Sunday 2 February 2014
| Distance (km) | 22 kms | |||
| Distance (time) | 5 hrs | |||
| Hard / Soft surface | 60% / 40% | |||
| Landscape |
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| Weather |
 6° 5 Bft
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It took some effort to get out of bed this morning but finally we're having breakfast. We leave the hotel at 9 and go to Zelem, today's end point, where we park the car. From Zelem there is bus once per 2 hours to Diest station and so we're planning to have the 9:45 bus that we simply cannot afford to miss. It's only a 10 minutes drive to Zelem but here as well the road is block due to reconstruction and we have to make a serious detour to get to our starting point. We park the car close to the railroad crossing of the Stationsstraat (though Zelem doesn't have a railway station anymore for 50 years or so). We have 10 minutes left before the bus should arrive. It was a clear night and though the sun is out now it's also February en around freezing. We're dressed to walk, not to be standing still at a bus stop so it is seriously cold. Anyhow, the bus is on time and after some communication problems with the bus driver we're on our way to Diest. Due to the great public transport planning the bus (by schedule) arrives 3 minutes after the train that stops in Zichem leaves (it feels like in The Netherlands) and the next train stopping in Zichem leaves in 2 hous. Fortunately after only 24 cold minutes waiting there is a direct train to Aarschot that doesn't stop in Zichem, but after a 10 minutes wait in Aarschot we can take a slow train back to Diest that does stop in Zichem. It's a bit weird and also the friendly railroad staff checking our tickets raises and eyebrow, but he also has to admit that it's better and faster than waiting 2 hours in Diest. So in the end it takes 1.5 hours by public transport to relocate ourselves 10km as the bird flies. Walking would almost be faster.
Starting from Zelem we walk balk to the river Demer and continue our way along the river. It is indeed fresh with a considerably wind from the South-west. Not directly the wind direction that one would expect to be cold. We leave Zichem and walk through the fields towards Scherpenheuvel. This is truly the end of the flat countryside: a beautiful undulating landschape is ahead of us and it's ridiculously green considering it is early February. At Scherpenheuvel we discuss whether we want to walk into the village to have a look at the place of pilgrimage or not. But actually it is just too cold for tourisme and we still have a bit to go today. Between Zichem and Scherpenheuvel we had the wind straight in our faces, but now the route starts turning eastward and we have the wind more from the side or even from the back, which makes leave a lot more pleasant. In the mean time I'm getting a serious pain in my right hip and we decide to switch luggage: I will take the camera and Lupita the (day) backpack. This is an improvement, though still not free of pain. The route briefly enters the most western tip of Diest just to leave it again in order to walk half around a hill. Half around, because from directly behind the hill (seen from Diest) we have to cross it to get to Diest. It's an almost impassable muddy trail going up and a decent gravel track going down into Diest. It's lunch time by now and since we're in Diest anyway...we pass a café where the coffee with croque monsieur tastes fine. The walk continues along the old defense moat finally ending at the Demer river. Unfortunately the route has once changed again here and the old markings were not properly removed. There is a whole bunch of contradicting markings that make little sense to us. We just have to take a decision and even walk into a path that actually has a cross to indicate not to do so, simply because we know it is the right direction. Further on there are more GR5 markings that we can't make sense of but in the end we do end up at the little tunnel leading underneath the defensive wall and we are back on track. How hard can it be to remove all markings when the route changes? We had this mess around Brecht and again around Olen and now again. Still a bit pissed off we leave Diest in the direction of Schaffen. It's not very interesting here until after Schaffen where we enter the woods again. It is here that I get a sudden pain on my right pinky toe: a typical case of a blister. So now I have a nagging pain in my left hip and a stinging pain in my right foot. Isn't hiking lovely... But we are almost there: a short descent before crossing a small stream and we enter the build up area of Zelem. The car was parked 700-800m off the route and with our last energy we arrive there. It has been more than enough: 45 kms in a weekend after not walking at all for more than half a year. |
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Download track ZicZel.gpx