or place, it can be practiced in every situation, at home, at work, in a crowd or when alone. For me it works fantastic, especially in times of tension and anxiety, but also during my walks.
Weeds along the way
Walking in a mindfull way has taught me that there is so much more to see around me than I see at first glance. The great views, many colors of green, the changing pattern and colors of the sky. Even weeds are beautiful when you pay more attention to it.
Today I walked some new paths and some familiar ones. But the familiar ones looked new as well, now that I was walking them in a different season. Different flowers were blooming, grasses grew so high they were blooming too, and formerly bare trees now wore green leaves.
Memorial stone for the crew of the bomber that crashed here in WWII
On my way I also passed memorials of WWII. One was a stone with a plate to remember the crew of bomber that crashed there in August 1942.
The other one is the foundation of a hidingplace in the woods where 30 men hid from December 1943 untill September 1944. They hid in ‘Kamp Dennenlust’, as it was called, initially to prevent to be taken to Germany for ‘Arbeitseinsatz’, but later fighting as partisans. Also pilots who were crashed found a temporary refuge here. People from the small village Moorsel, where I had lunch today, secretly brought food if any was available. To see the remains of this camp and imagine how it must have been for them to live there, I realised once more how fortunate I am to be able to walk here in freedom.
Walks in these woods and on the moor are always peaceful and quiet, noises of daily life inaudible. The wind in the trees, singing birds, crickets and my own footsteps are the only sounds I hear. And this time a choir of froggs welcomed me when I came out of the woods and entered the moor. So funny. A few cyclists, walkers and a horserider were the only other people I met on my way.
After 4 1/2 hour I returned home, physically tired but happy, mentally refreshed and with enough energy to face another week. It was a great journey!
What started as an hour walk to stay in shape and stay fit after surgery, gradually became longer walks, exploring different parts of my hometown. It’s amazing how much you discover on a walk in a place you live for almost 30 years. Walking not only takes you to different roads, streets and paths than you would normally do by car or bike, but because of the different angles and viewpoints it gives you new and unexpected views! I discovered my hometown and its surroundings in whole new and surprisingly beautyiful way. My appreciation of my hometown has definitely grown!
In June 2018 I watched an episode of The Adventure Show (BBC2) “Take a Hike – The story of Scottish Walking” where host Cameron McNeish, a well known hillwalker and author of “There’s always the hills”, was joined by actor Sam Heughan on a hike in the Scottish Highlands. The two men hiked in winterconditions, showing the beauty of the Highlands, but in this episode Cameron also showed parts of hikes in summerconditions and one of them was The West Highland Way. I had heard of this famous longdistancewalking path in Scotland before, but seeing the fantastic scenery and because of my latest passion, I got completely hooked on the idea of seeing it with my own eyes. My wish and dream of visiting Scotland suddenly revived.
I searched the internet for information and what was necessary to walk the WHW and slowly started making plans to go there myself. My initial plan was to go there and walk the first 3 days of the route, mainly along Loch Lomond, and asked if my brother and sister in law were interested to come with me. Both were, but had to cancel due to important events in the period I wanted to go there. I decided to go anyway, but also started thinking of walking the whole 154 km, instead of a short part now and the following part in another year. Who knows what might happen in between, I might never be able to go back to finish, leaving me with eternal regrets. My hubby, who supported me from the moment I told him about my intention to walk a part of the route, had only one thing to say when I told him about my plan to walk the entire route: “if you think you can, you should do it!”
And so, after our vacation on Crete in September 2018, I told my family I would go to Scotland in 2019 to walk the West Highland Way!
In June 2017 hubby and I spent our first vacation on the beautiful Greek island Crete. We explored most of the island by car and discovered the ancient sites and its beautiful nature. Our travelagency also offered excursions by bus, one of which was a trip to the Imbros Gorge, a popular gorge for walkers.
An 8 km rocky path descends from 600 meter above sealevel, almost to the coast of the Libian Sea. The gorge is not really steep, but pretty narrow (2 meters at one point) and offers a wide variety of flowers. I took my time to enjoy the wonderful world of the gorge and loved every minute of that hike! I wanted to do more of that!
That same year we went back to Crete, together with my brother and sister-in-law, and this time on top of my to-do list was hiking the Samaria gorge!
The Samaria gorge, a 16 km pretty steep rocky path going down from 1230 meters above sealevel direct to the coast of the Libian Sea, is definitely more difficult than the Imbros gorge! But so worth it and its beauty is amazing!
It took us 6 hours to get to the coast, and I won’t say that I wasn’t glad when we finally saw the sea, but this hike gave me so much energy, I didn’t even feel the pain in my shins and feet! The only thing I thought of was to do more of this stuff!
In october 2018 hubby and I went to Crete for the third time. No gorge to hike down this time, but 137 meters going up to an old Venetian fort on Gramvousa. Not such a spectacular hike, but since it was part of an excursion, it needed to be done in limited time. However, it felt great and the views from the top were amazing.
Meanwhile I participated in the Munro Step Challenge of My Peak Challenge and managed to complete the whole list of munrosteps while we were on Crete.
Take a walk! 