Saturday 1 August 2015
| Distance (km) | 11 kms | |||
| Distance (time) | 2.5 hrs | |||
| Climb / Descent | 195m / 170m | |||
| Hard / Soft surface | 35% / 65% | |||
| Landscape |
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| Weather |
 27° 3 Bft
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It's not always possible to plan distances the way you want and from Liverdun we can choose to either walk just 11 kms to Pompey or direcly 30 kms to Brin-sur-Seille. The latter we don't feel comfortable with and so we combine a short walking day with moving our base camp to Vic-sur-Seille.
In the morning we pack everything in the car that we park just outside the camping site and we leave walking. First to the railway station and there we pick up the GR5 again. We pass in front of the railway station and arrive at the crossing with traffic lights (the only traffic lights in Liverdun I think) and cross a bridge over....nothing. This was once a bridge over the Marne-Rhine canal but after canalizing the Moselle river this part of the canal became obsolete and ships just passed over the river. The bridge is still there though and it looks a bit peculiar. On the other side of the bridge we turn left and start a gentle climb along the former canal. We're in the forest here which is nice and cool but of course this won't last forever. Where the track leaves the forest there is a slightly shabby looking hut at the left side of the road with a very large and very new caravan and a camper next to it. Four large dogs bound by large chains jump up snarling and barking and I wonder how much would be left of us if one of the chains would break. I whisper to Lupita that this has all signs of a gipsy site. We walk on a bit more and after a curve to the right the gravel track starts to climb. And as I expected: left of the path there are some very large caravans with a couple of fallling apart Mercedes next to it. Furthermore a whole pile of car parts and garbage and some children playing....and a large barb wire fence around it. Indeed, a gipsy camp. We're being stared at as if we're green with 6 legs and we pace up a bit to enter the fieds. The gravel track keeps climing and we know we're heading for the forest in the distance but it is rather warm and the forest is farther than it looks. Once in the forest there is one more large open patch where again the sun seriously burns down, but after the crossing with the Grande Tranchée we are finally in the forest. The gravel track climbs very gently after which it starts descending equally gently. Quite soon the track starts descending more steeply and we hear traffic in the distance. After a final steep part we are at the D657 next to a very ugly apartment block. The GR5 continues straight head to Custines but we want to get back to the car. So we walk along the D657 to Pompey. The town itself is a disappointment: lots of houses, little to do. We turn right into the Rue des Jardins Fleuris and continue until the city hall. This is where the bus stop for the bus to Liverdun is. We walked the last kilometer quite fast in order to make it to the 12:20 bus.....but now we see that they changed the bus schedule 2 weeks ago and now the bus leaves at 12:52. Enough time... We sit down on a bench in the sun and with the very light pavement the light really hurts the eyes. But finally the bus arrives and 10 minutes later we are back at the railway station of Liverdun from where we walk back to the car to drive to Vic-sur-Seille. The camping site in Vic is a bit different. It is in fact just mobile homes next to 2 ponds for day tourism. Since we don't want electricity we are being put next to the ponds. Which sounds nice, but the implies we are in between all the day tourists and we wonder how safe and nice that is. But ok, there is no other camping around here (the camping in Château-Salins was closed already a couple of years ago) and so it will have to do. |
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Download track LivPom.gpx