Thursday 17 May 2012
| Distance (km) | 14 kms | |||
| Distance (time) | 5 hrs | |||
| Climb / Descent | 491m / 346m | |||
| Hard / Soft surface | 70% / 30% | |||
| Landscape |
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| Weather |
 21° 3 Bft
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Early in the morning we drive from home to Ettelbruck but we first have to find ourselves a map. At home I couldn't find the proper topografic map and I don't like leaving without it though getting lost in Luxembourg is hard to do. The Cactus supermarket along the road from Ettelbruck to Diekirch has nothing and from earlier experience I know that it makes little sense to search in Ettelbruck itself and so we drive to Diekirch. Just hopping in and out of the downtown and indeed at the tourist info they have exactly the maps I was looking for. Unfortunately it's not so practical to park the car for several days in Diekirch so we have to return to Ettelbruck where we can park at the large free parking area next to the sports centre. With the bagpacks on we walk to the railway station where we take the train to Diekirch. We just keep going up and down today, but close to 12:30 we finally are with the backpacks and without car in Diekirch.
From the railway station we walk to the bridge over the Sure river, cross it and then walk through Gilsdorf towards the church where the Maurice Cosyn trail starts that also happens to be the GR5. In Luxembourg the different sections of the GR5 have names and the section from here to Echternach is the Maurice Cosyn trail. Not signposted with the white/red GR sign, but with a yellow circle on a blue background. Strange... At the church in Gilsdorf we're being chased by a stray dog but apparently it doesn't have too much energy to waste on us. We climb along the tarmac road leaving the village and even before the last houses we leave the road and turn left onto a trail straight up against the hillside. With hardly a kilometer in our legs and the sun starting to burn we immediately puff and sweat. But the climb ends as sudden as it started, because at the top we arrive at a gravel road going into the forest....and flat. Further on in the forest it climbs a bit but that is hardly worth mentioning. Where we leave the forest the path dives down to cross a stream at 225m altitude. We can already see the village of Eppeldorf on the other side and though it seems it is quite a climb from the stream to the village it is actually not that bad. The only thing is, the village is not the highest point: the path keeps climing until just over 400m altitude before it enters a forest again. The track now rapidly descends to another stream and it is slipping and sliding to get down there in one piece. From here we walk gently down the stream to Beaufort. At the bridge in Beaufort we enter the village. It is Ascension Day today so everything is closed and there are hardly any tourists. We walk to camping site La Plage, and indeed also the camping is less than half full. We doubt for a moment whether we should cook ourselves or try the Portuguese restaurant next to the entrance, but finally decide to cook today. |
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Download track GilBea.gpx