GR571, Vallees des legendes - Ardennes rivers part II

On Tuesday, October 12th, Cilia and myself tackled the second part of our walk along the GR571. We started out at Aywaille, where we left off at the end of the first part.

From the railway station, we crossed the bridge and immediately started to climb towards a nature reserve called "la Heid des Gattes". We passed a veiwing point overlooking the town and its bridge. Over here there was also a small remembrance plaque for the allied soldiers and the resistance people that liberated Aywaille at the end of WWII. From there we climbed towards the top of the ridge where we entered the reserve.
From the top of the ridge the GR slowly descends towards Sougne.Along the way passing another viewpoint in Falize, with a spectacular view over the Ambleve valley. A little bit below the viewpoint we passed and old gun emplacement defending the valley.Finally you arrive in the village of Sougne at the bank of the river. Here the path follows the riverbank and passes underneath a large overpass that lets the E25 motorway cross the valley, without all the traffic having to descend into the valley itself.
From sougne, the route continues towards the Ninglinspo area. We stopped there and had our lunch, before continuing along the river towards the Chefna valley. The Ninglinspo stream has a beatiful valley, with its own walk as well, but we chose the less well-known and certainly less touristic Chefna valley. Marching past the river at les fonds de Quarreux, you see huge rocks lying in the water. A local legend tells of a miller that owned a mill. He wanted a bigger mill and made a pact with the devil. In exchange for his soul the devil would build him in bigger mill in just one night. The miller's wife, concerned for her husband's soul, hid inside the mill wearing a medal of Notre-Dame de Dieupart, preventing the wings of the mill from turning. The devil, outraged by his failure, destroyed the mill and rocks landed in the nearby Ambleve river.
After les fonds de Quarreux, the GR turns left across the motorway, climbing out of the Chefna valley. Al slow gradual ascent through the forest along the fast-flowing Chefna. Once on top of the hill a borders the moors. In this part of the walk all signs of civilisation ar far away. Nothing but nature and green as far as the eye reaches, only disturbed by the obligatory cross that was erected by a lost traveler who miraculously found his way back out of the moorland and erected a cross to thank his god for saving him.
Once out of the moors, a road descends the hill flank all the way to Stoumont.
Once here I changed my shoes at the bus stop, where we took the bus to Coo a gew minutes later. Timing had really been immaculate.Once arrived in Coo we had 40 minutes left before the train arrived. We went to see the little waterfall and had a hot chocolate in a tea-room near by. After that we took the train home, proud to have finished the second part of our GR571 walk.

Pictures of this walk can be viewed here.

GR571, Vallees des legendes - Ardennes rivers (01/10/2010)

Cilia found a brilliant website called trekkings.be. On that site we found the report of a walk along the GR571. This is a 166km (103 mile) walk through the valleys of 3 Ardennes rivers: the Ambleve, the Salm and the Lienne. It is called vallees de legendes/valleys of legends, because this vast and beautiful part of the Ardennes is full of saga and legends.
Both of us had time available on Friday the 1st of October, so we decided to tackle the first part (from Comblain-au-Pont to Remouchamps) of the walk. We would meet up in the new Liege-Guillemins railway station and travel from there to the start of the walk together.

Things were of to a bad start as Cilia's train got delayed and we lost one hour in Liege. Finally we set out from there to Rivage. Once there we walked towards the Pont de Scay, a bridge over the Ourthe river in Comblain-au-pont and the starting point of today's walk. The trekking site had promised us a challenging climb after only a couple of hundred meters. This seemed to be an understatement. Mudslides and people climbing the hillside with ropes instead of following the path had turned this climb into a mess. A steep climb over muddy and rocky surface, very difficult to find steady foothold. Especially hazardous (and maybe irresponsible) with an injured right arm. Still, we made it up to a cave, where Cilia took a brief rest, before we tackled the rest of our climb. While Cilia sat down, I decided to scout the cave a little bit further and found a path behind the cave. A clear path unaffected by mudslides, that gradually climbed to the top of the ridge. This was a relief for the both of us. This was the walk to the top as we had envisioned it from the beginning. Once topside we had to cross what seems to be the top of the climb, had we taken the difficult muddy climb. A 25cm wide muddy ledge over the mudslide. We conquered that last part of the danger are were in the clear for a carefree walk now.

The climb had taken is through a wood called "les tartines". From the edge of this wood, we took a walk through the beautiful Ardennes countryside towards the village of Oneux. Splendid autumn colours, birds of prey in the air and breathtaking views towards our starting point.... we were happy already.
We passed through Oneux and continued on the Grand Fawe plateau towards another village called Hoyemont. The plateau is situated at an altitude of about 300m. when descending the plateau on the other side, we stopped at le Puits Hayard. This is a old water pit next to the road. We sat down on the edge of the pit underneath the trees and had our lunch here. As we feared at the start in Rivage, it became clear to us at this point that we would not reach our intended destination. The hour we lost because of the delayed train resulted in setting Aywaille as new destination for today.
After lunch we continued our march down towards the valley floor, only to start climbing the next ridge. After the path took us over the top, we came across the wooden cross of Cwimont, from where you have a lovely view into the Ambleve valley and on the town of Aywaille. We passed the hamlet of Septroux in our descend and then found that the GR was closed at this part for the hunting season. Not willing to take the risk, we mate a detour along a busy main road towards the bridge over the Ambleve at Martinrive. After crossing the river, we crossed the railway bridge as well and started our last climb of the day towards the ruins of a 9th century castle. The castle was destroyed in the 16th century. The being a walk of legends and stories, it won't surprise you that this castle has a ghost story connected to it. A woman called Blanche de Montfort supposedly killed her lover and his wife in the chateau, only to throw herself from the castle walls into the valley after her act of despair. It is said that on the eve of All Saints day, you can see her ghost wandering through the ruins. Luckily for us, we didn't see any ghosts.
Because we had a train to catch, we only took a quick snapshot at the ruins and had no time to look at the splendid view from the foot of what remains of the main tower. From there you have an excellent view over again the Ambleve valley and the town of Aywaille. From the ruins our path went down towards the N30 motor way, which took us into Aywaille itself. Aywaille is a smaal town, but has supermarket, bus- and railwaystation and most other stuff you may need. A good resupply point.
Like I said earlier on, for us this was the end of today's walk. We arrived in the railway station 10 minutes before our train arrived and took the train back to Liege from there.
Seems like Aywaille will see us again soon, to start the second part of our adventure along the GR571...

Pictures of this walk right here...