Belgium
High fen, Ardennes and a route that touches three countries.
Belgium repays the detour. In the far east lies the Hautes Fagnes, a raised bog plateau with a climate of its own: cold, wet and windy, with heather, peat pools and the country's last capercaillie. From there the streams descend into the Ardennes, the wooded heart of the south: rolling plateaus cut into deep valleys by rivers like the Ourthe, the Semois and the Amblève, castles on rocks and slate villages beneath them. Further north the land turns sandier and quieter: the Kempen, with their heathland, pine forest and small lakes. Walking through that landscape means walking old paths by default: cart tracks, pilgrimage ways and railway lines now shared by today's walkers and yesterday's traders. The Venntrilogie crosses 109 kilometres and six stages through the East Cantons, the German-speaking east of the country. It starts at the point where Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany meet, runs across the plateau of the Hautes Fagnes with the country's highest ground at Botrange, and descends past the Bayehon waterfall into the valleys of the Warche, the most Ardennes-like part, towards Reinhardstein castle and the lakes of Robertville and Bütgenbach. Three languages alternate along the way, just like the landscape.
