Training in Belgium

What to do when you have 4 free days and want to train in Belgium ? Hiking in the Ardens is definitely a great option. So... that's what we did.

Marie-Laure went with a group, not only for hiking, also for studying the fauna and the flora. This way, if we're attacked by a weird insect, she'll be able to tell its name! Ok, I'm joking. New Zealand's fauna and flora are definitely completely different from what we can see in Belgium.

Oh, by the way, in Belgium, we don't have many snakes, but we have many slowworms. They look a little the same, but slowworms are much much slower.

While Marie-Laure was studying, I decided to start the mental training. The two friends that were supposed to go hiking with me were sick. So I decided to go alone. And because the weather was so good, I decided to lighten my backpack by taking no tent and no sleeping pad.


It was my first time sleeping alone in the nature without tent. And it was great. However, I must be honest : during the first night, I woke up quite often. Probably everytime any little animal was moving near me. But the second night was already better. And what a beautiful sight in the morning, when you wake up and see a hind, 4 meters away only.

My first night bed
I hiked about 45 km in 2,5 days and spent my last morning on the river : 12 km, kayaking between Chiny and Lacuisine, which are 2 nice villages situated in Gaume.

The last evening, however, I was happy to drink a local bier called Orval in a cafe and have the possibility to talk with other human being...

The result of this training was overall positive : I felt no pain in the feet or in the legs and discovered that I am able to sleep alone in the woods with basic material. However, my shoulders and waist were painful because of the backpack: the next weeks will be crucial for our training.

Last question : what to pack in the backpack for such an adventure ? If you're interested by the answer to this question, keep tuned because it will be the subject of another post...







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 months and 4 days later... reaching Bluff

Image
 We had a relaxing day in Otautau. We decided not to hike in Longwood forest : Marie-Laure had heard that it was muddy and she has bad memories of muddy forests.  Historical building in Otautau We start the day with a hitchhiking session. It takes us 2 hours to have our first ride. We will get the second one quite fast and the 3rd one will never come. We hike the last 6 kilometres on the road and we reach Riverton. We leave our backpack at the backpackers hostel. We know that we might not find a car that would take us to Colac Bay, so we decide to walk in direction of Colac Bay directly from here. It's a beautiful sunny day and we reach the seaside in no time. We are happy to see the sea again. The coastline is scenic and we enjoy the walk without backpacks. When we come back in Riverton in the afternoon, Jenny and the 3 American girls are there as well and we spend our evening together. The backpacker is pretty much empty, there is nobody except us and another girl
Read more

Exploded!

Image
Friday 23rd March. While Marie-Laure buy a few supplies for our next days of tramping, I bring the car back to the car rental agency. The sun is rising. I have to walk 30 minutes to go back to the campsite. The tops of the mountains are covered by the snow that fell down yesterday and during the night, but the sky is blue and soon, the sun appears.  We booked a shuttle that will bring us to the trailhead of Greenstone track. From there, we follow an easy trail that leads us to Greenstone hut. It's a pretty popular place, close to Routeburn track. As a result, when we reach the hut, it's more than full. The 20 bunks are occupied and 3 tents are already pitched outside. Our friend Jenny is here as well and she's got a bed because she arrived a lot earlier than us. I don't like when the huts are as full as this one. That's too many people and I don't even want to interact in that kind of situation. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better, cause it's a le
Read more

Hard time on the scree slopes

Image
After a nice rest day in St Arnaud and many expeditions to the nearby restaurant, including with Arne, a German hiker who celebrated his birthday, we were ready to hike again. On Friday 2nd of February, we were lucky enough to reach the hut while the rain started pouring. A few hours later, it was packed with many other hikers. 4 PM only and the rain stops. Okay, let's go to John Tait hut, signposted 5 hours away from here. Luckily, 3 hours and an half later, we were at John Tait, where a few other hikers are already, among them Cate and Tom. Tom is amazing : he started hiking on the Southern Island a few weeks ago. Still, he was able to hike as fast as most of us and he always keeps his smile. Saturday, 6:30, we leave the hut. Today might be challenging, with 1100 meters to climb and 1200 to descend. It's quite steep to reach the pass, but it's so beautiful that we nearly forget about our legs. We reach West Sabine hut earlier than expected, which gives us the
Read more