Europe Diagonal: Belgium GR 129 Part 2 and conclusion

Local bakery on wheels

In Belgium I encountered several unexpected obstacles - one of them was closures because of hunting. When I was arriving at my camping forest one evening there was a big sign in French announcing hunts - and saying that you should not walk through the forest in the early morning and late evening because of hunting activities. What should I do? I had no choice (and no other accommodation) and therefore I continued on whistling and singing loudly. I hoped that any hunter would this way hear me before seeing and shooting me ... My strategy worked and I set up camp at a sight that could easily be seen by hunters. Luckily I did not see a soul and only heard shooting in a far distance.

View of Dinant

Next day was my lucky day: When I was just dragging myself along in the heat being hungry and
thirsty I spotted a van in a litte village. It turned out to be the local baker on a sales tour. Two expensive but delicious chocolate croissants quickly disappeared into my belly before I continued to the two famous Belgian monasteries Maradret and Maredsou, know for their beer (which I don't drink) and cheese (which was nice).
Dinant was my next resupply stop and it greeted me with a wonderful view down at the river valley at sunrise.

With Mick inside Bertie

It was a short hiking day for me because I had two visitors waiting for me:Gayle and Mick are two British hikers and runners whom I had met in Britain several years ago. We had always been following each other and therefore they knew about my route through Belgium - which they were to cross on their way home. They had been touring around Germany for the summer in their mobile home called Bertie. As I was about the cross the motorway they were heading up on we agreed to meet at a commercial campground. There I could not only enjoy a hot shower but was also very well fed and entertained by my two friends before we both embarked on our respective ways the next morning.

River Semois at sunset

The GR 129 had now finally reached the Ardennes with plenty of forest and the wonderful river Semois which winds its way through it. When I say an old railway line turned into hiking trail I decided to use this detour. It turned out to be very scenic - but with an huge obstacle. Right in the middle of nowhere the old railway led through tunnel which was completely fenced off - but someone had cut a small hole into the mesh fence. Could I dare to go through the tunnel without seeing any light on the other end? I took out my headlamp and risked it - and had no problem whatsoever!

Orval is an active monastery also known for its beer. I had hoped to have a rest day there but unfortunately exactly that week the monks were gone for a retreat. Early morning I was the first visitor waiting to be let in. When I used the bathroom I had a look in the mirror and discovered a tick right on my eyelid! I took out my little Swiss army know and plucked it out with my tweezers - while a full busload of tourists watched my little operation. Back on the trail I met a guy from a Belgian hiking club who was doing trail maintenance and refreshing trail markers. It was very interesting to have a look at his tool box and chat with him. He continued on while I was finishing my lunch. To my big surprise he came towards me after half an hour: The trail ahead of us was closed due to African Swine Fever. And it was seriously closed with a stable metal fence around the whole area and locked gates. What to do now? There was no map of the affected area and also no detour. Even the neighbours had no clue how big the fenced off area was. They just warned us to go in there because inside they were hunting wild boars day and night. I decided to walk around which is difficult not knowing how big the area is ...

I ended up doing a huge detour. Every access trail into the forest was blocked and warning signs were everywhere. I started to worry about were to camp that night! When I reached the forest I had planned to camp in I saw another warning sign and almost despaired. Luckily I took a closer look and discovered that this area had been closed a couple of weeks ago and was now open again. Still, it was already dark when I eventually set up my tent ... The disease has not reached Germany yet and I do hope it stays that way! Also Luxemburg which I was entering now is still free of the disease.

Belgium is full of reminders of World War I and II

Before embarking on this trip I had hiked in Belgium before and had very much enjoyed it. The GR 129 was a bit disappointing in comparison. The part through Flanders was downright boring. Lots of road walks, difficult camping and just flat land with no particularly exciting views. I have had worse connecting sections on my various hikes but it wasn't a highlight either. Things got better in the South and at least wild camping ceased to be problem. I enjoyed the cultural sights and hiking was better but this was still no highlight I would recommend. There are better trails in Belgium than the GR 129. Still it was fascinating to cross an entire country and see the changes.

Europe Diagonal: Belgium GR 129 Part 1

At the beach near Brugges

When I had started to plan this trip and was searching for a route through the BeNeLux countries, I stumbled upon the GR 129 through Belgium which is so aptly called "Belgique en diagonal". With this title I could not resist and chose this trail which starts in Brugges. Travelling to Brugges from Germany turned out to be much longer than expected because a train broke down in Cologne, could not be "revived" and I had to wait for the next totally overbooked train two hours later. I was utterly exhausted when I finally arrived in Brugges at night. After half a day of sightseeing in this pittoresque tourist town I started my hike right at the coast in wonderful weather. The beach was fantastic but the 20 km walk back to Brugge showed me what was to come in the next days: endless road walk in very flat countryside!

Wild camping turned out to be a big problem because there was hardly any forest or trees to hide in! I had to plan very well in advance to find a suitable spot every evening. The trail itself wasn't too exciting either: More than 50% I was walking on concrete roads or bike paths! Flanders is definitely more bike than hike country. To my big surprise I even met another female hiker who was even wild camping like me. Still there were some highlights on this stretch: an old water castle and the pittoresque town of Oudenarde. From Ath where there was a big festival taking place I took the train to Brussels for my first rest day in Belgium - and to meet a hiker friend!

I had known Fatma only virtually but felt very welcome immediately in her flat in Brussels. She and her partner really pampered me with fantastic food and very interesting talks! I visited the Royal Palace and an art museum and we we sat together in the evening drinking a glass of wine together I could not think of anything that would have made that day more perfect! This was definitely the best rest day on this trip! After breakfast together I boarded the train again that brought me back to Ath and hiking - and the heat. Now in August it was almost unbearably hot and because there is so little forest there is also hardly any shade! These days really dragged on and on and I was very happy to be able to make phone calls and talk to my friends while hiking!

But there were also some highlights: Blackberries were ripe and I had always somehting to snack. And because I was walking along endless fields I could also skip lunch and eat corn cobs. And I passed the Mons which had just recently been Cultural capitol of Europe and was therefore full of interesting museums. There were so many that it was difficult to choose! I visited the War Museum because Mons played an important role in both world wars and the Silex Museum several kilometres away but along the GR 129. Here back in the stone ages flint stone had been mined and the museum  is in fact a huge tent where archaelogists are still excavating the old mine shafts. When I had a break in the shade there I found a lot of stone chips that could well have been created by our human ancestors.

Unfortunately this lovely day ended with a bad surprise: My "camping forest" turned out to be the garden of a castle and was completely fenced in! I ended up camping in a meadow right next to a cell phone tower. At least it was nice to have 4G reception in the evening ...
The trail does hardly get any use here! Some paths are completely overgrown with blackberry bushes and nettles and I have to wear long pants despite the heat. Along the roads there are "mowers" to cut the grass and bushes and when one of these guys saw me coming out of the fiels he was so surprises that he mowed one of the guardrails off ...

Europe Diagonal: Great Britain Coast to Coast

The European long-distance path E8 continues through Great Britain as the Transpennine Way. When I had a close look at this trail preparing this trip I discovered that this is not a very scenic route. Always close to civilization and mostly on concrete. Therefore I decided to hike Wainwright's Coast to Coast instead which is a bit further north but the exact same length. Right from the start this turned out to be the right decision. After a hearty  English breakfast in a traditional B&B I started with a walk along spectacular coastline - alas in rainy weather. The couple in the picture could not believe that I was camping: "Your backpack is so much smaller than ours and we don't camp!" Well, they had not heard about ultralight backpacking yet.

This mostly unmarked trail then continued through the Lake District, a real gem! Despite a lot of rain this stretch was a real highlight and I could not take enough pictures. Unfortunately, in on of the most beautiful places I got so soaked in a cloud burst that I could hardly take any pictures any more. The touchscreen of my smartphone was wet and I did not have any dry cloth to clean it. Plus my fingers were so wet and frozen ... It was still a wonderful day despite the fact that I had to put on soaking wet and cold clothes the following morning. I rewarded myself with a breakfast of champions outside the little supermarket in Grasmere and ate an entire package of chocolate trifle.

Idyllic campsite with unexpected visitors

One night I arrived at a spectacular lake with no one else around. Apparantly this was a popular campsite and as wild camping is usually tolerated in this National Park I set up my tent at this fantastic site despite the fact that there was goose shit all around. I soon regretted this: In the middle of the night I heard some crackling noises right outside my tent and I just see some small animal runnig away. Closer inspection revealed that a fox had dragged a bag of nachos and my trash bag out of the front pocket of my backpack! It was too dark to see what had happened to both but in the morning I had to collect empty wrappers and used toilet paper that was lying around. The nachos of course were completely gone ... A British friend told me later that something similar had happened to him at the exact same spot.

After a sort of connecting day I was in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and had reached the Pennines. More spectacular scenery, a lot of sheep and cattle - but unfortunately only chocolate brown drinking water that slightly tasted of iron but looked colorwise like peach ice tea. There were a lot of industrial remnants in this area which was a mining centre in the 18th and 19th  century. What looks almost like wilderness now was a busy industrial area once. Coast to Coast (C2C) is a popular trail and I came across several churches that offered drinks and snacks at cost price for hikers and there was even some trail magic boxes along the way. Very welcome in the rainy weather!

Drinking chocolate brown swamp water

One morning I was shocked to discover that my charging cable was gone with my phone only 20% charged up! A horror scenario for me whose smartphone is my backup navigational device. I found it half an hour later when packing 10 metres away. It had fallen out of my backpack when setting up the tent in the dark. I had my one and only rest day on the C2C in Richmond where I had booked myself into a rather posh B&B. The owner's husband was more than delighted by German native speaker because he had been forced to apply for a German tax number and could not figure out the application form. I ended up spending almost two hours translating and explaining it to him ... He rewarded my with a very substantial discount on the room price ...

Paragliders in the North York Moors

After another connecting day I arrived at North York Moors National Park where paragliders were taking advantage of the nice weather - which unfortunately turned very bad the next day. In fact so bad, that a lady walking her dog told me that even her dog did not want to go outside this day. I desperately tried to find some kind of accommodation for that night but every place I called was already fully booked. I was so distressed that I even went into a pub and ordered a cup of tea and something to eat. I was the first customer of the day and my backback left a huge puddle on the floor. Eventually I managed to find a room, but the landlady asked me: "When does your luggage arrive?" I had visions of my backpack walking on its own, but she just referred to the fact that most hikers have their luggage transported for them by commercial providers.

The place turned out to be a palace but unfortunately a very dusty one. She only rents out rooms occassionally and therefore the room really smelled as old as the house was. At least weather was a bit better on my last day when I reached the coast at Robin Hood's Bay. I had just reached the little village when I saw the bus rounding the corner - and even caught it. Therefore my hike on the C2C ended kind of abruptly ... Before I left Britain I met up with Colin, an old hiking friend of mine who gave me some new hiking ideas - as if I did not have enough of them already .... Then I had to return to Germany for a brief stint as a best woman at my best friend's wedding before resuming my hike.

Coast to Coast was the real highlight of this hike and I can highly recommend it!!!! I had hiked across Britain before from John O'Groats to Land's End and had not liked it a lot. With that experience I did not have high expectations for the Coast to Coast but I was literally overwhelmed by how great it was. One of the big advantages of the C2C is how easy wild camping is!!! It is tolerated in the three national parks and wasn't a problem in the connecting stretches in between. Although C2C is a popular trail I did not meet a lot of other hikers probably due to the fact that I had started on a Monday and mostly camped wheras most hikers stay in town.

Europe Diagonal: Wicklow Way and conclusion for Ireland

The last stretch through Ireland was on the Wicklow Way, a rather popular Irish hiking trail. There were even Appalachian Trail shelters along the way. Good for me because in one of them I could score an almost full gas canister and batteries (although they turned out to be the worst quality ever!). Some boggy sections even had brand new board walks! By now I had gotten used to Irish weather which meant a faint drizzle every day. No wonder the island is so green. Luckily it never rained hard. Although the area is called Wicklow Mountains it was not very mountainous at all, just rolling hills with more forest than usual. Camping got easier. Biggest highlight of this sections was Glendalough, an old monastery which was now a major tourist attraction. I was a bit overwhelmed by the masses of people, many of them Americans searching for their emmigrant ancestors.

Glendalough in rain and mist

I fled quickly but was happy to meet Andrea and Mike for the last time and have a big celebratory dinner together. We all had steak and loved it! No wonder with all these happy cows on green meadows. I spent two more days in Dublin before taking the ferry over to Britain. This transit day to get to the start of my hike in the UK was more than stressfull. The ferry port in Dublin is so far outside that walking is almost impossible when catching an early morning ferry like me. And there is no bus at that hour which meant I had to take a taxi. Once in Britain there was construction work on the train line and of course everything was delayed. It took me seven hours and cost 125 Euro to cover a distance of 145 km ...

Beara Way

I had very much looked forward to hiking in Ireland as I had never been there before. I really liked the country: People were incredibly friendly and everyone was greeting me from their car when I was road walking. Prices were ok and I loved the buttery chocolate croissants! But hiking wise I was a bit disappointed. The Beara Way was nice with its coastal scenery, but the rest of my route through Ireland was ok, but definitely nothing to write home about. Almost 50% of the route were on concrete and there was very little forest. Still, stealth camping was not a big problem as Ireland is not densely populated. I'd say that Ireland is a nice hiking destination for beginners and I might come back one day to hike other trails, but it is not very high on my bucket list now. 

Europe Diagonal: Ireland E8

Peat laid out for drying

Back on the trail I had to learn how to deal with Irish forest! First of all there is little of it because most of the land is used for cattle grazing. If there is forest, it consists mostly of impenetrable plantations that are covered with blackberry bushes around the edges to make things even worse. Finding discreet stealth campsites turned every evening into a nightmare. The trail was also not as nice as before: I was walking on small roads most of the time passing through rolling hills and moors where peat is still cut. When I discovered a brand new bike path along the river Suir which was even a bit shorter than the E8 I did not hesitate and walked it thus arriving a bit earlier in Carrick-on-Suir where I took a nero day.

With Andrea and Mike

I did not need it as urgently as I had thought! The day before I had caught up to Andrea and Mike
who were taking a nero day in Fermoy. They had invited my into their B&B to charge up my phone. In order to be not as smelly as usual I had even "bathed" in the river Blackwater before meeting them. Unfortunately this river is not called Blackwater for nothing. I was probably dirtier after bathing than before ... The owner of the B&B took pity on me and let me take a shower despite the fact that I was just visiting and not staying at his place. The three of us chatted so long that my empty powerbank was fully recharged by the time I left ...

Along the river Barrow

A couple of days I had another fabulous encounter. After resupplying in Craighuenamanagh (the town is really called that way) I was walking along the river Barrow, a really idyllic place with loads of paddlers in the water and ramblers on the former tow path. I had just passed two young women and had stopped to drink some water when they came walking back to me. To my utter surprise one of them asked my now in accent free German: "Are you Christine Thürmer?" It turned out that she was a German working here, had read one of my books and knew about my trip from social media. This is a small world and I loved chatting with the two Germans! I did not meet any other hikers on this stretch but one evening an older couple who told me: "We have already seen you this morning in our village, then we passed you in our car and now we see you walking here in the forest! You are such a brave woman!" I did not mention that I was about to look for a stealth campsite in the aforementioned forest .... And for once I found a great site immediately as soon as the two had disappeared.

Europe Diagonal: Ireland Beara Way

Dursey head

My trip started on July 3rd with several logistical complications. In Ireland I was following the European long-distance trail E8 which starts on Dursey Island in the Southwestern part of the country. But unfortunately, there is no public transportation going there! Getting there took me several days ... I flew into tiny Kerry airport with a direct flight from Berlin. Despite several low cost flights going there shuttle services to and from the airport are almost non-existent. I had pre-booked a taxi into nearby Killarney and was shocked to realize that I could hardly understand the taxi driver! Irish people do not speak the kind of English I was taught at school ... Killarney turned out to be a big tourist trap. Every other house was a B&B or restaurant. Luckily there were several outdoor stores, too where I could be a gas canister before embarking onto a bizarre bus ride to Castletownberee, the closest town to Dursey Island.

Inside the cable car

I had brought such a bad cough from Germany that the bus driver asked me if everything was ok with me ... I was more worried about the narrow and winding road that led to several emergency brakings. I was very happy to get off the bus and start hiking 20 km to Dursey Island! The real adventure was still to come because the island is connected with the mainland with Ireland's only cable-car, a construction that was built in 1969 and has a capacity of 6 passengers, 6 sheep or one cow. Cattle has priority over foot passengers ... The gondola is just fixed to one steel cable and crosses 350 meters over open sea. To calm down the passengers there is a bottle with Holy Water, a psalm and an intercom.

Once on the island I hurried to Dursey Head and the official start of my hike. I had even brought a
GoPro camera to record this moment. But when I tried to get it working the SD card was broken. I cursed modern technology and took some crappy pictures with my smartphone. Then I had to run back immediately to get the last ferry back. And this is when I first met Andrea and Mike who were also hiking across Ireland and had come by taxi .. We exchanged phone numbers and I hurried on. Being the only passenger in the tiny cabin was a bit scary. I had just caught the last ride. After all this rushing around I was rewarded with a wonderful sunset and a fabulous view over the sea from my campsite - although I was covered in fog the next morning in this exposed place.

I was now hiking the Beara Way, in hindsight the nicest part of my hike through Ireland. The sea was almost always in view but I was constantly crossing fences on stiles and had to worry about cows in fields though no bull attack happened. Still, I was a bit worried about getting bothered by aggressive or just curious cattle that I ended up camping in the ditch between two meadows one night - protected from visitors by barbed wire fences on both sides. Not the most comfortable campsite and I only chose it because the forecast had predicted a dry night - elsewise I would have been flooded! Next morning I rewarded myself with a hearty breakfast on a Lidl parking lot.

Butter shelf in an Irish Lidl - a lot of variety!

After only four days of hiking I took my first zero day in Cork. Not that I needed a zero day that early in my hike but my birthday was coming up and I wanted to celebrate it showered with clean clothes in a soft bed. Therefore I had booked myself into an AirB&B whose owner was a former bank executive and excelled in AirB&B as a second career now. She loved cleaning as I could see in the sparkling clean house where I was served wine and cake as a birthday gift. Cork itself was a bit disappointing but I loved the Butter Museum where I learnt everything about Ireland's famous export product (besides whiskey). I think they put double the amount of butter in Lidl chocolate croissants in Ireland than in Germany. I became addicted to Irish pastry!

Europe Diagonal: The idea

The idea of this hike is the result of a quick look at the map: I have already hiked across Europe from East to West and from North to North, which can be seen as a vertical and horizontal traverse of the continent. So what is next? A diagonal! Ireland to Greece!


I liked the idea immediately because the route crosses two countries I have not hiked in before but always wanted to: Irland and Greece. When I then did some prelimenary research about different route options I came across a trail in Belgium called GR 129 "Belgique en diagonal". I decided to regard this as a hint of fate and was set on the idea thereafter.

As there are two obstacles in the way - the Alps and some private and professional obligations - I will hike the route in two summer seasons: This year I will start early July in Ireland and hope to get as far as the Alps before snow starts falling and my publishing house is calling me back to my computer.

This year's route includes the following trails:

• In Ireland I will follow the European long-distance trail E 8. I am really looking forward to this part as I have never been in Ireland before.
• In Great Britain the E8 coincides with the Transpennine Way which is more of a biking and than hiking route. I therefore decided to cross the island a bit further North on Wainwright's classic Coast-to-Coast. As I have already hiked the length of Britain from John O'Groats to Land's End I thought that this time an East-West-traverse is enough ...
• In Belgium I will follow the GR 129 which is so aptly named "Belgique en diagonal" - another part I am really looking forward to as I have done shorter hikes in Belgium before and really liked this underestimated hiking destination.
• Luxembourg poses a bit of a problem as there is no decent hiking trail in the Southern part of this tiny country but I guess I will somehow work my way across the tiny country on local trails.
• In Germany I wanted to use trails I have not done before - a bit difficult because I have already traversed my home country several times on foot. But I discovered some totally unknown routes like Saar-Mosel-Weg and Saar-Rhein-Weg and a diagonal traverse of the Black Forest on the HW5. From Lake Constance I will either take the popular Maximiliansweg or use some pilgrim routes - depending on how far winter has advanced. 

This first half of the European Diagonal is only 2,500 kilometres, the second half next year will be longer.