Wednesday 28 May 2014
| Distance (km) | 18 kms | |||
| Distance (time) | 4.5 hrs | |||
| Climb / Descent | 584m / 529m | |||
| Hard / Soft surface | 15% / 85% | |||
| Landscape |
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| Weather |
 18° 5 Bft
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Today we have to do some serious climbing so we don't mind that much that it's overcast in the morning. We drive to Stavelot and park the car along the main road from Trois-Pont to Malmedy at bus stop "Les Ecoles". Here we catch bus 294 to Verviers until the village Tiege were we step out. Then, 11 minutes later, we grab bus 295 to the railway station in Spa. That is all going smoothly. We were warned in advance that the bus system in Wallonne is more disfunctional than functional but that is not our experience. True, buses have irregular time tables and sometimes villages are only served 2-3 times a day, but the buses do go on time and connect well.
So totday we start at the railway station in Spa and we walk back to where we left the GR5 yesterday. We pass the casino and walk up the road to the church. We keep climbing in a rather straight line while we leave Spa again. The route enters the forest and ends up at a small stream. Would that be the same stream we followed yesterday? Could be.... It's a great trail along the stream up into the forest. We have to cross the stream a few times with small wooden bridges. But finally we leave the stream and just continue in the forest: first over a forest path, later over a long straight track. After a while we kind of leave the forest following a long straight track and we see an information panel on Fagne de Malchamps (Malchamps Moors). Here we enter the moors, a complately different landscape. First we follow a gravel path and later we have boardwalks zigzagging over the moors. It's chilly up here but it's great to see a different landscape. After passing the information centre Berinzenne it becomes a bit more foresty again while we walk over a long straight track. We now descend and leave Fagne de Malchamps. The track is eroded a lot by rain water and though the descent is not so steep it's a tricky walk. Somewhat to our suprise we arrive at a tarmac road and we see houses. This cannot be Ruy already? Well, no, it is Andrimont, still high up in the valley. We have to follow the tarmac road a bit until the last houses of Andrimont where we turn right and descend through the fields to Ruy, all the way down in the valley. High time for a lunch break and to exchange day pack and camera like any other day. In Ruy there is nothing, so after eating a few muesli bars we leave. We cross the stream and directly start climbing again. The views to the right are great and the climb is actually not that bad. We had to wait for an old stray dog messing around on the first tarmac road we cross. Probably he's mostly harmless but waiting for him at about 10 metres distance to mess a bit further on is the easiest solution. The GR5 keeps climbing to Exbomont and further until suddenly we're at the top. There is a sign with the altitude (exactly 500m) and the path now becomes a wide and flat track. And muddy! Always funny that here the vallets are dry and the summits are wet. But no problem, the track is wide so we can easily overcome the mud. But the more and more we progress the path is getting narrower and in the end it's completely overgrown with yellow broom and very muddy. It takes some effort to keep on track here but at some point we enter the forest again and things get easier. It's high time we start descending and straight ahead we can already see the valley of Stavelot. But by the time the track leaves the forest to descend we turn right into a slightly climbing path. That doesn't last long and we turn left again going down in a straight line. Not steep, but seriously descending. Further down we follow a small stream and on the other side of the stream a tarmac forest road where we end up. Here the GR5 makes a funny loop: we have to go left over and down along the crash barrier and then go into a very small little tunnel that we share with the stream. My loving wife completely doesn't like this, but hey, this is how the route goes. Moreover she doesn't see that well in the dark and we didn't bring a head light. So I go first and grab her hand while we stumble underneath the old railroad track Trois-Point - Stavelot - Francorchamps. At the other side we're directly into Stavelot and it\s only a short piece to where the car is parked. Not bad at all! Close to the car there is a store in coffee, tea and chocolate that we already noticed when we took the bus this morning. So we must check it out. The owner is a friendly German I have a chat with before we leave the premises with 3 kinds of tea and instant chocolate with orange flavour. Nice, for tonight... |
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Download track SpaSta.gpx