Saturday 12 April 2014
| Distance (km) | 23 kms | |||
| Distance (time) | 5.5 hrs | |||
| Hard / Soft surface | 60% / 40% | |||
| Landscape |
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| Weather |
 15° 2 Bft
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It's one of those days that nothing goes right. In the morning for unclear reasons we're just slow and late and so we decide to leave later and not aim for the 10:40 train from Genk to Hasselt, but the for 11:40 train instead. We leave nicely on time a 9 o'clock but with the problem that somehow the GPS refuses to route to Genk and so we do not exactly know what time we will arrive. And what is more interesting: how we are going to find our way in Genk. The latter in the end is not so much a problem and with only 5 minutes left we rush onto the platform (we bought our train tickets online) just to find out the train is delayed. In fact, almost 15 minutes after the train should have left it's announced that the train is not going at all today and the first train to Hasselt will be the 12:40! Everybody on the half-filled platform now rushes to the bus station since there is a bus to Hasselt at noon. So apart from starting our walk even later we also wasted 6 euros on 2 train tickets, with thanks to the NMBS. Anyway, the bus, full up to the roof, leaves on time and arrives in Hasselt from where we can finally start walking. It's 12:45 by now...
The first part is not overwhelmingly interesting as we pass through the shopping centre of Hasselt (quite busy around this time of the day). Then we pass through the suburbs just to arrive at the Albert canal. We cross the canal at a ship lock and continue a short while through some industrial area. But after almost 6 kms walking we finally leave Hasselt and enter the forest. Nice and quite, well, apart from a group of boy scouts making more noise than a herd of monkeys. The group leaders just stand there and let it go. But ok, after that is truly is nice and quiet all the way until the parking of domain Bokrijk where we have lunch break...at 3 o'clock. We leave the parking area of Bokrijk and pass in between houses for a while before getting into the forest again. For just a short while, because suddenly we are back at te Alber canal. We walk along the canal until the next ship lock where an ice cream truck has been installed. It's sunny weather so we cannot really resist and have an ice cream while staring over the canal. From the ship lock the route goes back north passing a very nice moor that stretches until almost the outskirts of Genk. Somewhere in between the route makes a short loop through a residential area but in the end we really enter Genk and we should be almost there, right? Well, we pass underneath a main road before unexpectedly enter another patch of woods again. And so close to the finish line we of course loose track. Acording to the GPS track we should go left and up but that path has a cross and so we walk a bit further, also going up. We see no signs and at the highest point we decide to go left into whatever path is there. This path splits a few times and based on the GPS we try to find the GR5 back which we do in the end. But how the GR5 really goes here.....we haven't got a clue.We cross the woods and descent to Genk to arrive close to the railway station. It's late already but at 18:30 we finally head for camping site Het Soete Dal in Zutendaal. But we're not going to end the day that easy. We arrive at the camping site just before 19:00 and the reception is already closed (they close at 16:00 in winter). But ok, there is a telephone number on the door so we make a call. The phone is answered and we ask if we can stay for 1 night. To our surprise the answer is "That won't be possible". Why not? Is the camping site full? "It isn't possible, sir". Ah, nice and customer friendly are we not? We're referred to another camping site: Mooi Zutendaal. Arriving there it appears not to be a camping site but a holiday houses park. Ok, so on camping site Het Soete Dal they're not only customer unfriendly but also useless? So what do we do? I had checked in advance and all local hotels are full so we decide to drive to Maastricht. There should be a hotel room available there? And indeed, 20 minutes later we're in the NH hotel next to the Maastricht conference centre in a luxury room for the standard price as all standard rooms are booked. Not entirely the night in a tent we had in mind but survivable for sure. And the 3-course dinner in the restaurant was not a punishment either. |
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